Who Saw Her Die

Made all the way back in 1972 Who Saw Her Die? Starts with one of the most disturbing openings I have ever seen, nestled in the beautiful snow filled French mountains you see a young girl enjoying herself with her nanny and her sledge. From out of the trees looms a figure of a woman with a veil covering her face. Grabbing the young girl, the woman proceeds to smash her skull in with a stone before burying her rather carelessly under the snow. Moving forward 20 years, we are teleported to Venice in the 1970's; and the arrival of Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi) who has come to stay with her father Franco (George Lazenby) is about to cause history to repeat itself.

The movie is a product of the great Aldo Lado the mastermind behind Night Train Murders, and The Short Night Of The Glass Dolls, Lado is not necessarily the best know of the Italian directors especially to the casual Italian movie viewer, but familiar or not you'd certainly agree Lado's movies have a certain style about them. Here Lado shows a side of Venice that the Italian tourist board would not like you to see, looking dowdy and dirty you can almost smell the dirty Venetian water, add to this a vision of darkness, rain, fog, and cloud cover that you do not think of when Venice enters your mind. Everything about Lado's outlook of Venice is dark and sinister and not the image you get with movies like The Talented Mr. Ripley or Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now even though this is hardly sun filled; on the subject of the Roeg masterpiece I'd go as far as to say that I suspect that Roeg took a little inspiration from this movie as you can easily spot similarities between the two movies, while Roeg painted a harsh image of Venice, Lado's version is far more extreme and explicit. Now don't get me wrong, Lado's vision is not all dark, there are some most beautiful scenes in the movie, for those with a passion for travel, history, and architecture this movie will make you want to visit Venice even more, what is carefully delivered however is the thought "be careful what you cannot see".

Lado scored well with his leading man acquiring the services of George Lazenby (former James Bond) for a song due to his incredibly high debts (caused due to his dramatic over the top spending while filming On Her Majesties Secret Service), and while Lazenby was criticised for his poor acting on Bond and his lack of sex appeal, he was still a big enough name to ensure that Who Saw Her Die? Got a few more bums on seats in cinemas across the world. I should add that if you thought Lazenby lacked sex appeal before, seeing him naked here is not going to improve your views. Sex appeal or not, this movie does prove that the world was wrong about Lazenby and certainly here he proves himself to be a very capable actor. There is a little more Bond-age here in the casting of Adolfo Celi who starred as Emile Largo in the James Bond movie Thunderball. Celi or rather his character of Serafian a sort of Mafioso boss manages to dominate the entire movie, as a shadowy and untouchable criminal mastermind, a man with fingers in many pies. Fear not ladies it's not a male dominated piece and the casting of enchanting Swedish actress Anita Strindberg with her devastatingly striking looks finishes the lead cast off perfectly, an actress who young in her career had already starred in two very successful Italian movies Lucio Fulci's A Lizard In A Woman's Skin, and Sergio Martino's The Case Of The Scorpions Tail; few actresses have the powerful look of this actress, let alone the very capable acting skill as she plays a woman in mourning.

I have now seen Who Saw Her Die? A dozen times, and reviewed it now for the third time; what I love about the picture is that there is a wonderful power that the movie has, forget the horrible story of a child killer, and the further sideline of a depraved group of perverts; the movies great talent is that by the time I watch the movie again I have completely forgotten who the killer is, making Who Saw Her Die? A movie that you can watch again, and again. How many movies do you know that feel fresh with each repeated watching? And how many movies grow in power with repeated viewings? I won't deny the first time I saw this movie I could take it or leave it, but now it makes its way to the top of my list for all-time favourite movies. From its gruelling story, its impressive visual delight by its director Aldo Lado, onto its rather impressive score by Ennio Morricone, this is an all round winner.

Shameless have again gone out of their way to preserve the movie well, it's in my view a far superior print to the US Anchor Bay edition released some years ago, and greatly improved by the additional seconds of footage, and English subtitles over a couple of scenes previously un-dubbed and without text translation. At last I get to see what it is the creepy kids are singing about in an Italian variant of "Ring A Roses".
As you progress through the movie there are a few things I had not noticed before, aided by what appears to be better framing. The movie boasts a 2.0 soundtrack, and a frame ratio of 2.35:1.

The cover features a front image of a hand holding a knife above a corpse the cover text reading "Before Don't Look Now Came... Who Saw Her Die? But Who Will Survive To Tell The Tale?" As has become tradition with Shameless Screen Entertainment releases there is an alternate reverse cover featuring a child like picture with a photo of the character Roberta superimposed on it.

There are some trailers on the disc starting with The Designated Victim a release due on the 8th of September and a movie that has never been seen in the UK before. Strip Nude For Your Killer is a classic Giallo thriller by the director of The Nights Of Terror, another future release is Umberto Lenzi's long unseen Oasis Of Fear also due out with the other two titles in September. As well as a look at the future there are trailers for Night Train Murders, What Have They Done To Your Daughters, and The Black Cat. There is also a trailer for Who Saw Her Die? That captures perfectly the magic of this spectacular film.

Shameless Films have done a good job of cleaning up the print for this DVD so the picture and sound quality are about as good as you could expect for a film of this age (1972) an genre. It is mainly filmed in Venice during a wet and foggy autumn, so many of the colours are muted which doesn't help the overall viewing. The score by Ennio Maricone plays very well alongside the film.

It is quite an interesting film to watch as it has two themes running through it; the seemingly related deaths of young girls and some sort of secret group which leaves you trying to guess throughout the movie how they will come together. George Lazenby plays a sculptor who loses his daughter to the killer who then sets about trying to track them down - a roll about as far away from Bond as he could have got.

The film is advertised as a directors cut with additional scenes being added in. Not having seen the original I don't know whether these add much to the film but in a few places it appeared to jump and characters refered to things that hadn't happened which was a little confusing.

Overall, if you enjoy this genre of "cult classic" movies you will enjoy watching this but otherwise you will likely come away at the end wondering if you had wasted your viewing time.

Within the first minutes of Who Saw Her Die?, A young girl is murdered at the hands of an unidentifiable woman dressed in black with a veil covering her face. Flash forward four years and we see the young Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi of Baron Blood and Deep Red fame) arriving from London to visit her father, Franco (George Lazenby), a local sculptor. Eventually, she too is stalked by a veiled woman dressed in black and subsequently murdered, her body found floating in the canal. After learning their daughter may be the victim of an active serial killer, Franco and his estranged wife, Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg), begin their own investigation. What they uncover is a conspiracy involving the upper echelon of Venice, and a killer who has a taste for young red-heads who has begun removing anyone making attempts at revealing their identity. Aldo Lado's second entry into the giallo library is a film that in many ways rivals other more well known films of the genre. Who Saw Her Die is not a reference quality giallo by any means. However, the film does stand ahead of the pack in a few areas, including character development (an element usually missing in standard giallo fare). We do get to know these characters very well, and care for them in a great capacity, which is quite unusual for the genre. The relationship between the young girl and her father is a solid one, which makes her demise all the more powerful, and his vindication, all the more necessary. Also some reviewers mentioned Don't Look Now. Yep, very different films although they may be, the similarities to Nicolas Roeg's seminal Don't Look Now are impossible to ignore. That's not to say Who Saw Her Die? is as sophisticated or as disturbing as Don't Look Now. As a giallo film it boasts many of the genre's strengths, but also a fair few of its weaknesses. Effectively done false scares involve actions that push credibility (just why did the maid need to fill the bath to clean the bathroom?) and red herrings are liberally scattered. But Who Saw Her Die? is nicely paced, stylishly shot and tightly edited. It's busy with character detail and potentially relevant sub-plots, makes terrific use of its location and features a most effective giallo score from one Ennio Morricone. As usual with any giallo, this film may not be for everyone, but if you are a fan of the genre check out this entertaining film if for nothing more than to see how classy a giallo can be.