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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Ingmar Bergman (writer)
Release Date:
15 February 1978 (USA) more
Tagline:
Berlin 1923! A dangerous time to be alive and stay that way! more
Plot:
Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg follows a week in the life of Abel Rosenberg, an out-of-work American... more | full synopsis
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
David Carradine: 1936-2009
(From Huffington Post. 10 June 2009, 3:05 PM, PDT)
Kung Fu Master No Longer - R.I.P: David Carradine (1936-2009)
(From ioncinema. 4 June 2009)
User Comments:
Well done allegory for events leading to the rise of Hitler. more (20 total)
Cast
(Credited cast)| David Carradine | ... | Abel Rosenberg | |
| Liv Ullmann | ... | Manuela Rosenberg | |
| Heinz Bennent | ... | Hans Vergerus | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Isolde Barth | ... | Girl in uniform | |
| Toni Berger | ... | Mr. Rosenberg | |
| Christian Berkel | ... | Student | |
| Richard Bohne | ... | Police officer | |
| Paula Braend | ... | Mrs. Hemse | |
| Erna Brünell | ... | Mrs. Rosenberg | |
| Paul Burian | ... | Experiment person | |
| Paul Bürks | ... | Cabaret comedian | |
| Hildegard Busse | ... | Prostitute | |
| Gaby Dohm | ... | Woman with baby | |
| Hans Eichler | ... | Max | |
| Emil Feist | ... | Miser | |
| Kai Fischer | |||
| Gert Fröbe | ... | Inspector Bauer | |
| Herbert Fux | |||
| Renate Grosser | ... | Prostitute | |
| Heino Hallhuber | ... | Bride | |
| Georg Hartmann | ... | Hollinger | |
| Edith Heerdegen | ... | Mrs. Holle | |
| Rosemarie Heinikel | ... | Girl in uniform | |
| Klaus Hoffmann | |||
| Grischa Huber | ... | Stella | |
| Harry Kalenberg | ... | Coroner | |
| Volkert Kraeft | |||
| Andrea L'Arronge | ... | Girl in uniform | |
| Gunther Malzacher | ... | Husband | |
| Lisi Mangold | ... | Mikaela | |
| Beverly McNeely | ... | Girl in uniform | |
| Günter Meisner | |||
| Anne Mertin | |||
| Hubert Mittendorf | ... | Comforter | |
| Kyra Mladeck | ... | Miss Dorst | |
| Heide Picha | ... | Wife | |
| Hans Quest | ... | Dr. Silbermann | |
| Charles Régnier | ... | Doctor | |
| Walter Schmidinger | ... | Solomon | |
| Irene Steinbeisser | ... | Groom | |
| Fritz Strassner | ... | Dr. Soltermann | |
| Glynn Turman | ... | Monroe | |
| Ellen Umlauf | ... | Hostess | |
| Hertha von Walther | ... | Woman in street | |
| Wolfgang Weiser | ... | Civil servant | |
| James Whitmore | ... | The Priest | |
| Ralf Wolter | |||
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Das Schlangenei (West Germany)
more
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
Argentina:120 min | USA:119 min
Country:
Color:
Color (Eastmancolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.66 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Netherlands:16 (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Norway:18 | UK:18 (video rating) (1990) | UK:X (original rating)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Dustin Hoffman was offered the lead role but turned it down. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: The Nazi-looking thugs that are beating up people are wearing Model 1943 German army caps and 1940s style clothing. This film is supposed to take place in the 1920s. more
Quotes:
Abel Rosenberg: I wake up from a nightmare and find that real life is worse than the dream. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Away from Home (2004) (V) more
FAQ
Is it actual documentary of inhuman experiments used in the film?more
more (20 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Serpent's Egg (1977)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| carradine's performance | teejay6682 |
| Inspector Lohmann | lurm |
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The title, The Serpent's Egg, had me wondering for a moment until I realized that it did not refer to the the Doctor and his bizarre experiments nor to Abel and his misery, but to the encapsulated Germany of the 1920s and the environment that led to Hitler's ascent in the 1930s. That is, Germany being the 'egg', Hitler and the Nazis as the 'Serpent', and the environment as the embryo of the egg.
In many ways, this is a cynical film, in that it attempts to show that degradation, fear and loss of life and livelihood is sometimes stronger than humanity and even love. Isn't this true about Germany in the 1920s, and other nations at other times as well? We only have to look at ourselves after the attacks of 9/11 to see a time when fear overcame reason. Fear allowed us to meekly accept the chipping away of our own civil rights and privacy, and also government sponsored torture.
It also gives us a glimpse at one of Hitler's truisms, which is that if he could have a person at age 7, then that person would be a Nazi for life. The experimenting Doctor re-states this in his observations that the sons and daughters of the defeated German populace will be the ones who create the new German society, of which he already is a part with his inhumane human experiments.
Of course, all this is done with hindsight, so how can it be wrong? It can't, but then it's still a good review of a period in Germany that many Americans know nothing about, and should learn if they want the answers to the question of how Naziism came to be. It wasn't just some sort of aberration never seen in history before nor repeated.