L'étrange vice de Madame Wardh

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 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!...

My old buddy Rob, who knows more about "psychotronic" movies than anybody I know, recently e-mailed me to rave about a film he'd just seen, "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" (1970). He urged me to put this Italian thriller, of the kind nowadays called "giallo," on my list of films to rent. Well, I'd never heard of this movie before, and my list of films to rent right now is pretty darn long, but, believing that there's always room for giallo (ouch!), I put it right at the top of my rental list, and boy, am I ever glad I did! "Mrs. Wardh" turns out to be a very suspenseful, stylish, sexy and violent thriller that really does keep you guessing. In it, Edwige Fenech plays the wife of a stockbroker, living in Austria, who becomes the target of a serial slasher (as has been pointed out elsewhere, those giallo killers really do seem to gravitate toward the ol' straight-edge razor, for some reason). I hadn't seen Ms. Fenech in anything before, but can understand now why she is such a beloved cult actress in Europe. She is remarkably attractive in this film, at 22 years of age, and a modern-day interview with the actress, included on this DVD from the fine folks at No Shame, reveals that she is, astonishingly, still quite beautiful today, 35 years later. Anyway, besides Fenech's exquisite presence, this film boasts gorgeous location shooting in Vienna and Sitges (near Barcelona), Spain, as well as trippy background music that will haunt your memory for days. The film is atmospheric as can be and has been directed with style to spare by Sergio Martino. I guarantee you won't foresee any of the twists and turns that this ingeniously plotted film dishes out. It's a real winner. Thanks, Rob!

Much like the slasher films of the U.S., the Italian giallo movement is more known for its incredibly high highs than it's truly awful lows. It becomes fairly obvious once you start seeking a lot of these films out that there are more lousy ones than great ones, but every now and then, one surprises you and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh is, indeed, very surprising.

Taking a more thoughtful and character driven approach to giallo storytelling, it focuses on Julie, an ambassador's wife who's gotten out of a troubled relationship with a sadist and just wants to move on with her life. It doesn't help that there's a mad razor murderer out there and her former lover has been stalking her. Even worse, she falls for a mysterious and handsome friend of a friend who complicates things even more.

The stunning Austrian location photography, beautiful music score, and hypnotic presence of Edwige Fenech helps things move along at a nice pace and having interesting character drama keeps things exciting even when the mad razor slasher isn't terrorizing anyone. This might make for a good gateway giallo for those unfamiliar with the genre. It's not as wild or supernatural as some of the nuttier ones and not as deathly dull as many of the lesser tier ones.

Originally denied a certificate in the UK Sergio Martino's Giallo "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" is stylish, violent and sexy in equal measure, even in this dubbed version. It's the type of film that does exactly what it says on the tin and fans of the genre certainly won't be disappointed. Personally, I've never really seen the attraction of badly dubbed sexploitation pictures in which beautiful women get hacked to death in gloating close-up while either a discordantly jangly or quasi-religious score throbes away in the background.

Here a serial slasher is terrorising women in Vienna and terrorised ambassador's wife Julie Wardh, (the gorgeous Edwige Fenech), suspects it's her ex-lover Jean. Of course, Mrs Wardh has a strange vice in that she enjoys kinky, rough sex and what Giallo would be complete without a dollop or three of kinky, rough sex and several more dollops of explicit female nudity not to mention a whole barrel load of red-herrings. Just the kind of thing that might have played in the cinemas of Soho (or Derry's Palace Picturehouse), back in the day and very enjoyable it is too.