La perversa señora Ward

Sergio Martino's "Lo Strano vizio della Signora Wardh" (1970) is a welcome addition to the list of giallos that had remained long unseen for me. Martino has done some of the most interesting of the 70's exploitation cinema (like "Torso" and "Mountain of the Cannibal God") and also an interesting spaghetti western "Mannaja." The giallo hasn't as hard-to-follow and confusing plot as it could have, there are not too many characters which makes their efforts and plot turns easy to follow. The story is simple and involves strange murders closely related to beautiful Wardh lady. There are some masterfully constructed mystery / giallo segments that look no less ambitious than those of Dario Argento. I mean mostly the garage scene and the "gas" scene near the end. These build the suspense well and involve the audience much better than some of the more gore-oriented works of the genre. Martino's film has also some stylish and violent murders but fortunately he didn't concentrate only on them. The locations are simply stunning, and the end twist is surprising and certainly original in my opinion. I think this is among the best of the giallo genre, on the same level with Mario Bava's "Blood and Black Lace", the films by Argento and Tonino Valerii's "My Dear Killer", for example, to name just a few.

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH is another classic giallo from Director Sergio Martino. The magnificent Edwige Fenech stars as Julie Wardh, a diplomat's bored wife who is haunted by her past affair with a sexual deviant. Meanwhile, a black-gloved serial murderer is carving up beautiful women nearby.

This is Ms. Fenech's movie and she's a true marvel, whether clothed or unclothed. Her icon status in this genre is beyond debate.

Loaded with mystery, suspense, bloody deaths, a variety of European locations, copious female nudity, and red herrings to distract us, this is among Mr. Martino's best efforts. The multi-twist finale is one for the ages!...

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (Sergio Martino - Italy/Spain 1970).

A bit of an essential Giallo entry, Martino's first thriller, although I personally prefer his fourth giallo YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY (1972), also starring Edwige Fenech, which has the pleasant setting of a country-estate and is even more lurid, over-the-top and slightly less predictable than this one.

This was Fenech's first starring role for producer (and lover) Luciano Martino and the rest of the cast soon became Martino-regulars, playing very similar roles in his later films: Edwige Fenech as calculating victim, George Hilton as the ever-conniving smoothie and evil-looking Ivan Rassimov as the malicious outsider who would become one of the regular bad guys in Italian genre cinema. Fenech plays the kind of character here that would become her trademark, a sexually liberated, glamorous and utterly shallow fashionista. She plays Julie Wardh, the restless wife of an official at the American embassy in Vienna and an investment broker (either one of these, or both, quite an unusual combination of professions!) who is disturbed by reports about a sex killer. She is convinced she is being stalked by Jean (Rassimov), a sadistic ex-lover, and, worse still, suspects that he may the killer. We also learn, through numerous flashbacks, that they had quite a kinky and sadomasochistic relationship. In the meantime a killer, a blonde woman is slashed to death while taking a shower. This doesn't stop Julie from a little fawning with George (a suave George Hilton), the cousin of her attractive friend Carol. Unsurprisingly, she's the next target of the razor-killer who terrorizes her in an underground car park and even all the way into Spain, where she thought she was save.

Many of Martino's films feel a bit over-polished to me. I recently watched a whole bunch of his films, including his crime thriller THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (1973) as well as Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972), which easily is superior to this one, but very raw, even somewhat shabby and unpolished in comparison with Martino's carefully stylized productions. Certainly a handsome production with substantial doses of sexual perversion and misogynistic violence and enough twists and turns to make for an entertaining thriller. And one has to give it to him, Martino has a real knack in framing some impressive shots, such as the glass-breaking scene in one of Fenech's flashbacks. The plot is fairly straight-forward, not needlessly over-complicated and by giallo-standards, the number of oddball characters and bizarre suspects is limited, but the ending is incredibly far-fetched and even hints at the super-natural. Where did that suddenly came from, Gastaldi? Logic and common sense is best left home when watching this one, but - unless you're on medication - you're probably gonna need a couple of drinks to fully appreciate this pleasantly lurid masochistic puzzle.

Camera Obscura --- 7/10

Sergio Martino's "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" is one of the better giallo offerings, basically because it is entertaining from beginning to end. There aren't too many memorable moments, however: after all this time all I could remember about it was the one scene where the women at the party are wearing paper dresses and begin to tear them off each other.

Also, I couldn't forget the fantastic title, made weird by the extraneous "h" at the end of the last name. If I remember correctly, a real life Mrs Ward heard about the movie's production and complained, thinking it might sully her reputation, so instead of choosing another name for the character, they merely added a letter that wouldn't change the pronunciation.

Aside from that, it's all pretty standard. There's a killer on the loose, and the ending packs in some double crosses that are kind of hard to swallow. There's no real suspense, and although the movie has the usual nudity and sex, no real eroticism.

It's also not that violent. "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" may feature the single most unrealistic throat slashing I've seen in a movie. There's no attempt to simulate a wound, and there isn't even that much blood.

The movie is about the always captivating Edwige Fenech as the stupidly named Mrs Wardh-with an "H", who had a weird sadomasochistic relationship with a guy who looks like Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs", but ditched him for safety and monotony from an older, much more boring man. She starts getting anonymous letters about her "strange vice", and there's a killer on the loose.

As I said the typical giallo twists in the tail are a little hard to bear, the movie has little in the way of suspense, but it's always entertaining and Edwige Fenech is almost always worth watching in gialli.

The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh was the first giallo movie I saw and I remember thinking the main actress Edwige Fenech was beautiful beyond words. Saw it again recently on Tubi and unlike a lot of movies where over time my earlier opinion changes this time my opinion actually elevated in my admiration for her. She is mesmerizing and this movie has great atmosphere.