The title comes from a newspaper headline featured in the film which proclaims the death of the real life American gangster John Dillinger.

While collecting ingredients he discovers an old revolver wrapped in a 1934 newspaper with the headline "Dillinger is dead" and an account of the famous American gangster's death.

[2] Writer Mira Liehm posits director Marco Ferreri followed in the style of the Theatre of the Absurd and did not apply psychology or logic to his characters but then placed his absurdist creations in a real world context.

The home with its many luxuries, such as the gourmet dining and film projector, as well as the cleaning and decoration of the gun, are meaningless diversions which trap Glauco in a metaphorical prison and suffocate him.

[3] As Italian film historian Paolo Bertetto explained, "The escape to Tahiti means a total closure of all horizons, the paralysis of all possibilities; we are brought down to zero, stripped of all perspectives, and restored to the original nothingness.

"[3] Director Marco Ferreri first met Michel Piccoli when he visited the actor on the set of Alain Cavalier's La Chamade (1968).

Ferreri and Michel Piccoli became fast friends and worked together subsequently on films such as The Last Woman and La Grande Bouffe (1973).