The Guardian (1990)

As the 80’s made way for the 90’s the new decade spawned movies about abuse of trust, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, and Deceived being prime examples. From absolutely nowhere came The Guardian a movie directed by William Freidkin the man that bought us The Exorcist. Teaming up with Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch, Gothic) as writer, Friedkin again gives us a no nonsense smack in the face horror movie, with a savage edge.

Moving into their dream home Kate and Phil soon have a new visitor on the way, a guest that will be staying for more than a few days. The pregnancy goes by quickly and without issue, the birth speedy; but finances mean that Kate will soon have to return to work in order to keep their dream home. Selecting a nanny for their child is easy, despite all the nanny’s they see Arlene is head and shoulders above all others, but her sudden death means they turn to second option Camilla (Jenny Seagrove). Camilla tends to baby Jake’s needs well, but despite her polished outlook, she hides something secret, something deadly.

Anyone expecting something along the lines of The Exorcist is surely to be disappointed with The Guardian; The Exorcist is a dark and dirty horror movie, its delivery is rough and sometimes incoherent, its very real, lots of normal conversation and acting that seems like you’ve just walked in on a friends conversation. The Guardian is a much more polished piece of work, far more Hollywood than cutting edge; it’s almost TV quality style acting, with a level of cleanliness and an unlived feel about it. In fact you’d need telling to take a double take, and maybe to be old twice in order to believe that this is the work of the same director, both movies being light years apart. This being said The Guardian is pretty good on a completely different level.

For actress Jenny Seagrove this must have been a dream job, the actress repeatedly pigeonholed into the same sort of acting roles, the servant, the downtrodden, and the woman of substance. Now she had the real power an opportunity to shine, and to deliver a pleasant but terrifying role. Sadly despite her great performance here, the movie was little seen and her chance at fame in America dashed.

The character of Camilla (Seagrove) is far more than just a normal woman with a nasty side; she is a creature of some sort, connected closely to a tree. Her aim is to collect babies before they reach the four-month stage, and effectively sacrifice them to a tree. Anything that tries to stop this is met with ultimate resistance.

When you sit someone down in an almost TV movie style environment and chuck in the kitchen sink when it is completely unexpected you have to take a deep breath. The first thirty minutes of watching The Guardian and you think you’re seeing a movie that will play out in a certain way. Around the forty minute mark suddenly you are thrown this enormous curve-ball, I was completely taken aback by a scene involving Camilla and three thugs, who are disposed of in a fairly graphic manner, the deaths themselves are not unexpected, it’s the sheer brutality that it.

I never read Stephen Volk’s original treatment of the story, but I have to say it does seem that the film is a little hollow in a number of places, it’s not a well thrown together story, it works, but its far from rocket science, it simply just is what it is, a bit of mindless horror to pass the time, enjoyable in a lot of ways; but you’ll not be worrying about it after it ends.

Friedkin has made a number of films that have a cutting edge style about them, this does not by any means equal previous work, nor does it redesign the wheel, but it is an unexpected pleasure to watch, and a movie you’ll remember.

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.