Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It is a performances centric movie

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Poultry is the key theme here. There are problems down on the chicken farm and so a marketing manager is brought in to sort things out. His belief is that 'chickens are an integral part of society' and before you say 'cluck' he's come up with some brand new concepts: playboy poultry, feathery smoking jackets and 'chicken happenings in the room of truth'.But then what to do about the mutations that have suddenly started appearing on the farm and which give a whole new meaning to the term' headless chicken'? Boss Jean-Louis Trintignant has been too busy with (possibly murderous) S&M sessions at the local hotel to notice. But then someone squawks to the cops and he's forced to go on the lam. Meanwhile, his wife Gina Lollobridgida and her dizzy blonde secretary hatch a plan of their own. Cameraman Dario Di Palma shoots it all with a flair that matches the abstract paintings on the walls of the interiors, while the editing evokes memories of the underground. The dubbing is terrible and I'd say switch the sound off but then you'd miss a great avant garde score from Bruno Maderna and some frankly unbelievable dialogue. Sum total: genius.

Morte ha fatto l'uovo, La aka Death laid an egg (1968) Giulio Questi Marco (Jean-Louis Tritigant)is a business man bored with life who is caught up in a love triangle between his wife Anna(Gina Lollobrigida), whom he married for the money and her cousin Gabrielle, a much more vibrant and younger lover. Marco's business is chickens, he runs a recently automated chicken farm and is having to be wary of the disgruntled former workers who are set on revenge. Marco is also hiding a secret fantasy, one he acts out in a local hotel on an almost daily basis, he likes to tie up the hookers that gather in the lobby and pretend to cut them up, it's a lurid fantasy but the hookers feel safe with him. He has been recently given the task by the poultry association of making poultry appeal to a wider audience and is given the assistance of an advertising specialist Mondaini (Jean Sobieski) whom he is immediately suspicious of and who it would seem has eyes for Gabrielle.Death laid an egg is a very difficult film to discuss as it doesn't follow any rules of the classic Giallo, in fact some might not consider it one at all, but it was made early in the genres history, it is also very short on plot as there are virtually no killings, blood or nudity and even the score by Bruno Maderna is a hideous thing to behold. The viewer is led to believe for a short time that the killing in the opening scene is a murder but as it turns out its just another of Marco's fantasies being acted out, as his sexual preferences are almost common knowledge, he is looked upon in society as a deviant and morally corrupt and yet as the plot develops it is clear that he is the only one with any sense of propriety, it is to some extent a modern re-enactment of the Grendel/Beowulf legend. The film as I have said is almost devoid of any plot and really centres around Marco's suspicions of his wife, his lover Gabrielle, his new assistant and the leaders of the poultry community, despite this the film is made in a psychedelic bizarre world that is handled with some very dark wit, but this may not be enough to keep the casual Giallo fan interested. Its still confusing as a film though and Maderna's score is extremely annoying, its repetitive acoustic guitar musings are very grating and only relieved by an equally manic piano version of the same composition, but strangely it fit's the film to perfection because the film is so bizarre. Dario Di Palma's photography is excellent, filmed from some odd angles this ploy adds immensely to the bizarre setting of a battery farm, there's also some stunning opening credits as the camera apparently explores the inside of an egg using psychedelic colours as filters. Another highlight is a scene involving some genetically modified chickens, needs to be seen to be believed but establishes the film firmly in the realm of the uber bizarre. The performances of the leads are all decent and as you might expect there is a surprise ending, a little abrupt perhaps, but fitting. To be approached with caution…..or a bag full of LSD.

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.

A fun, if more convoluted than usual, giallo. My copy seemed to end rather abruptly and with much in the air. Not sure if that was how it was supposed to end or what but nonetheless, I enjoyed it and especially enjoyed Ewa Aulin, who was quite the hottie.