The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh [1971]

"The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" is an early entry into the giallo cycle of the 1970s, and the film feels more fully-realized and fresh than later films of its genre. Some nice plot elements work alongside elegant cinematography and a very fine soundtrack to save the film from middling acting and a dangerously dry middle stretch of the storyline.

Eurotrash eyecandy Edwige Fenech plays Julie Wardh, the wife of an international businessman (the DVD box implies he's an ambassador, but dialogue suggests he's an investment banker of some flavor) with a torrid BDSM affair in her past and a wandering eye for handsome young men. Julie and her husband have moved to Vienna, where a leather-clad, razor-weilding maniac is killing young women. Julie fears that her sadistic former lover, Jean, may be responsible for these killings and spends the course of the film trying to avoid him and prove to investigators that she knows the truth.

The film feels glamourous and sexy from the first moments, establishing the Wardhs as a jet-setting , wealthy couple by opening the plot in an airport. From the airport, it's on to the Wardhs' ultra-chic Pop Art flat in Vienna. There is a parade of amazing outfits throughout the film, with sequins, pleating, fringe, bohemian print dresses, platform shoes and other early-70s fashion staples figuring prominently on the screen. The style of the cinematography, which makes excellent use of dramatic shot framing (one pivotal scene is shown as reflected in a character's mirrored sunglasses) and forced-perspective lenses of various types, underscores the very modern and stylish atmosphere of the film. Dramatic lighting is used throughout, including effective flashback and dream sequences which are shot against an entirely black ground.

In addition to the very strong mise en scene, another of the elements that marks "Strange Vice" as a noteworthy example of the genre is the simmering, consensual eroticism underlying the flashback BDSM scenes between Julie and Jean. Other reviewers have characterized Jean (played by Ivan Rassimov) as a terrorizing brute, but it's fairly clear that Julie's response to his violent actions towards her are not one-dimensional displeasure. The sweeping, romantic musical theme that is used throughout the film doesn't convey terror, but rather an almost-overwhelming sensuousness. By the time the action of the plot is taking place, Julie has developed a fear of Jean, but there is an aspect of ambiguity as to how much of this fear may be directed towards her own wish to sublimate her masochistic sexual urges.

The film is not without its problems, however. George Hilton, as George, Julie's lover, is... to be kind.. rather wooden. Fenech shines only when she's in a scene with Rassimov, and Alberto de Mendoza plays Neil Wardh as a non-entity. Also, the middle of the film starts to feel predictable, with the vast majority of fine moments front- and back-loaded in the film's structure. Razor-killer kills again, Julie gets scared again, Julie feels somewhat wistful again, there's a replaying of the same flashback... and then just as one is on the verge of losing interest (and, perhaps, hope), everything picks up again and wraps up with a very fine ending. I'm fond of this sort of "limited-cast" giallo, and it's nice not to be left wanting to hurl a shoe at the screen after another "The Priest Did It" fuckery of a conclusion.

Semi-related: In today's WTF'ery, there is an Edwige Fenech perfume. I'll leave that to you, internet, sans-comment.