A Case of Eggs: Episode 3
1974 · 15m · Canada
Directed by Bernard Devlin
A standards inspector accuses Frances of selling inferior eggs linked to a laboratory theft. Rita and a companion hunt for the missing stock.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A 1974 bureaucratic egg heist wrapped in whimsy—nobody else would greenlight this absurdist tangent, which is exactly why it works. Devlin's refusal to play it straight, treating a standards inspector's accusation like a genuine mystery, is the kind of comedic subversion that makes consensus taste look boring.
The film sits comfortably in a lineage of British institutional comedy, though its formal control—the measured pacing of bureaucratic absurdity—suggests Devlin understands the craft of restraint that separates clever premise from actual execution.
The real move here is how Devlin lets the inspector's deadpan bureaucratic logic drive the humor rather than winking at the audience; that single tonal choice—playing it straight when everything is sideways—transforms what could be a sketch into something that actually breathes.