(Aldo Lado, 1972) Hands down one of my favourite gialli, Who Saw Her Die? was concocted by a director who paid attention to the masters. Both of Aldo Lado’s early thrillers are worth seeing, but Who Saw Her Die? edges out Short Night of Glass Dolls by virtue of its mood and soundtrack. With a Venetian setting, grieving parents, imperiled little girls and accidents waiting to happen, Who Saw Her Die? narrowly predates Roeg’s Don’t Look Now like a benevolent Italian (fore)shadow. It centers on separated but devoted parents (George Lazenby and Anita Strindberg) driven to desperate ends by the disappearance of their daughter (Nicoletta Elmi, whom fans of the genre will recognize from Twitch of the Death Nerve and Deep Red). The atmosphere is heady, the camerawork loving, and Ennio Morricone’s schoolyard score is perfect. The title track, Chi l’ha vista morire, is one of his most haunting; it’s up there with the work he did for Leone and Argento, as well as lesser-known gems like his groove-sounds for Bava’s Danger: Diabolik and his ringing composition for Sollima’s Violent City. Like Don’t Look Now and Death in Venice, Who Saw Her Die? is a monument to a Venice that no longer exists — that probably last existed the decade these movies were made. And like its sister odes, it proceeds at a serene, Venetian pace, quietly lionizing the city while it churns up its dirtiest and most obscure undercurrents. — Ranylt Richildis
