Toby Dammit is one of the short film segments of Histoires extraordinaires
Director: Federico Fellini
Writer: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi
Based on: Edgar Allan Poe‘s short story Never Bet the Devil Your Head
Cast: Terence Stamp, Salvo Randone, Marina Yaru

Plot:
Toby Dammit (Terence Stamp) is a rising star. His turn as Hamlet just brought him fame and accolades when he heads to Italy to do an Italowestern take on the life of Jesus. But Toby is drugged out of his mind and he didn’t come alone – the devil in the form of a little girl (Marina Yaru) followed him. At an award ceremony where Toby is laudated, things start to get really out of control.

Toby Dammit was shown as the pre-film to Cuadecuc, vampir (review follows) and I didn’t pay it much attention beforehand. But it turns out that it is a really cool short film, well made, with a sense of humor and a great Terence Stamp. I’m actually kind of disappointed now that they didn’t show the entire anthology (three directors taking on three different Poe short stories).

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Terence Stamp as a young man in a film. It was quite amazing how little his face has changed in the meantime – but how different he seems nowadays (maybe due to the roles he gets). In any case he was fantastic as Toby Dammit. You could see the insanity in his eyes that was always just lurking around the corner. He was in turns pitiful, paranoid, crazed, scared, petulant and extremely sexy – quite a balance to pull off.

In the hands of a different director the film would have probably been a claustrophobic, smothering film. But Fellini has a way of infusing a sense of humor into the story which moves the film from utter darkness and actually had me laughing a couple of times (the idea alone that Jesus would be the perfect person to be portrayed in a spaghetti western… did they ever actually make that happen? I sure hope so).

The only thing that struck me as really weird and off was that they casted a 22 year old woman to play a child. I like the idea of the devil as a little girl but casting a fully grown woman for the role (especially one with slightly Asiatic features) is a rather offensive choice in my opinion.

But since she played only a very small part and most of the film was comprised of an exhilarating albeit nightmarish mix of over-the-top celebrity culture, drugged hallucinations and an excellent portrayal of a man falling apart, I could compartmentalize that away and enjoy the rest.

Summarizing: I’ll have to watch the entire anthology and I look forward to seeing Toby Dammit again.