El estrangulador de Viena

With Buono's comedic performance as a butcher who decides to take back over his butcher shop after 3 years in the asylum, and the film's overall tongue-in-cheek approach to the story, this film is an entertaining, dark-humored thriller. The film's bloodless approach to the subject matter is also a welcome change as well to numerous others of its ilk. Also, watch for the well-directed climax!!

When formerly respected local butcher Otto Lehmann (Buono) is released from a mental health asylum (calmly explaining he's now cured of his ills after a good lie down), his wife's incessant nagging quickly flips his crazy switch, and he soon finds his murderous impulses escalating out of his control. Intrepid local reporter Brad Harris suspects Otto might not be as cured as his small-goods, but lucky for Otto, his knackwurst are proving to be a hit, particularly with the local constabulary.

Looking at the box cover to the video version of this movie, one might be reluctant to view, for fear of the unsavoury content that might be lurking within. Having seen this movie a few times, I can say with confidence, that such a reluctance would be unwarranted. Far from being another inept slasher movie, this Italian offering is an inspired black comedy, that benefits from a deliciously maniacal performance by the inimitable slapstick villain, Victor Buono. His camp acting more than compensates for the paltry production values and often claustrophobic staging. Performances like this, underline the untimeliness of Buono's death in the early eighties.

Perhaps this was the movie from which sausages attracted the rather unpleasant colloquialism of "mystery bags"? But then "meat is meat", as they say.

Odd blend of black humour and gruesomeness featuring a good, over-the-top performance from Buono, whose bulk and mild manner make for an effective psychopath.

The story is a Sweeney Todd rehash that catches the sinister aspects, while retaining the comic elements and being relatively gore-free.

Otto Lehman is shown to be sexually inadequate and belittled by his wife, resorting to voyeurism to satisfy his desires as he spies on a woman across the street. His frustrations trigger his aggression, while the butcher theme is used as a means of disposing of bodies, but isn't the motive for the killings.

Obvious similarities to 'Psycho' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'; also real-life German serial killers Fritz Haarman and Peter Kurten.

The film has enough to recommend it as an above average entry into the slasher genre, although the light hearted approach does tend to outweigh the horror elements too much.

The film opens with the line "Meat is Meat(alternate title as well), and just like that a B foreign horror film is a B foreign horror film. If you were expecting anything too grandiose, look not here to be sure. Nevertheless, as foreign B horror films go, one could do far worse than The Mad Butcher. Victor Buono sweats his way through the film as an Austrian butcher being released from a madhouse where he spent the last three years for throwing liver at a woman. Boy, with crimes being dealt with in that fashion just think what would happen if it were something else! Upon returning "home," Buono refuses to go home with his wife and soon occupies the spare room above his neglected butcher shop. Things were bad whilst he was gone: the shop is filthy, his brother-in-law is working behind the counter with dirty fingernails, and meat has risen in price catastrophically. Well, what do you expect with Buono in a loveless marriage where his wife controls the purse strings and orders him about? Meat du jour no doubt. The film has all those tantalizing ingredients so common to horror films of the 70s. Shocking violence(at least the suggestion of it) and gratuitous sex(here lots of frontal nudity and some scenes of a suggestive nature). Buono plays the Sweeny Todd type well. He definitely has a certain charisma despite his girth and swarthy elements. He literally pours perspiration throughout the whole movie. The rest of the cast does equally well in what is really a black comedy about a mad butcher who is really quite insane. I did tire of American actor Brad Harris in the hero role, however. The settings are very impressive and the music by Allesandro Allesandroni is compelling. As soon as I heard the catchy, kitschy music I knew I was familiar with it and its sound. Alllesandroni worked with Ennio Morricone in some of the Clint Eastwood westerns of the 60s and the style is unmistakable. The film is not particularly bloody at all, though the opening shots of raw meat being sliced were somewhat distasteful. The film never for one instant tries to take itself too terribly serious, yet it never descends into straight farce either. For its kind of film, it is a cut above the rest.

Master Butcher, Otto Lehman (Victor Buono) has just been released from his 3-year stay in a mental institution. He was there for hitting a woman in the head with 2 lbs. Of liver. Otto was quite comfortable in confinement, and has a hard time adjusting to the outside world.

Thankfully, Otto has his career in sausage making, and goes right back to slicing and grinding his meats into tasty links of fleshy delight.

Otto also finds that killing those who irritate him helps to relieve his tension. But, what to do with those pesky bodies? Well, let's just say that Otto's sausage output increases exponentially.

THE MAD BUTCHER is a rather tame horror-comedy. In spite of the title, there's no real gore to speak of. There are a few, brief scenes containing nudity. Mr. Buono is superb in his unhinged role. His jovial demeanor is unsettling and humorous.

So, as long as you're not expecting blood spraying everywhere, you might enjoy this...