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Death Laid an Egg

Original title: La morte ha fatto l'uovo
  • 1968
  • 1h 26m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
Death Laid an Egg (1968)
The depraved manager of a high-tech poultry factory - which is genetically engineering boneless chickens - is pulled into a love triangle with his domineering wife and her sexually-liberated cousin, leading to double-crosses and murder.
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GialloHorrorThriller

The depraved manager of a high-tech poultry factory is pulled into a love triangle with his domineering wife and her sexually-liberated cousin, leading to double-crosses and murder.The depraved manager of a high-tech poultry factory is pulled into a love triangle with his domineering wife and her sexually-liberated cousin, leading to double-crosses and murder.The depraved manager of a high-tech poultry factory is pulled into a love triangle with his domineering wife and her sexually-liberated cousin, leading to double-crosses and murder.

  • Director
    • Giulio Questi
  • Writers
    • Franco Arcalli
    • Giulio Questi
  • Stars
    • Gina Lollobrigida
    • Jean-Louis Trintignant
    • Ewa Aulin
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    1.9K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Giulio Questi
    • Writers
      • Franco Arcalli
      • Giulio Questi
    • Stars
      • Gina Lollobrigida
      • Jean-Louis Trintignant
      • Ewa Aulin
    • 33User reviews
    • 63Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

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    Trailer 3:54
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    Photos75

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    Top cast25

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    Gina Lollobrigida
    Gina Lollobrigida
    • Anna
    Jean-Louis Trintignant
    Jean-Louis Trintignant
    • Marco
    • (as Jean Louis Trintignant)
    Ewa Aulin
    Ewa Aulin
    • Gabrielle
    Jean Sobieski
    • Mondaini
    Renato Romano
    Renato Romano
    • Luigi
    Vittorio André
    Giulio Donnini
    • Hotel Manager
    Biagio Pelligra
    • Chemical operator
    Cleofe Del Cile
    • Prostitute #1
    Monica Millesi
    Ugo Adinolfi
    Conrad Andersen
    Aldo Bonamano
    • Police Inspector
    Rina De Filippo
    Livio Ferraro
    Mario Guizzardi
    Margherita Horowitz
    • Marco's secretary
    Barbara Pignaton
    • Director
      • Giulio Questi
    • Writers
      • Franco Arcalli
      • Giulio Questi
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews33

    5.81.9K
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    Featured reviews

    8Bogey Man

    One thousand chicken

    Giulio Questi's early giallo is very different from the genre, but it can be called giallo since it has a mystery audience has no idea about until the very end. But the mystery doesn't involve the identity of the possible murderer but the various and altering relations between the characters. Marco, Anna and Gabrielle live together and work together, in a huge chicken farm / factory owned by Anna. Soon it is clear all three, plus their friends, have another things in their minds; they act what they don't say and vice versa. This gives the director Questi a great opportunity to handle topics of greed and money that easily blind.

    The way how Questi handles his theme is very satiric, thus making the film close with Mario Bava's Reazione a catena / Bay of Blood 3 years later. Both films have serious theme about man's ability to turn violent in his search for monetary benefit and freedom and both films discuss this satirically, with maximal effect since comedy is often at its best when the subject stays serious and universally important. As a pure giallo mystery, the film is also quite rich since the audience has no idea what is going on until the very end when it is revealed. Questi uses very interesting editing technique that makes many of the scenes "broken", using flashbacks, dreamy/nightmarish moods and so on. This forces us to dive deeper inside the characters and their varying points of views.

    The film has also an interesting topic about man's subconscious and instincts. Main character Marco is considered "morally corrupt" due to his unusual sexual preferences. But at the same time Questi shows how much there is inside human brain, needs, wills, desires, we don't necessarily want to talk about in fear of unacceptance or being classed as "sick." We are not as civilized, as perfect, as the moral codes of society try to suggest when they go after "the morally sick" Marco. There's also a very harrowing and unforgettably absurd scene at the experiment lab of the factory. The doctors have created a manipulated type of chicken that would be commercially extremely profitable to the factory while at the same time the manipulated monsters are a plentiful spitting at nature's face. Marco is against this, against the others around him while he has been named "morally wrong" and bad. Questi had important things and questions in mind and also the ability to turn them into a film.

    Real themes in a giallo thriller are quite rare and Questi has done it very well. This is among the earliest but also among the very best of the giallo.
    lazarillo

    "Diabolique" on acid (and with a lot of chickens)

    Like many other European thrillers this early Italian giallo was obviously very influenced by the French film "Diabolique" with it's basic plot of a wealthy husband, wife, and mistress all scheming against each other. And like the later film "So Sweet, So Perverse" the movie throws another man (Jean Sorel)into the mix as a kind of a fourth side to the main triangle. This movie is no conventional thriller, however. For one thing it has kind of psychedelic, surrealist pop-art late 60's sensibility to it that always threatens to overwhelm (and occasionally does) the rational story-line. For another thing, it has a VERY bizarre setting, a fully-automated chicken plant. (There's a scene where the scientists at the plant create "monster" chickens without wings or beaks that really makes one want to swear off poultry for life). This unusual setting adds a whole industrial conspiracy angle and, moreover, a weird sort of social commentary to the proceedings.

    The acting is all very good. Jean-Louis Tritigant plays a similar role to the one he'd later play in "So Sweet, So Perverse", but here he also might be a serial killer who is offing prostitutes in a roadside motel. Latin sex symbol Gina Lollabridga makes a rare appearance in this kind of film (which is actually much more entertaining than some of the bigger-budgeted movies she starred in)as the domineering wife. The young mistress is believably played by Ewa "Candy" Aulin, although she is not quite as enjoyable when she's not naked and not speaking in her natural (undubbed) heavy Swedish accent. (Aulin also appeared in another excellent, if even more obscure, giallo called "The Double"). The best thing about the movie though is the ending where EVERYBODY manages to get their just desserts--and then some. Definitely check this one out.
    6jordondave-28085

    One word to best describe this movie is "bizarre!"

    (1968) Death Laid An Egg/ La morte ha fatto l'uovo (In Italian with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER/ CRIME

    Co-written and directed by Giulio Questi that opens with a man murdering a prostitute with an eyewitness peering in through the window, he also likes to record his victims screams as well as he is killing them. And at this point I kept wondering if that same person who saw him was going to either blackmail or perhaps do some other. We then find out this demented killer is actually an executive, Marco (Jean Louis Trintignant) and that is his wife, Anna (Gina Lollobrigida)who owns the chicken factory/ farm and whatever machinery that came along with it. Marco is perhaps an underling who is more infatuated with Anna's young cousin, Gabrielle (Ewa Aulin) who is also her secretary/ intern/ confidant. We then meet ad exec, Mondaini (Jean Sobieski) who appear to be smitten with Gabrielle making Marco to become jealous. And while this was happening, there's also a scientist conducting experiments on the chickens as well as the eggs built inside the chicken farm, like a Frankenstein chicken.

    This is another one of those movies where not what viewers saw at the opening, is not exactly what it's actually happening, for the murdering of prostitutes is a part of Marco's weird fetish for the movie does not explain why he is like that- he is just is. We also do not even get the answer about the sympathy for the family dog for it leaves with more questions than the movie is willing to answer.
    7Coventry

    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because her role in this film drove her totally cuckoo!

    Terms like "bizarre", "eccentric" and "convoluted" are often used too lightly in reviews for Italian gialli, but in case of "Death Laid an Egg" they are severe understatements! I'm not even sure this one qualifies as a giallo, because although the film got released before the genre properly started booming (in 1968), it's already experimenting with different plots and thinking out-of-the-box in terms of style and plot twists. Generally speaking, a giallo either handles about a masked psycho-killer with black gloves savagely butchering people - preferably pretty young models - with sharp objects, or it handles about a convoluted murder conspiracy complete with sexual intrigues, betrayal and triangular relationships. "Death Laid an Egg" primarily fits into the second category, but also somewhat in the first one, and then still even a lot more! The most intriguing aspect about the triangular relationship (between a man, his wife and her secretary) is that it takes place at the woman's family business; - a chicken far where insanely unethical experiments take place (headless/boneless poultry monstrosities will haunt your nightmares!). Furthermore, the man has a fetish for slicing up prostitutes, and the mistress may or may not have a secret agenda with a hunky marketing agent. One thing's for sure, though, all the loose ends form a compelling wholesome that keeps you gazing at the screen and - unlike many other similar films - everything nicely comes together in the end, and "Death Laid an Egg" does deliver in every department (mystery, suspense, flamboyance, ...)

    Writer/director Giulio Questi was a very strange individual, to say the least. He seemingly doesn't care about traditional cinematic patterns or logical narrative structure, and many sequences/plot twists appear to be improvised on the spot. The opening credits, the soundtrack, and many camera perspectives are utterly weird! Questi also made the western-outcast "Se sei vivo spara", which is possibly the strangest Spaghetti Western ever, and the reputedly bonkers psychological horror/thriller "Arcana" (which I haven't seen yet).
    6parry_na

    A quirky giallo production ...

    Very odd to see genre beauties Ewa Aulin and Gina Lollobrigida brandishing dead chickens, but this giallo goes out of its way to perplex and stupefy us, thanks to director and co-writer Giulio Questi's vision. The music, usually sweeping and inviting in these kind of films, is a series of tuneless flourishes here, as if Bruno Maderna had been instructed to provide anything as long as it wasn't melodic.

    I found 'Death Laid an Egg' too 60s-kitsch-quirky to become completely involved in, although Ms Aulin is ridiculously cute throughout. The story is a thin one, and engages mainly because of the performances. My score is 6 out of 10.

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    Related interests

    Jacopo Mariani in Deep Red (1975)
    Giallo
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This is the second pairing of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Ewa Aulin in a film in the giallo vane, the other being "I Am What I Am" the previous year.
    • Goofs
      In the first slasher scene, the knife blade doesn't show any blood till after 7 slashes.
    • Quotes

      Anna: Honest women have got to dress like prostitutes and surprise their husbands in order to keep them. What good is a woman who can't hold onto her husband? She's got to fight for him! It's worth fighting for, isn't it?

    • Connections
      Featured in Ultimate Poliziotteschi Trailer Shoot-Out (2017)

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    FAQ14

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    • can someone at IMDB look at photos 4 5 6 7 8 and tell me what film they are from? they are not death laid an egg

    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 9, 1968 (Italy)
    • Countries of origin
      • Italy
      • France
    • Language
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Smrt je snijela jaje
    • Filming locations
      • Italy
    • Production companies
      • Summa Cinematografica
      • Cine Azimut
      • Les Films Corona
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 26m(86 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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