The Serpent's Egg is a 1977 American-West German drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring David Carradine and Liv Ullmann. The story is set in 1920s Berlin and features English and German dialogue. It was Bergman's only Hollywood film. The title is taken from a line spoken by Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "And therefore think him as a serpent's egg / Which hatch'd, would as his kind grow mischievous; / And kill him in the shell". Even though the film was a critical and commercial failure upon its initial release, Bergman was reported to be happy with the film. Plot The scene is Berlin in late 1923. Abel Rosenberg, an American-born Jew, is an unemployed alcoholic and former trapeze artist who uses alcohol to help him deal with the horrific nature and uncertainties of life in post-war Germany, poverty and inflation having crippled the German economy at the time. He returns home one night to discover that his brother Max has committed suicide. Abel meets up with his old boss, who gives him some money in an attempt to persuade him back to his now-successful circus. Abel realizes that he will not be as good as he was with his brother and declines, but his boss allows him to keep the money anyway. The Jewish community is being portrayed in the media as a drain on society; despite being a Jew himself, Abel has little sympathy for people, Jewish or otherwise, who get into trouble for "acting stupid." He goes to see his brother's wife Manuela to break the news of Max's death to her. She asks what triggered Max's suicide, but Abel is unable to provide a solid answer. The only sentence in Max's suicide note Abel can make out reads: "There's poisoning going on." Attempting to drown his sorrow, Abel goes on a drinking binge that lingers into the early hours, and he spends the night at Manuela's house. The next morning, the two discuss possible new career paths for Abel. After Manuela leaves for work, Abel steals from her in order to buy alcohol. He is later taken by the police to the mortuary to identify a series of bodies, the first of which is that of Gretha Hofer, his brother's former fiancée who drowned. He is shown the body of another man who was murdered by a lethal injection; he does not