Aldo Lado’s brilliant giallo opens with the slaughter of a young child by a veiled woman (wearing black gloves, of course). This sets the tone perfectly for this twisted, Venice-set thriller.
One-time 007 George Lazenby is Franco, a sculptor working on a new exhibition while his daughter Roberta (familiar genre regular Nicoletta Elmi) is visiting. When she goes missing and turns up dead in the river, he attempts to find the killer. His estranged wife, Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg), is concerned that he’s getting himself too deeper than he can handle. Particularly when it appears, there’s much more to the case than he first thought.
Lado uses Venice almost as well as Nicolas Roeg did in Don’t Look Now (1973), which also covers the aftermath of the death of a child, with Lazenby running through the nooks and crannies of the city. As the conspiracy of silence builds, so does the body count. But who are they protecting? It might not be the most convoluted of mysteries, but it looks stunning – particularly on this new Blu-ray release from Shameless. Ennio Morricone’s score is sinisterly brooding and as infectious as ever, building sinisterly whenever the killer is in range.
Extras-wise, Shameless include several interviews, including two lengthy chats with the late director Aldo Lado (one conducted over Zoom for the Abertoir Horror Festival) that are very informative. Along with the interviews with producer Enzo Doria and writer Francisco Barilli, these are a healthy resource for anyone wanting to dig a little deeper into the film and Italian filmmaking.
WHO SAW HER DIE? is released on Blu-ray on August 26th. You can pre-order it here.
