The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Lo Stranzo Vizio Delloa Signora Wardh) (1971)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Martino

Starring: Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, Conchita Airoldi, Manuel Gil

From: Companies in Italy and Spain

An even bigger oversight than me not seeing much of any giallo films the past 2 or 3 years is that there have only been a select few movies from Edwige Fenech that have ever been tackled. I was happy to fix this mistake last night by checking out this Sergio Martino film.

The film started off hot: as the groovy score from Nora Orlandi-yes, a rare female composer, by far her most famous credit-is heard, a random woman is killed in a stylish fashion via straight razor wielded by a mysterious black-gloved killer. Fenech was a diplomat’s wife in Vienna, Austria who is unhappily married and has to deal with her S&M ex-lover Jean as that killer roams the street. Is Jean the maniac? She receives flowers and notes from someone calling themselves Jean… one note included a version of the phrase “Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key,” of course soon to become a film from Martino starring Fenech.

Vice also has plenty of sleaze: blackmail, an onslaught of nude women, women being beat up, etc. However, that’s to be expected with giallo. This was quite the engrossing tale, well-shot and not horribly convoluted like some genre examples are. It was nice seeing other Italian favorites like George Hilton (as dangerously seductive as ever) and Ivan Rassimov; they and the ravishing Fenech all played memorable characters-so did Conchita Airoldi as the titular character’s flighty friend. 

The backdrop of Vienna (then Spain) are further assets to making this Martino picture a must for genre fans. They are nice scenery as Fenech slowly lost her mind due to this torment. Don’t be a fool like me and wait to see Wardh if you even have a smidge of an interest due to plot description.