Toby Dammit

Drunken, ulcer-ridden, failed Shakespearean actor Terence Stamp is in Rome to make a movie. Instead he finds himself trapped in various hellish landscapes, from the airport, to a television studio, to streets that lead nowhere, inhabited solely by mannequins, and the Devil, a child in a white dress with a ball.

It's Fellini's segment of HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES, a trio of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Fellini, who co-wrote the film version, offers a nightmarish landscape of industrial activity, show-biz characters in phony settings, and endless, inescapable roads that even a Ferrari can't help him escape.

One Saturday afternoon was flipping through the channels and just happened to stumble upon this. Immediately I recognized it as Fellini, but it was one had never seen before. I had missed a little of the beginning and didn't realize that it was part of an anthology of Poe stories down by three different directors. It'd be years before I got to see it in its entirety and the Fellini segment was by far the best. I was very happy when it was included in the Essential Fellini box set released by the Criterion Collection, using the version I had seen which has Terrance Stamp's actual voice rather being dubbed by an anonymous Italian actor. (This, in my opinion, is the best version to watch.) Even for Fellini this is bizarre. Terrance Stamp plays a burned out English actor arriving in Italy to make a "Catholic Western" and he's being pursued by a mysterious girl with long white hair and holding a large white ball. We learn that this is the devil from.an interview he gives on Italian television. The story is based very loosely based on the Poe story Never Bet the Devil Your Head, but there is little of the story in the film. It gets progressively stranger as it goes and ends with him racing his new car along narrow roads, hopelessly lost, trying to get back to Rome. It all feels like a nightmare you might have.

Toby Dammit is without a doubt a departure from your typical Fellini film. Other than it is taking place in a surreal Italian landscape and including multiple Fellini esq characters, the movie is more of a dream that a straightforward narrative. A 44-minute short at best, Toby Dammit was originally part of a 3-in-1 story titled: Spirits of the Dead, with directed segments from Roger Vadim and Louis Malle. Based loosely on Edgar Allen Poe's: Never Bet the Devil Your Head: A Moral Tale, Fellini tells the story of a Shakespearean Actor, portrayed brilliantly by Terence Stamp in a visual romp. Both the character of Toby Dammit along with the setting of a dream-like / nightmare Roma are memorizing if not downright frightening. Poe's short story, published in 1841, was a satirical take that pokes fun at the notion that all literature should have a moral. It's easy to conclude that the moral is to never lose your head, no matter what the scenario may be. Rather to remain blunt in the tale's plot and conclusion, it is hard not to see several images and depiction of Christ along the way of Toby's journey through purgatory.

It is easy to suggest that Toby is already dead at the beginning of the story. From his arrival in Rome, the airport terminal plays out to the audience like this is already a repeated theme like the characters has been going in circles from some time now. His constant torment by fans, the press and the industry that has made him famous, all appear to be torturing him as he tortures himself as well.

Religious themes and characters pop up from time to time. A Catholic Priest appears to warm him on his journey, a donkey appears in the headlights of his Ferrari. Before leaving the airport Toby somewhat mocks Christ by making the sign of the cross while indulging in yoga to calm his nerves.

While the Devil appears to him as a little girl, Toby struggles in his journey as both a Christ like and Devil image throughout his visit.

While this movie can be interrupted several ways, at the very least, it is not solely about an Actor going to Rome for a business trip. Much more, Toby Dammit is taking a very long-winded trip where he is unable to leave nor escape the reality in which he has created for himself.

As for the moral of the tale, I believe Fellini's intentions was to post that question to his audience for them to answer it for themselves.