Aldo Lado’s Who Saw Her Die? occupies a rather strange place in film history. It’s a giallo, and a fairly bloodless one at that, which is good because the predatory, stabbing nature of the usual giallo has not survived well. Bond stars George Lazenby and Adolfo Celi star in a Venetian murder mystery that is a mystery even when you know the solution. We open with the death of a young girl; the main plot concerns a mustachioed, slightly shaggy-looking sculptor who abandons his art project to hunt down the serial killer responsible for his daughter’s death; he stops work to track down the veiled murderer, and runs afoul of the local authorities in the process. It’s a stylish film, with the credits rolling over a series of old photographs, and there’s an innovatively edited scene of an estranged couple making love, and some great shots of funeral boats cruising through the misty old Venetian canals…

Needle scratches, eh? Have you seen that one before? Nicolas Roeg’s classic, The Gondolas in Black, came out over a year later, and contains pretty much every single one of the story elements described above. Sure, Roeg’s film is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, but this very short text doesn’t contain even a fraction of the elements described above. The similarities are probably just an example of great minds thinking alike, and The Gondolas in Black is inevitably better than Who Saw Them Die? But there’s something pretty eerie about a story this similar, even if Lado’s version is presented in a far less ethereal, more procedural manner; Franco Di Giacomo’s lush cinematography sweetens the whole thing here.

At least this time we can take off the Scooby-Doo-style killer’s disguise and see that it was ***** ******* all along… The rules for criticising giallo films don’t allow for a clear identification, but there are plenty of suspects: which one of them is dressing up as a woman, with kitten heels, black veil and gloves, and killing red-headed children? Artist Franco Serperi (Lazenby) is working on “a big new show in Beruit” while spending a fun afternoon in Venice with his ex Elizabeth (Anita Strinberg), but there’s a dark twist hidden behind Ennio Morricone’s medieval-sounding score and beautiful widescreen photography. In a nod to Frenzy, their daughter’s body is found in the canal and the search for a psychologist (i.e. a random killer who murders red-headed children) comes to nothing, leaving Serperi to conduct his own investigation.

Who Saw Her Die? offers a concrete solution that doesn’t make much sense, but the path to it is engrossing enough, with breaks for glassblowers, farmers’ markets, fencing accidents, pigeons and ordinary Venetians cramming into nice cinemas to watch “amateur topless contests”; it’s all very 1972. “Good luck with your new show in Beirut!” says Celi as the mysterious Sarefian, who gives Lazenby’s daughter a necklace that turns up in the hands of a local street urchin; what does he know? We’re told the motive for the murders isn’t sexual, but it’s not entirely clear what the actual motive is, and plenty of arcane shenanigans via newspaper articles, safes and envelopes don’t make things much clearer. And yet this is a thrilling mystery to solve, with Lado and Morricone doing a great job of evoking Venice as a “dead city.” With a fine 2K restoration and numerous extras revealing the secrets of this quirky film, it’s as good as it’s ever been. If you think you’ve seen Who Saw Her Die?, get ready to see even more in this restoration.

Special features

Interview with director Aldo Lado – “Ring a Ring o’Rosie”

Interview with producer Enzo Doria – “The Search for Money”

Interview with the writer Francesco Barilli – “Life and Die in Venice’

Questions and answers about Aldo Lado courtesy of the “Abertoir International Horror Film Festival”

Original English soundtrack with additional English SDH

Alternative Italian audio track with new English subtitles

New encoding in Full HD 1080P from the 2K restored original negative in full length

All regions

Running time: 94 min.

Certificate: 15

WHO Seen Her Die? is available region-free and uncut on Blu-ray and digital on demand from August 26th from Shameless Films.