STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH opens with a hooker getting slashed up in a car, followed by a Poe quote about "...generations of assassins for whom the love of murder was in the blood, as it perhaps is ours too." French beauty Edwige Fenech stars as Julie Wardh, a married woman living in Vienna with her older, continually busy stockbroker husband Neil (Alberto De Mendoza) and hiding secrets from her past. The main issue haunting her is her former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov), who we learn in flashbacks is one sadistic SOB, beating Julie up, cutting her and forcing her to make love with broken glass in between them. Well, Jean has resurfaced in town and is starting to make his presence known. Julie's best friend Carroll (Cristina Airoldi) hosts a party, and there Julie meets Carroll's handsome, cocky cousin George Corot (George Hilton) and learns that both he and Carroll are sole heirs to a fortune left behind by their deceased uncle. Finding herself drawn to the dangerous Jean once again, Julie (bored and feeling neglected in her marriage) instead decides on an affair with George. And yeah, there's the razor-wielding, black-gloved sex killer running amuck in the city whose choice in victims strangely finds no class distinction (aside from the fact the victims are usually women who are usually naked).
Julie begins to think the culprit is someone she knows when she starts receiving threatening phone calls from someone disguising their voice and bouquets of roses with strange notes attached ("...your vice is a room locked from the inside and only I have the key.") Someone is also blackmailing her; 20 thousand schillings or they're going to tell her husband about the affair. Unwisely, Carroll decides to step in and help. She agrees to meet the blackmailer (all alone!) in a huge, almost vacant park/aviary and is slashed to death. Then Julie is attacked and almost killed in a parking garage (a good suspense scene), so she takes up George's offer to flee Vienna for a small coastal town in Spain before she becomes the next victim... but the killer follows the two there. Making things even more complicated, the two find Jean's dead body in a bathtub full of blood and learn that the serial killer stalking Vienna was simply an anonymous, unknown sick-o... So needless to say, there are several plot surprises coming during the last ten minutes or so.
Overall, a fairly well-made giallo worth watching, with a decent script, decent acting and pretty stylish presentation from director Sergio Martino, who'd go on to make around a half-dozen other similar films. However, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it drags at times. There's actually more female nudity than gore (including a pointless bit where two girls in "paper dresses" rip each other's clothes off during a catfight) and the majority of the main characters are nasty, unlikable and self-absorbed, so it's tough to find someone decent to gravitate to. That aspect is at least partially offset by the occasionally astonishing location work (briefly used coastal locations in Spain and, especially, the Schonbrunn Park/Aviary), some good set-pieces and a few jolts or suspenseful moments... Plus some of the ugliest 1970s wallpaper known to man.
Originally released in the US as BLADE OF THE RIPPER; it was badly received by both critics and horror fans once this hacked-up, dark and badly transferred version was on home video. Another title using the censored, flat-looking print was THE NEXT VICTIM. So avoid any of those versions and head straight for the 2005 DVD release from No Shame. It looks great and has some very good extras, including the interesting 30-minute documentary DARK FEARS BEHIND THE DOOR, which features interviews with the director, producer Luciano Martino, scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and stars Hilton and Fenech, the latter looking amazingly identical to the young actress who starred in this film 35 years ago. Apparently there's something in the water in Europe because many of these starlets who were popular in the 1970s don't look like they've aged a day. Other extras include the theatrical trailer, a poster/stills gallery and a 3-minute speech from the director when his movie played here just recently at the Venice Film Festival. You can also chose between an English dubbed version or an Italian language one with English subtitles.
Julie begins to think the culprit is someone she knows when she starts receiving threatening phone calls from someone disguising their voice and bouquets of roses with strange notes attached ("...your vice is a room locked from the inside and only I have the key.") Someone is also blackmailing her; 20 thousand schillings or they're going to tell her husband about the affair. Unwisely, Carroll decides to step in and help. She agrees to meet the blackmailer (all alone!) in a huge, almost vacant park/aviary and is slashed to death. Then Julie is attacked and almost killed in a parking garage (a good suspense scene), so she takes up George's offer to flee Vienna for a small coastal town in Spain before she becomes the next victim... but the killer follows the two there. Making things even more complicated, the two find Jean's dead body in a bathtub full of blood and learn that the serial killer stalking Vienna was simply an anonymous, unknown sick-o... So needless to say, there are several plot surprises coming during the last ten minutes or so.
Overall, a fairly well-made giallo worth watching, with a decent script, decent acting and pretty stylish presentation from director Sergio Martino, who'd go on to make around a half-dozen other similar films. However, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it drags at times. There's actually more female nudity than gore (including a pointless bit where two girls in "paper dresses" rip each other's clothes off during a catfight) and the majority of the main characters are nasty, unlikable and self-absorbed, so it's tough to find someone decent to gravitate to. That aspect is at least partially offset by the occasionally astonishing location work (briefly used coastal locations in Spain and, especially, the Schonbrunn Park/Aviary), some good set-pieces and a few jolts or suspenseful moments... Plus some of the ugliest 1970s wallpaper known to man.
Originally released in the US as BLADE OF THE RIPPER; it was badly received by both critics and horror fans once this hacked-up, dark and badly transferred version was on home video. Another title using the censored, flat-looking print was THE NEXT VICTIM. So avoid any of those versions and head straight for the 2005 DVD release from No Shame. It looks great and has some very good extras, including the interesting 30-minute documentary DARK FEARS BEHIND THE DOOR, which features interviews with the director, producer Luciano Martino, scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and stars Hilton and Fenech, the latter looking amazingly identical to the young actress who starred in this film 35 years ago. Apparently there's something in the water in Europe because many of these starlets who were popular in the 1970s don't look like they've aged a day. Other extras include the theatrical trailer, a poster/stills gallery and a 3-minute speech from the director when his movie played here just recently at the Venice Film Festival. You can also chose between an English dubbed version or an Italian language one with English subtitles.