The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971)

Let's be realistic.

Fresh and Exciting

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This was the first of director Sergio Martino's five gialli released in the period 1971-73. A quite astonishing series of films by anybody's standards. It's an arguable point but The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh may actually be the best of the five. Whatever the case, there is no question that this is an essential giallo, and one all fans of the genre should see.It's about an ambassador's wife who finds herself in the middle of a series of brutal murders of women. There is no shortage of suspects, while her own kinky past adds a further dimension to the mystery.First and foremost this is a highly stylised film. Martino certainly had an eye for a great shot and was somewhat skilled in constructing memorably beautiful set-pieces. The film consistently looks gorgeous, with the lush and ornate settings used to great effect. Like many a giallo from the time this one is set outside Italy - in this case Vienna and Spain – and the contrasting locations are well integrated. Of course, this is a giallo so the suspense scenes need to be mentioned and this one is well served on this score. There is a beautifully photographed scene in a park at dusk, which clearly was an influence on Dario Argento, seeing as he filmed a very similar sequence for Four Flies on Grey Velvet; also of note is a really tense set-piece in an underground car park where the killer stalks the heroine. The latter is played by the one and only Edwige Fenech, the star of many an excellent giallo, she is once again great here and is very ably supported by a trio of male genre regulars, namely Alberto de Mendoza as her aloof husband, Ivan Rassimov as her sadistic ex-lover and George Hilton as her shifty new squeeze.All of Martino's thrillers were quite sexy but this one has the most pronounced eroticism of them all. With several scenes of abundant nudity and kinky sex. A couple of slow-motion flash-backs of Fenech and Rassimov in particular are very memorable, with lots of stylish eroticism. The music in these scenes helps hugely; in fact, the soundtrack in general by Nora Orlandi is without question one of the best the giallo sub-genre has to offer. That's saying quite a lot considering the quality of scores in most of these films but Orlandi's one is unbelievably haunting and quite mind-blowing to tell you the truth.The plot line is pretty convoluted – what else could you expect? It's another written by giallo specialist Ernesto Gastaldi who seemed to have a natural feel for these things. It holds together well enough though and ends with a pretty surprising final act that has at least one shock moment that impressed me quite a bit. In all honesty the movie as a whole pleased me greatly. It's a prime example of the Italian giallo and shows quite clearly why they will always have cult value. A triumph from Martino.

Sergio Martino's "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" has to be one of the finest gialli of all time - a visually stunning, atmospheric masterpiece that is right up there with genre classics such as Argento's "Deep Red" and Bava's "Blood & Black Lace". It has aged perfectly, unlike many others of it's kind. The film remains very suspenseful, intelligent, creepy and never boring, always keeping the viewer on the edge of the seat, and it often feels like an acid version of a Hitchcock film. Speaking of which, Martino seems to intentionally pay tribute to the Master of Suspense in many of the film's set pieces, the most clear example is the 'murder in the shower' scene. Also, I love the film's dream sequences, which feels like something David Lynch would do. The beautiful soundtrack is also a bonus, and a naked Edwige Fenech doesn't hurt either. Overall, 10/10. Essential viewing for fans of Eurohorror and Italian cinema.

Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The (1971) *** (out of 4) Extremely well made giallo about a woman (Edwige Fenech) who is being stalked by a crazed killer dressed in black. It could be her old lover (Ivan Rassimov), her current husband (Alberto de Mendoza), her current lover (George Hilton) or perhaps the serial killer that is stalking the city. This is one of the better examples that mixes great twists and turns like a Hitchcock movie but also mixes in sex, nudity and graphic violence. Director Martino handles the material very well and delivers quite a bit of suspense, some great style and some very memorable killings including a great sequence where a blonde woman is attacked while taking a shower. The screenplay is very well written and it keeps the mystery throughout the entire film until there's twenty-minutes to go and then it kicks into high gear and delivers several twists and turns that all work perfectly well. Another big plus are the performances, which are all very good. I just now discovering Fenech but she's certainly jumped up among my favorite Euro actresses. She delivers another very strong performance as the sexual wife who slowly begins to crack when she has this killer stalking her. The three male leads are also very good and add great support to Fenech. The movie also features some very good cinematography as well as a great music score and all of this adds up to a highly entertaining film.

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