Who Saw Her Die?

I absolutely adore Italian cult movies; I also rather enjoy the movies that UK based Shameless Screen Entertainment release, but imagine my delight when I discover that one of my all-time Italian thrillers Who Saw Her Die? Is getting a long overdue UK release, not just with a glossy print but with some long missing footage reinserted. It is like one of my greatest dreams come true, and luckily for me those nice guys over at Shameless sent me a copy of the movie to watch prior to its release on the 25^th August, enough to tide me over until the movie is out to buy.

 

Made all the way back in 1972 Who Saw Her Die? Starts with one of the most disturbing openings I have ever seen, nestled in the beautiful snow filled French mountains you see a young girl enjoying herself with her nanny and her sledge. From out of the trees looms a figure of a woman with a veil covering her face. Grabbing the young girl, the woman proceeds to smash her skull in with a stone before burying her rather carelessly under the snow. Moving forward 20 years, we are teleported to Venice in the 1970’s; and the arrival of Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi) who has come to stay with her father Franco (George Lazenby) is about to cause history to repeat itself.

 

The movie is a product of the great Aldo Lado the mastermind behind Night Train Murders, and The Short Night Of The Glass Dolls, Lado is not necessarily the best know of the Italian directors especially to the casual Italian movie viewer, but familiar or not you’d certainly agree Lado’s movies have a certain style about them. Here Lado shows a side of Venice that the Italian tourist board would not like you to see, looking dowdy and dirty you can almost smell the dirty Venetian water, add to this a vision of darkness, rain, fog, and cloud cover that you do not think of when Venice enters your mind. Everything about Lado’s outlook of Venice is dark and sinister and not the image you get with movies like The Talented Mr. Ripley or Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now even though this is hardly sun filled; on the subject of the Roeg masterpiece I’d go as far as to say that I suspect that Roeg took a little inspiration from this movie as you can easily spot similarities between the two movies, while Roeg painted a harsh image of Venice, Lado’s version is far more extreme and explicit. Now don’t get me wrong, Lado’s vision is not all dark, there are some most beautiful scenes in the movie, for those with a passion for travel, history, and architecture this movie will make you want to visit Venice even more, what is carefully delivered however is the thought “be careful what you cannot see”.

 

Lado scored well with his leading man acquiring the services of George Lazenby (former James Bond) for a song due to his incredibly high debts (caused due to his dramatic over the top spending while filming On Her Majesties Secret Service), and while Lazenby was criticised for his poor acting on Bond and his lack of sex appeal, he was still a big enough name to ensure that Who Saw Her Die? Got a few more bums on seats in cinemas across the world. I should add that if you thought Lazenby lacked sex appeal before, seeing him naked here is not going to improve your views. Sex appeal or not, this movie does prove that the world was wrong about Lazenby and certainly here he proves himself to be a very capable actor. There is a little more Bond-age here in the casting of Adolfo Celi who starred as Emile Largo in the James Bond movie Thunderball. Celi or rather his character of Serafian a sort of Mafioso boss manages to dominate the entire movie, as a shadowy and untouchable criminal mastermind, a man with fingers in many pies.  Fear not ladies it’s not a male dominated piece and the casting of enchanting Swedish actress Anita Strindberg with her devastatingly striking looks finishes the lead cast off perfectly, an actress who young in her career had already starred in two very successful Italian movies Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin, and Sergio Martino’s The Case Of The Scorpions Tail; few actresses have the powerful look of this actress, let alone the very capable acting skill as she plays a woman in mourning.

 

I have now seen Who Saw Her Die? A dozen times, and reviewed it now for the third time; what I love about the picture is that there is a wonderful power that the movie has, forget the horrible story of a child killer, and the further sideline of a depraved group of perverts; the movies great talent is that by the time I watch the movie again I have completely forgotten who the killer is, making Who Saw Her Die? A movie that you can watch again, and again. How many movies do you know that feel fresh with each repeated watching? And how many movies grow in power with repeated viewings? I won’t deny the first time I saw this movie I could take it or leave it, but now it makes its way to the top of my list for all-time favourite movies. From its gruelling story, its impressive visual delight by its director Aldo Lado, onto its rather impressive score by Ennio Morricone, this is an all round winner.

 

About The DVD

 

Shameless have again gone out of their way to preserve the movie well, it’s in my view a far superior print to the US Anchor Bay edition released some years ago, and greatly improved by the additional seconds of footage, and English subtitles over a couple of scenes previously un-dubbed and without text translation. At last I get to see what it is the creepy kids are singing about in an Italian variant of “Ring A Roses”.

As you progress through the movie there are a few things I had not noticed before, aided by what appears to be better framing. The movie boasts a 2.0 soundtrack, and a frame ratio of 2.35:1.

 

The cover features a front image of a hand holding a knife above a corpse the cover text reading “Before Don’t Look Now Came... Who Saw Her Die? But Who Will Survive To Tell The Tale?” As has become tradition with Shameless Screen Entertainment releases there is an alternate reverse cover featuring a child like picture with a photo of the character Roberta superimposed on it.

 

There are some trailers on the disc starting with The Designated Victim a release due on the 8^th of September and a movie that has never been seen in the UK before. Strip Nude For Your Killer is a classic Giallo thriller by the director of The Nights Of Terror, another future release is Umberto Lenzi’s long unseen Oasis Of Fear also due out with the other two titles in September. As well as a look at the future there are trailers for Night Train Murders, What Have They Done To Your Daughters, and The Black Cat.  There is also a trailer for Who Saw Her Die? That captures perfectly the magic of this spectacular film.

Of all the releases from Shameless this is by far my favourite, despite my love of The Frightened Woman, congratulations Shameless on bringing one of my all time favourites to DVD in the UK. You can purchase Who Saw Her Die? From the 25^th of August.

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Killer Nun

"If you ever watched La Dolce Vita wishing that Swedish sex siren Anita Ekberg would get out of the Trevi fountain, turn junkie, torture some pensioners and stalk young innocent nuns for kinky sex in a convent then Killer Nun is the film for you!"

Killer Nun tells the tale of Sister Gertrude(Enita Ekberg) a faithful daughter of God, but just prior to the movies beginning Sister Gertrude has been unwell, she had to undergo major brain surgery in order to aid a tumour. Now back at work Gertrude is not quite the same person, whereas before she was calm and serene now she flips out at the least thing; smashing false teeth and giving the elderly patients in her care heart attacks. Suddenly however her outbursts get worse, and the patients begin dying, can Sister Gertrude be controlled?

Killer Nun was one of the original video nasties, banned in the UK in 1984 when scum newspaper The Daily Mail decided to be the voice of the people and force government to impose radical censorship on over 70 movies (this was just the start). In the 1990's the ban on the movie was lifted, but the movie was released in an edited form. Now however and for the first time ever the movie is released fully uncut in the UK.

Surprisingly enough, and something quite unusual in any horror movie or exploitation piece of this type the movie is based on true events surrounding a German Nun who killed patients, and stole their worldly possessions, selling them so she could lead a less than conventional life, again all caused after an operation on the brain, this time though due to a metal plate being installed. Many of the incidents portrayed on screen did actually occur.

Killer Nun is also a surprisingly good film; I would go as far as to say a damn near excellent piece of Italian cinema. The story has great motion to it, none of the ridiculous sidetracking that occurs during a lot of Italian horror movies. Also having now watched it in its uncut I can honestly say i'm not sure what all the fuss was about, why did this movie get banned and for so long? I guess all I can put it down to is the references to the church, maybe the Daily Mail's vigilance started at the church with this movie.

Anita Ekberg is exceptional in the role, obviously a little older than in La Dolce Vita, all the movie you feel sorrier for her character than you do any animosity. Deeply troubled by her warped world, and her often skewered views Ekberg plays the role of the mad woman incredibly well. Other supporting cast include Warhole favourite Joe Dellasandrio, sex siren Poala Morra, Cassandra Crossing star Lou Castel and horror veteran Alida Valli.

The movie has a nice clean print, the downfall of its editing however that is has mixed language; as was the case with all Italian movies of this time period (the 70's) Killer Nun has been dubbed into English, however when the movie was restored it was impossible to gather the same vocal artists again so rather than dubbing the movie slips into Italian with English subtitles.

I saw Killer Nun back in the 90'swhen the ban was lifted and to be fair I was not overly impressed, however watching it this time round I found it a far more enjoyable experience, so much so that I have to say it is one of the more enjoyable Italian offerings I have seen for a considerable amount of time. The fact that the story is more thriller than horror, and there is no over the top sexual reference as is often the case with these nunsploitation films. Killer Nun is an enjoyable movie, with a rather clever final twist worthy of any blockbuster movie.

The movies soundtrack is a real winner by guitarist and vocalist Alessandro Alessandroni, not a name I was overly familiar with but one I'll be looking into now. The main theme is highly addictive, in fact so much so I find it difficult to get out of my head, despite its nun like simplicity.

The movie was directed by Giulio Berruti and sadly at least according to the internet movie database this seems to be the last work of the director's career, while his work was more varied than some there were few highlights other than assisting Mario Bava on the movie Baba Yaga.