SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Bezenby I am required by law to mention that this film is similar to Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now, made a year later. So that's that out of the way. Who Saw Her Die begins in the French mountains with a red-haired girl being murdered by what looks like an old woman wearing a black veil. We then kick in with Ennio Morricone's outstanding soundtrack made up of a child's choir and harpsichord – a far cry from twangy guitars and harmonicas! I should note here that this soundtrack woke my daughter up and freaked her out from two rooms away! In Venice, skinny sculptor George Lazenby is happy that his daughter Roberta has come from London to visit him, although it's clear by her absence that things aren't going too well with his wife Anita Strinberg as she's stayed behind. Worse still, an old woman in a black veil stalking the kid and seems determined to murder her, which happens while George is banging his mistress. George is distraught and blames himself for his daughter's death, leading him on an obsessive quest to find the killer, which will lead him down sleazy avenues involving the rich and powerful in Venice. This being a giallo, the killer gets wind of this and tries to eliminate some of the witnesses…Even though it's not a top tier giallo, this film is still worth a watch due to the misty Venice location shooting, Morricone's creepy soundtrack, and the acting talents of Adolfo Celi, who here, like in the film Eye of the Labyrinth, can seemingly change his mood and personality with subtle facial expressions and posture. The mystery isn't that hard to solve if you've watched a few of these films, but that's not going to put anyone off, is it?Why are Lazenby and Strinberg so thin though?

Tender-Flesh Superior to his directorial feature, Short Night of the Glass Dolls, Aldo Lado delivers a one-two punch with this movie. Before getting to the plot points, I must Gush over Ennio Morricone's score. It is so haunting and wonderful that I rank it up there with the top horror scores like The Omen, The Exorcist, and Halloween(perhaps not a great score musically speaking, but potently effective). If you haven't time to watch the film yet, look up the trailer and you can hear bits of the main theme. Excellent.We find old George Lazenby hanging up his tuxedo from playing 007 and donning a shaggy hair-do and a 70's porn mustache. And, though physically fit, when shirtless, his body seems disproportioned and ugly. Someone else dubs his voice, which is moronic. A child killer is on the loose in Venice, often targeting little red-haired girls and beating their little brains out. Lazenby's daughter is stalked by a woman wearing funeral attire complete with black veil. Gloved hands? Check. Extended camera shots of killer's black shoes reverbing on cobblestone? Check. Point of view shots? Check. So, the little ginger gets nabbed and it is heartbreaking to see her floating facedown in the canal, bobbing slightly next to a boat. Lazenby, tortured by the death of his only child and blaming himself, finds comfort with this estranged wife as they try to work together to piece his daughter Roberta's murder with other similar murders in recent years.There aren't many bloody scenes, but we do get a very typical giallo kill where a man is stabbed with large shears next to his budgie aviary and as his body slumps, bloody, to the ground, the killer opens the cage door and the room fills with parakeets. Some of them even land on the body and hop around. Birds are a reoccurring visual theme in Lado's gialli. Very effective.Again, the score. God, it's great. If you haven't seen Aldo Lado's work before, check out Short Night of the Glass Dolls first, then this film. Even if you aren't a big horror or giallo fan, you will be drawn in. I feel his work rivals Argento in many ways.

Graham Greene Another film that uses Venice as a kind of infernal labyrinth of desolation and grief, pre-dating Nicholas Roeg's celebrated supernatural thriller Don't Look Now (1973), while simultaneously capturing the melancholy spirit of Visconti's near-iconic adaptation of Tomas Mann's Death in Venice (1971). Although somewhat rough around the edges, Aldo Lado's Who Saw Her Die? (1972) is nonetheless one of the more credible Giallo films of the post-Argento landscape; capturing that similar air of pervasive mystery, intrigue and suspense, alongside an evocative depiction of a Venice out of season - here used to convey the lost, hopeless confusion of the central character, as he attempts to find his daughter's murderer in this never-ending maze of wandering streets and endless canals - all the while offering a myriad of dark corners and empty, dilapidated storefronts for the killer (or killers) to lurk.With this in mind, the title becomes a self-reflexive comment on both the narrative and the voyeuristic nature of the thriller genre itself; as George Lazenby's character Franco poses the question, "who saw her die?", to which the answer is obviously us (the viewer). We may not have sees the killing itself, or indeed, the moment of death, however, as a collective audience, we are undoubtedly in a greater position of information than Franco, having literally witnessed the scene unfold through the eyes of the killer until the moment of capture, making us somewhat implicit within the eventual tragedy. "Who saw her die?" It is also important in stressing the significance of the investigation within the Giallo film genre, more so than the actual resolution. It has often be said about Argento's work, particularly a film like Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) or his masterpiece Deep Red (1975), that the process of elimination, both in the sense of eliminating the potential suspects, as well as the supporting cast, is more enjoyable than the actual pay off."Who saw her die?" Not a confession, not an admission of guilt, nor a plea for the killer to come forward, but an urging for witnesses; someone who knows something (anything). "Who saw her die?" The implication of the title is used by the filmmaker throughout to establish this world in which the various characters seem to know more than they initially let on; continuing that idea of claustrophobia, of the world closing in on these characters as the net of information grows ever tighter. Again, "who saw her die?" The opening scene offers some information, with a chilling sequence taking place at a mountain resort near the French Alps, where a young girl, breaking away from her beleaguered nanny, is beaten and subsequently buried beneath a drift of snow; the entire sequence shot from the perspective of the killer, whose black veil covers the camera, obscuring the image and again, hinting at that same titular question.Once the story cuts ahead, picking up with Franco and his visiting daughter and the eventual reconciliation between separated husband and wife, reunited through tragedy, we get the formation of the typical Giallo set-up, wherein the amateur sleuth - who may or may not know more than they initially realise - begins a process of investigation. The resulting story offers a number of interesting twists and turns, including the spirit of corruption, blackmail, revenge and other unsavoury character traits, as that feeling of desolation and claustrophobia is expressed visually, with Lado using a series of eye-catching if unconventional locations, jarring camera angles and the fantastic score from Ennio Morricone to bolster the dramatic tension. The film is also notable for introducing a more human element to the story, implicating Franco's negligence as a father as a significant factor in his daughter's disappearance and eventual murder, as well as focusing on the emotional distance between the husband and wife/father and mother, who are brought together again through an act of cathartic lovemaking, in which - again, pre-dating the aforementioned Don't Look Now - with the reconciliation expressed physically, without words.Obviously we have the usual exploitation film shortcomings in abundance - including the post-synchronised sound, the sometimes obvious prosthetic effects, the uncomfortable misogyny, etc - but all of these factors are nicely balanced by the mannered central performances from Lazenby and his leading lady Anita Strindberg, the deft storytelling and subtle thematic complexities of the script, and the skillful direction from Aldo Lado; a vast improvement over the only other film of his that I have so far seen, the sleazy, post-Last House on the Left (1972) exploitation piece, The Night Train Murders (1975). Who Saw Her Die? is a competent and often engaging thriller that makes great use of its Gothic, highly depressing locations, the obvious pulling factor of the central mystery and the always alluring sense of audience participation that the Giallo genre seems to inspire.

Woodyanders Successful sculptor Franco Serpiere (a solid performance by 007 oneshot George Lazenby, who looks gaunt and worn) and his adorable daughter Roberta (sweetly played by cute redhead Nicoletta Elmi of "Bay of Blood" and "Deep Red") are spending some quality time together in scenic Venice, Italy. Roberta gets brutally killed by a lethal vicious lunatic. Franco finds himself in considerable danger when he investigates her savage murder. Director Aldo ("Night Train Murders") Lado, who also co-wrote the engrossingly dark and complex script, relates the intricate story at a slow, but steady pace, expertly creating a creepy, edgy, yet elegant tone and staging the murder set pieces with impressively grisly and stylish aplomb. Ennio Morricone's supremely eerie and unnerving score makes especially effective use of a ghostly angelic children's choir. Franco Di Giacomo's beautifully crisp and polished cinematography offers plenty of sumptuously smooth gliding tracking shots and evokes Venice in a strikingly misty, breathtaking and atmospheric way. The uniformly fine acting from a sturdy cast qualifies as another major asset, with especially praiseworthy work by Lazenby, Elmi, Adolfo Celi (the Bond villain in "Thunderball") as friendly art gallery owner Serafian, Anita Strindberg as Franco's concerned estranged wife Elizabeth, and Rosemarie Lindt as Franco's lusty lover Gabriella. Excellent zinger of a shocking surprise twist ending, too.