CHI L'HA VISTA MORIRE? aka WHO SAW HER DIE? 1972

 

Hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews & Pale Writer

Along with UNIVERSAL SOLDIER released in 1971, this was Lazenby's first role after his one-and-done tenure in the Bond series and unlike the role in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER his character in WHO SAW HER DIE? could not be further from the world of 007. Directed by Aldo Lado (in his second directorial effort after the interesting SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS) it's one of my favorite giallos and features a great performance by Lazenby as a haunted grief-filled father searching for his daughter's killer in an off-the-tourist-track (and seedy) looking Venice. Released at the very height of the genre's popularity it has tended to get lost in the myriad of titles from this period. 

Lazenby plays Franco Serpieri a sculptor who resides in Venice and who is visited by his daughter Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi from DEEP RED & FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and a bunch of other Italian genre films). Roberta resides with Franco's estranged wife Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN). It soon becomes apparent that Roberta is being stalked through the city by a mysterious female (maybe??) figure dressed in black with a black veil. In the film's prelude, we saw this same figure stalk and murder a young girl at a ski resort in France. Franco leaves Roberta to play with some other children while he goes off for a sexual tryst with his mistress Gabriella (Rosemarie Lindt EMANUELLE AND FRANCOISE) with the result of his daughter being abducted and later found dead floating in a canal.

Driven by a profound sense of guilt and much to the concern of his recently arrived wife Franco becomes obsessed with finding his daughter's killer which is driven even more by the fact that the police seem ineffectual and uninterested in discovering the killer's identity. He soon begins to uncover a veritable toxic stew of corruption, perverse sexual "clubs" and cover-ups many of which lead to his own circle of friends and the upper social classes of the city while finding connections to the previous murder in France. 

Classic Giallos have many common tropes including a twisting plot, a mysterious killer in black, a protagonist who often must work on his own to solve the mystery, and a host of red herrings paraded with the viewer often choosing between following every twist and turn of the plot or just sitting back and letting the film flow over one's self. WHO SAW HER DIE? has all these but in addition, brings a very tragic story to its core and has interesting and well-scripted characters. 

Both Lazenby and Strindberg are fantastic in their roles and bring a real sense of a desperate and grieving couple who although separated are still in love. It's a pity this film is never really brought up in the discussion of either actor's career as they seem like they have chemistry and not just two attractive actors have been thrown together in a film. Lazenby is wonderful here and his gaunt appearance (he lost approx. 35 lbs. before taking the role - and it's quite shocking the first time he strips down), along with a shaggy haircut and ill-kept mustache all are a long way from the suave James Bond. In addition, he seems to be dressed "down" as he spends the entire film in an ill-fitting turtleneck and a truly ugly oversized parka. It's to his credit that he obviously just did not look upon this role as a throwaway Italian quickie to make a quick paycheck. It's a shame they didn't let him do his own English dub, but that wasn't uncommon for Italian productions of the period. 

Lado spends a nice amount of time showing Lazenby and Elmi's relationship as father and daughter often focusing on the child's point of view of the proceedings. As an example, when they visit a rich art dealer (played by the great Adolfo Cheli from THUNDERBALL) the camera focuses on the child as she studies the furnishings in the ornate apt. You get a real sense of closeness between them. With her red hair and piercing green eyes, child actor Nicoletta Elmi can be looked upon as a real veteran of Euro-horror/giallo as she appeared in Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD and BARON BLOOD, along with FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON, DEEP RED, FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN, THE NIGHT CHILD, and later in Lamberto Bava's DEMONS.

Because the film follows a murder conspiracy plot there is quite a bit of Lazenby walking about Venice talking to various people (and then they talk to someone else about Lazenby) all of whom are set up as red herrings and/or future murder victims (with his poking about causing other murders). One wonders with his constant probing and questioning the conspirators simply just don't kill him at some point. 

Although Lazenby is cast as a seemingly well-known sculptor he is presented as a working-class type and in common, with other Giallos the film makes much of showing the decadent lifestyle of the upper class with which he must interact with. Literally, every character he comes across (even a priest) is presented as sleazy with leering expressions, questionable motives with most having a habit of indulging in kinky sex.  

When outdoors Lado keeps the film centered in side streets and narrow passages with the cinematographer Damiano Damiani (best known as the director of the bonkers AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION) capturing a creepy and mist-shrouded Venice (reminiscent of Luchino Visconti's DEATH IN VENICE from 1971) that looks far removed from the tourist postcard-friendly city we're used to seeing. This Venice atmosphere along with the plot of two grief-stricken parents dealing with the loss of a child look forward to next year's DON'T LOOK NOW directed by Nicholas Roeg.

The beautiful (and Giallo familiar face) Dominique Boschero (THE IGUANA WITH THE TONGUE OF FIRE and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK) is wasted in a small role and Ennio Morricone contributes a superb and haunting score that features a female children's chorus. 

Rosalba Neri News #33 THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS and THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A on Blu-ray

 

As part of their Black Friday releases Vinegar Syndrome has announced their second Giallo box which will contain Ferdinando Merighi’s sleazy & gory THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS released in 1972. It will be taken from the negative of the uncut French version which has never before released on home video. Also included will be THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A from 1974 which is a rare Giallo that was directed by an American, the infamous exploitation king William Rose who brought forth RENT-A-GIRL' THE HOOKERS and the lost THE SMUT PEDDLER).  

While neither film is never going to be considered in the upper echelon of the Giallo genre they're both loads of fun and both feature Rosalba, although her role in THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A is best described as a glorified cameo. THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS is the better of the two and has a wonderfully sleazy vibe to it and to top it off there's a great cast including Barbara Bouchet, Antia Ekberg, and Evelyn Kraft.

Both should have gorgeous transfers and no doubt will have some nice extra features and impressive packaging. Let's hope Rosalba is included in some extra features. The third film in the box will be the satisfyingly violent MY DEAR KILLER directed by Tonino Valerii. 

The Whacky World Drive-In Podcast is back

   After a bit of a hiatus, my buddy Rob Gray whose behind the really cool Whacky World Lounge and myself have done a new episode of our podcast The Whacky Drive-In, we delve into all sorts of stuff including Giallo films, Star Trek, Japanese Kaiju films and of course bowling. Give a listen here and check out our Twitter page. We've got all sorts of interesting stuff lined up for future episodes so please give us a follow!!

Rosalba Neri News # 30 LA CASA DELLA PAURA (THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A) 1974 On Blu

    X Rated Kult has announced the upcoming release of THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A for later this fall. Although a release date of Nov. 8 has been posted over on Blu-ray.com there is no pre-order as of now on Amazon. X-Rated doesn't have much of an internet or social media footprint and their initial media book style releases tend to disappear quickly with a standard package release following.

   Although a European production it features a couple of Americans in the mix being the last movie directed by skin-flick specialist William Rose (THE SMUT PEDDLER and RENT-A-GIRL) and it was produced by Dick Randall (THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS and FRANKENSTEINS CASTLE OF FREAKS) who had a hand in bunches of features starting in the early 60's such as THE WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD before heading to Europe where he spent the majority of his career.

    Owing a bit more to ROSEMARY'S BABY (with a bit of Val Lewton's THE SEVENTH VICTIM mixed in) then the giallos its most often lumped in with it works a pretty decent little thriller with creepy atmosphere but things never quite completely gel like you would hope. Daniela Giordano (YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY) plays a young woman who after being sent to prison on trumped-up charges goes to live in creepy rooming house overseen by Giovanna Galletti (KILL, BABY...KILL!). Rosalba plays a social worker for Giordano and Karin Schubert (THE COLD EYES OF FEAR) also appears. 

     The Blu-ray DVD package will be released in a media book format with the four covers shown in a limited edition (usually 333 or 666 or some such number) and later a standard edition with the book. It was previously released on a now OOP DVD from Mondo Macabro.

The above screenshots are from the Mondo Macabro DVD 

LE ORME aka FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON 1975

"My name is Alice. I am Alice Campos. This time I shall not run away....." 

      Directed by Luigi Bazzoni and often classified as a Giallo, FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON is a ghostly, hazy and dream-like tale of fractured memories, that like many a Giallo has as its basic plot a mystery wrapped in deliberate ambiguities. However, free of black-gloved killers and corpses, it has a slow (often maddeningly so upon first viewing) plot that feels like a dream half-remembered that can't be fully recalled after waking, but slowly small details emerge. Originally titled LE ORME (meaning simply "the footsteps") even the films credits are draped in ambiguity with director Bazzoni (who also directed the astonishing THE FIFTH CORD in 1971) listed the third writer, while author from whom the original story adapted Mario Fanelli is often credited as a co-director.

    Alice Campos (an amazing Florinda Bolkan) loses her job as a translator when her boss informs her that she hasn't been to work for three days. Returning to her apartment and unable to recall the missing days of her life, she finds there a bloodstained yellow dress. a torn postcard and a single earring. Seeing that the postcard is from the Turkish resort island of Garma she travels there in the hope of finding answers. Along with the yellow dress we also see Alice has a book with a yellow cover (the term "Giallo" refers to the often-yellow colored mystery/thriller book popular in Italy) and later we see yellow-tinged flashbacks to her earlier life.

     She also suffers from dreams that we're shown in the film's opening scene where a Prof. Blackman (a typically deranged performance from Klaus Kinski) is conducting an experiment with a sole astronaut being stranded on the moon and keeping track of his mental and physical breakdown. Alice references this as a movie in which she walked out as a child and continues to haunt her. At first, this would seem to be a crazy plot point out nowhere, but as we watch Alice's fragile mental state throughout the movie you begin to see the correlation between her and the stranded astronaut along with the desolate setting of the moon and her destination of the unsettling and empty resort town. The Kinski and moon footage are shot in grainy scratchy B&W or green tinting which adds to the nightmare quality of these scenes
    Once in Garma Alice checks into an almost empty and abnormally quiet hotel and soon meets several people, one being a young girl named Paula (Nicolette Elmi the red-haired veteran of Italian horror) who refers to her as "Nicole" and claims she had visited before. There's also Henry (Peter McEnery TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS) who references a past love affair with her. Alice initially plays along with Henry and dismisses Paula, but she slowly begins to believe them as she finds several items that jog her memory and other people who recognize her.

    Often leaving more unanswered questions than solutions as it moves along, the plot seems to drift between reality and dream while for certain languid segments the narrative comes to a complete stop using only Vittorio Storaro's beautiful cinematography to carry the story. Storaro, who had also shot Bazzoni's THE FIFTH CORD, can justly be called the greatest cinematographer in the world. Working in that magical time in cinema, he could shoot major Italian projects like THE CONFORMIST and 1900 while also on films such as this and Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE along with American studio films such as APOCALYPSE NOW and REDS.
    With this type of narrative, the film rests entirely on the shoulders of its lead actress, and in the role of Alice/Nicole, Bazzoni couldn't have done better than the Brazilian-born Florinda Bolkan. A strikingly beautiful actress who could alternately project both strength and an inner vulnerability, she's one of the finest actresses in Italian cinema of the era. Alternating between giallos and more art-house style cinema such as Visconti's THE DAMNED, she's memorable in Fulci's A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN and magnificent as a rebellious nun in Gianfranco Mingozzi's FLAVIA THE HERETIC.
    Instantly recognizable to fans of Italian horror ("that little girl with the red hair & freckles in those Italian movies") Nicoletta Elmi appeared in Aldo Lado's WHO SAW HER DIE, Bava's BARON BLOOD, as one of Udo Kier's creepy kids in FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and Argento's DEEP RED and later all grown-up in Lamberto Bava's DEMONS. She's quite good in FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON and her dialogue scenes with Florinda are my favorite performances by her in the film.
    Shameless put this out on DVD several years ago with several scenes added from a lesser source, but hopefully, one day will get a beautiful restored Blu of this wonderful film.