Premature Evaluation: Aldo Lado

“Who Saw Her Die?” and “Short Night of Glass Dolls”

Aldo Lado directed these two giallo films, both of which display Hitchcockian influence in visual styling and theme (birds?). Sadly, they drag on forever. Despite fairly interesting plots, they both dwell on the search for the killer which takes few creative detours. Not to mention, these movies both suffer from a lack of beauteous hair and make-upping that many Giallo from the 1970's do so well.

“Who Saw Her Die?” (1972) follows a mustachioed father's search for his red-headed daughter's killer. The daughter dies 30 minutes in, so the first half-hour shows her establishing small but creepy bonds with older men. This film was set in Venice, so Lado takes waterway travel and tries to keep it interesting---the typical movie car chase scene is done by boat! Unfortunately, the next third follows the dad while he interviews all of the older men with whom the daughter established the creepy bonds, which is where the film drags on. The highlights are: the aviary death scene and the religious plot (which you only really discover in the end).


“Short Night of Glass Dolls” offered an interesting variation on a typical giallo set-up, the film opened with the usual discovery of a body, but the body belonged to the protagonist. It is at his supposed death, that the film begins. At first it seems that he is only going to explore the circumstances that led to this predicament, but luckily those circumstances involved exploring the disappearance of his toothy girlfriend. Like “Who Saw Her Die?” the movie's protagonist is a fairly handsome mustachioed fellow, and also like “Who Saw Her Die?” he spends the bulk of the film slowly but surely exploring all of the relationships that the female character established and the actions she took prior to her disappearance.

Though this doesn't seem like it should be as boringly long as it was, 3 out of the 4 people in my company fell asleep. Similar to the other film, the movie took interesting directions in the last 30 minutes of the film; featuring a weirdly spiritual orgy of naked, unattractive old folk (think: Rosemary's baby). Highlights of the film: the orgy/ritual scene, the Prague setting, and the ending. Note: Ryan disliked the ending.

I wish I could find more on Aldo Lado, because it is strange how he fits into Italian cinema. He is from a part of Italy that is now Croatia, so it is interesting to note how this difference in origin affects the casting, visuals, and plot devices he uses. Overall, his films are visually very beautiful and explore interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the pacing is quite painful and requires patience to get to the fun parts.

- Sana