The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971)

This is another of the Giallos I’ve been watching lately.  Here you have the titular Mrs. Julie Wardh returning home to Vienna from New York City with her wealthy older husband.  They return to a city that is terrorized by a razor-wielding killer that is targeting beautiful women.  If that weren’t enough Julie’s ex-boyfriend, Jean is running around trying to manipulate and control her again.  We find out pretty quickly in an early flashback that he isn’t at all a nice guy.  With her husband too busy to pay attention to her and being scared of Jean, Julie ends up in an affair with another man named George.  Suddenly someone is blackmailing her and worse yet it appears trying to kill her!  Who is it and why? 

Well that is the question isn’t it?  I’m not going to spoil the ending to The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh because I think that this is one worth sitting thru yourself and the ending is the best part.  This is a very solid Giallo with everything thing that a fan would expect.  You have the black gloved killer doing his victims away in gruesome ways, enough naked ladies to make this movie feel a bit sleazy, and a satisfying twist or two at the end.  Really other then for the middle third of the movie being a little slow this is a solid outing from director Sergio Martino.  Though I must be honest and say that there are a few times that the movie makes you take a leap with it and ignore some plot holes.  Without spoiling anything some of the twists are pretty hard to take and are a real stretch.  This might bother some fans new to the genre that is the Giallo movie and for me is why I think this isn’t one of the best, but only a solid effort. 

Speaking of solid the technical bits of the movie are very well done.  Some of the night scenes are a bit too dark for me, but other then that I liked how the movie was shot.  The camera work is interesting as they move the camera around with the audience.  While the kills aren’t terribly graphic they are staged nicely and worked for me.  There is a good amount of the red stuff splashed around early one, though it does slow down after that and ends up pretty bloodless.  I also noticed the music and rather enjoyed how it was used to accent the action on the screen. 

I’ve already kind of said this, but I want to reinforce it.  I’m glad that I took the time to check out The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, as it was one of the Giallos that I hadn’t seen yet.  And while there are things about it I dug, I can’t imagine that I’ll be watching this one again anytime soon.  Again it is a solid movie, but nothing that sticks out to me as memorable.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer