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18 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
clichéd boredom..., 7 May 2003
3/10
Author: macabro357 from U.S.

(aka: WHO SAW HER DIE?)

Not as good as SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS, the giallo film Aldo Lado did the year before, which I also happened to see the same time as this one.

I HATE the Morricone soundtrack. It's surprising to say that, but it's true. It's nothing more than an annoying children's choir that grates on one's nerves after awhile. Blah...I never knew a Morricone score could be this annoying.

Venice is rocked by the murder of children. The child murderess is always dressed in black with a big veil draped over her head. George Lazenby's daughter is found dead in one of Venice's canals and it is now up to him to find the killer. There's a convoluted sub-plot involving art dealers protecting someone, that's a real mess.

Then a woman Lazenby is supposed to meet in a theater is strangled by the killer and nobody else in the theater notices it until Lazenby sits down next to her. It's not even very dark in the theater so how come nobody noticed it? Sloppy and unbelievable.

Jeez, Argento did this kind of thing so much better while Lado makes it look a unconvincing cliché, here. In no way did I sense any tension or suspense with what looked like scenes of someone just going through the motions.

The kid getting murdered at the beginning looked fake, too. It obviously looked like a small mannequin with a red wig. Clumsy and sloppy, done on the cheap which the DVD makes even more apparent. Plus no motive is ever given as to why the killer only picks little red-haired girls to murder. The voices are also poorly dubbed with the children having adult voices, sounding like children. George Lazenby's daughter sounds older than he does as being one prime example. This is really bad, making the script sound even more amateurish than it should be.

And speaking of Lazenby, he looks like he lost a lot of weight here compared to his 007 days from a couple of years earlier. He looks like a long-haired junkie or someone ill with some kind of disease. Clearly not his usual, healthy-looking self.

The ending isn't surprising at all since it falls under the standard giallo cliché of copying Alfred Hitchcock from the 1960s. If you see enough of these films, you'll know what I'm talking about. I knew who the killer was a half an hour into the film, so you'll just have to see it for yourself.

The Anchor Bay DVD is up to their usual high standards with an 11 minute extra commentary by the director himself. A very pristine, wide-screen print is used. Plus we get to see beautiful Venice locations as part of the deal.

Get's a 3 out of 10 for boredom and annoyance

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Who saw? We saw!, 11 December 2003
7/10
Author: Charles Dunn (cbdunn@elvis.com) from Clarksville, IN

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I have been a fan of the Italian "Giallo" movies for about ten years now. This film was released by Anchor Bay in a four dvd collection towards the middle of 2002. This film is a classic example of what the Italians had to offer during the 1960's and 1970's. The imagery and cinemaphotography are superb. The acting is pretty good. I am puzzled as to why George Lazenby was dubbed!? Very odd.

++++++++++++SPOILERS++++++++++++++++ The story (as with most giallo) is about the murders of several children that have gone unsolved. The killer's face is not revealed and there is the possibilty that it is being committed by a woman!? However, the killings have started again. Is there a connection? Why is George Lazenby's character so interested in becoming a semi-gumshoe? Watch the movie and find out. A major plus (and addition to the mood) is the haunting score by the one and only Ennio Morricone. His music is just as great as always. For those people in the Louisville, Kentucky area who might be interested in seeing this gem...seek it out at Wild and Woolly Video.

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11 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Did they even try??? Pathetic excuse for a film., 30 December 2006
Author: universal_monster from United States

Someone's lurking around Italy murdering small children. The daughter of a divorced artist (played blandly by one shot "James Bond" George Lazenby) becomes a victim. He sets out to find the killer and spends the majority of this so called thriller basically running around Venice examining a handful of horribly underdeveloped supporting characters. Clichéd writing, dull direction and unbelievably stiff acting all combine to create a monotonous viewing experience. Notable only because it is one of the few films in this genre I've seen that truly has nothing at all to offer the casual viewer. There's a total absence of thrills, scares, suspense, horror, intrigue, drama, you name it and you will find this movie lacks it. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it decides to go that extra mile with a truly pitiful resolution to the mystery that a semi-retarded 6 year old could have easily yakked up. The whole thing is pointless in the extreme and an insulting waste of time and money. If you want a quality mystery, thriller or horror film, by all mean look elsewhere!

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Sub-Par Giallo Entry..., 16 October 2006
4/10
Author: EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I consider myself a relatively big fan of the giallo genre, though I haven't seen nearly as many as some that I talk too - but I figure at this point I've seen enough to separate the notable entries from the weaker ones - and WHO SAW HER DIE? is honestly about the lamest that I've seen so far. It started off well enough and held interest until about the halfway point, and then pretty much completely dropped the ball after that...

A famous sculptor's young daughter comes from her home in London to visit him in Venice. She is murdered while on her holiday, and the sculptor spends the rest of the film running around Venice trying to find clues to his daughter's murder...

Honestly - WHO SAW HER DIE? fails on pretty much all levels. The storyline gets confused and redundant after the daughter's murder, characters are introduced who are thinly explained, and the "resolution" is dumb and forced as though the director couldn't find an adequate way to tie the film together. Scenes of the father running from one locale to the next are dull and repetitive. Even the few murders in the film are pretty weak and uninteresting. As to the couple of minor "good" points - the Venecian setting is nice and adds a bit of atmosphere to the film, and sexy genre favorite Anita Strindberg gets nekkid a few times. That's about all that's going for this one. Not a completely horrible film, but definitely sub-par for the genre, and I would consider this one either for giallo completists only, or a skip altogether...4/10

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Had potential, 2 October 2002
Author: (anthonycwhittle@hotmail.com) from Vancouver, B.C



An obvious catalyst to Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now. This film had a great first half but after that it sort of lost the plot a bit. The ending was horrible and some of the dialogue to risible. On the positive side, the settings were splendid and the music was harrowing at times.If your interested in Giallo films this is not the place to start your mission. Try Aldo Lado's far superior Short Night of Glass Dolls instead.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
one of the best gialli, 5 October 1999
10/10
Author: nippy-4 (nippy@blackfrd.globalnet.co.uk)

WHO SAW HER DIE (1971)is a classic and very underrated giallo. I think it is excellent packing an emotional punch due to Ado Lado's skilful direction and the haunting Ennio Moriconne score. It is very stylish and due to the striking appearance of the killer who wears a veil over the face there are some truly striking images. Also the acting is better than in you usual giallo. IMO ,ex-James Bond, George Lazenby is particularly convincing as the mourning father obsessed with finding the murderer of his young daughter. The most impressive aspect of this film however is the way the location, Venice, is manipulated by the excellent cinematography. It is transformed into a sombre, claustrophobic maze consisting of Renaissance-esque buildings peering through the mist and surrounded by calm, soothing waters. IMO there is a very apparent influence on the famous art-house thriller DON'T LOOK NOW (1973). Apart from the obvious plot and location (Venice) similarities, there is a sex scene featuring Lazenby's character and his wife which is intercut with the two lying in bed next to each other weeping and reflecting on their childs death. In DON'T LOOK NOW there is a similar scene with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in the role of Lazenby's character and his characters wife. The only difference being the sex scene is intercut with the two getting dressed afterwards. The way the scenes are shot is also very similar, both using jagged editing. A classic movie that is hard to find and challenging to watch.

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7 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Great little Giallo!, 7 July 2000
Author: jlabine from San Francisco, California

"Who Saw Her Die" was a great little surprise. I had been searching for it for a little while, and when I had found it, I was happy to find that it was a much better film for actor George Lazenby ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service"), then the other films he had been making at that time ("Universal Soldier", "Stoner" etc.). It is a tad annoying to see that he was completely dubbed (a standard Italian practice I've heard), but I didn't find this too distracting from the film. It does however contain a great eerie soundtrack supplied by Ennio Morricone, which seems to jump in everytime we are viewing the killer's point of view through a veil. It's also a lot more mature than the typical Italian Giallo of that time, It's never too grautuidice in it's gore or nudity. It does contain great cinematography, especially great if viewed in widescreen. George Lazenby's daughter in the film is played by a little girl that seemed to play in every Giallo/ Horror flick that ever got produced in Italy ("Bay Of Blood", "Deep Red", and "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein"), which is due no doubt to her very unusual looks. Also, the fact that they have a cameo from Adolfo Celli ("Thunderball") makes me think that director had a James Bond fascination. The only problems I really have of the film, is that the ending is a little unclimactic and predictable (you guess who it is, before they show you). A slight influence from Nick Roeg's "Don't Look Now" is evident. Other than this, quite a little gem of a film. And actually hold's up to some of Dario Argento's earlier work, if not better.

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8 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrific giallo, 3 June 2005
8/10
Author: Bjorn (jbjorns) from Iceland

A child murderer is running loose in Venice. Distraught father Lazenby investigates after his daughter is killed.

A superb giallo from Aldo Lado. From the very first scene Lado builds up a tense atmosphere that holds it's grip on the viewer until the very end. In keeping up with some of the giallo's best trademarks, this film has excellent photography, making good use of Venice's enchanting scenery. Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score is another huge plus.

The film is well written and has a good story, albeit a bit complicated. It took me two viewings to get everything, but maybe I'm just a little dense at times. Maybe it doesn't bear too much scrutiny, but I didn't find any huge plot holes. The revelation of the killer is, as in most giallo's, quite a surprise. I'm guessing you won't guess it.

George Lazenby (in my opinion a very underrated Bond) is a very likable leading man, gives a credible performance as the grieving father and amateur sleuth and Anita Strindberg looks smashing.

I advice you the check this one out if you're a fan of this genre.

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5 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Well, the city sure is nice to look at., 24 August 2006
3/10
Author: capkronos (capkronos00@hotmail.com) from Ohio, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Venice is a gorgeous city full of canals, garish colors and stunning architecture. Setting a film in this city is always a plus because you are guaranteed an interesting backdrop. Unfortunately, when the city itself turns out to be the best part of the entire movie, you know you are in trouble. Even more disheartening, CHI L'HA VISTA MORIRE (known to English-speaking audiences as WHO SAW HER DIE?) is cynical enough to use Venice as a distraction technique to keep people from realizing that this is simply just another tepid, poorly paced, clichéd-to-the-max murder mystery we've seen dozens of times before. Only slower. Very, very slow. I'm talking moving at the speed of a tortoise with three broken legs slow. I guess it takes a special kind of director to make a film about a serial killer of children this devoid of emotion, this bland and this uninvolving. Aldo Lado is not helped any by a cast of non-actors who sleepwalk through their respective parts, but he is especially not helped at all by his own uninspired direction.

One of the key shots in the film is a killer's POV shot. At first, the shot is effective at building up the creepy, off-screen menace getting ready to strike out. The shot looks through a thin black veil (presumably that of an old woman), watching victims as the Ennio Morricone music (an increasingly annoying children's choir) slowly starts to creep in. But then this same exact shot with the same exact music keeps being repeated over and over and over again for almost all of the horror related scenes. To make matters worse, the shot is used pointlessly on multiple occasions where nothing even happens. A common technique used in horror films is the "cheap scare." You know, like a cat jumping out of a closet to startle a character, and the viewer. In this film, the veil scenes are simply "cheap suspense" because the script fails to create any honest suspenseful/horrific scenarios based on the storyline, plot, characters or dialogue.

Another major problem are the characters. They are poorly developed, shallow and completely unsympathetic, and the actors portraying them seem disinterested in the material. You could care less about them or what happens to them. George Lazenby never once comes off as as impassioned or driven, which is important to the believability of his vengeance-seeking father character. Just like him, this film is cold, clinical, technical, by the numbers; basically just going through the motions in a completely lifeless manner. Sure, this film could have been cold in a calculating, disturbing way, but it's not. It's just cold in an off-putting, blasé kind of way. And the ending reeks of desperate, lazy film-making and writing. The identity of the killer is supposed to be a surprise, but it's not a surprise in context of the script, it's a supposed surprise based on an occupation; a costume.

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5 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
way above average giallo, 3 July 2006
9/10
Author: (furvus-Ahto4353) from Finland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just watched this one, and I have to say it's way, WAY above average giallo. Directed by Aldo Lado, the director of "The Short Night of Glass Dolls" (which took place in Prague), this one takes place in Venice, and the photography is as beautiful as ever.

One thing in this one that's almost entirely lacking is humour. This one is serious, people.

*SPOILER ALERT* The little girl who is the second victim of the killer... it's really nasty, because you've already seen her playing with other kids, interacting with her daddy... she's not just a piece of meat to be killed in another giallo. That sets the tone for this film pretty much, and this giallo is not funny, it's serious. But it's great if you get into it.

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