The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh
Dir. Sergio Martino
The arrival in Vienna of international diplomat Neil Wardh and his wife Julie, coincides with a spate of vicious murders. In her husband’s increasing absence, Julie finds herself the (mainly) unwilling recipient of attention from her sadomasochistic ex, Jean and her latest suitor, George. As the killer continues to wreck havoc, and Julie's affair with George becomes more torrid, it becomes apparent that the victims are all connected to her and she begins to suspect each of the three men in her life of being the sadistic maniac… Can she work out who it is before it’s too late?
During the early seventies, just after Dario Argento’s dazzling The Bird with the Crystal Plumage sparked a trailblazing trend, director Sergio Martino made several giallo films back to back which would come to represent several of the genre’s most evocative and archetypal entries. Giallo (plural: gialli) is Italian for ‘yellow’ and the name originates from the trademark yellow covers of pulp crime-thriller paperbacks that were extremely popular in Italy. Their cinematic equivalents featured titillating scenes of sex and violence in a blinding amalgamation of exploitation grit and art-house chic. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh was Martino’s first foray into the dizzily stylish genre and despite the fact that the director is criminally underrated - due in part to the fact that he dabbled in so many different genres, including westerns, sci-fi and comedies – the film stands as one of the finest, most exemplary giallo films.
The title itself is a riff on the 1946 noir tragedy The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, a film with an equally complex plot filled with dark secrets resurfacing from the past. The various locations which provide the chic backdrop for the story – Vienna and Spain - lend the film a distinctly international flavour and jet-set feel. Bucking the trend of setting and filming gialli in Italy, Martino imbues his already ravishing film with an exotic and heady atmosphere, particularly when events move to Spain. Memories of Mario Bava’s groundbreaking The Girl Who Knew Too Much are also evoked from the get-go with the introduction of the Julie Wardh (Edwige Fenech), looking positively resplendent and in charge, descending an airport escalator.
Martino and cinematographers Emilio Foriscot and Floriano Trenker have created an alluring looking film peppered with strikingly framed and seductive shots – most notably the dream sequences and flashbacks revealing the protagonist's titular vice - she is equally repelled and aroused by the sight of blood. Julie and her former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov - Torso) are shown in darkness, locked in an unsettling tryst as he slaps her and showers her in broken glass. Filmed in slow-motion, these moments fuse the film with an intoxicating malaise, as does Nora Orlandi’s sensual and eerie score. Other flashbacks feature the two in another slow-motion tryst in torrential rain in a wood.
The film’s central mystery eventually builds to a twist, which when revealed, is genuinely surprising and should prompt viewers to rethink certain events previously played out. It pays homage to a particular Hitchcock thriller. Various set pieces dominate proceedings, such as Carol’s murder in the park during a rose-tinted sunset – which echoes a similar scene in the Jacques Tourneur directed/Val Lewton produced The Leopard Man, and would be revisited in Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet. While compelling POV shots and sharp editing effectively enhance proceedings, Martino’s pacing is quite uneven. When he isn’t creating weirdly beautiful, unnerving flashbacks, or staging carefully orchestrated scenes of tension, the story saunters along at an often too leisurely pace, occasionally veering into dialogue-heavy scenes that weigh down the thrust of the narrative. As the story progresses however, he cranks the tension until the fizzling, suspense-ridden denouement with its plethora of revelations, perverse twists and ingenious use of an ice-cube and the sound of a heartbeat.
Martino’s gialli are shining examples of the genre that remain as entertaining, imperative and stylish as they ever were. As well as the dazzling array of style, intriguing mystery and suspense, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh also benefits from the irresistible triptych of Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov and George Hilton together for the first time. The three would become synonymous with the genre and go on to star together again in several other titles, including Martino’s second excursion into the genre, the beautifully titled All the Colours of the Dark.
- English audio and optional Italian with English subtitles.
- All-new 20 minute interview with director Sergio Martino titled Thrills, Chills and Cleavage*.
- Introduction by director Sergio Martino.
- Shameless Fact Track by Justin Harries.
- Theatrical trailer plus complete Shameless Trailer Park.
- Edwige Fenech bio presentation.
*The title of this interview was taken from an article I wrote about Martino. The article can be read here. Aside from a couple of minor typos in the subtitles, this unfussy special feature is top drawer stuff. It sheds much welcome light on the work of Martino - a really under-appreciated genre director. Insightful, probing and jam-packed with juicy information, titbits and exclusive anecdotes, the interview showcases a razor-sharp and candid Martino, interspersed with clips and stills from his work – particularly his luminous gialli.
