THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (Sergio Martino - Italy/Spain 1970).
A bit of an essential Giallo entry, Martino's first thriller, although I personally prefer his fourth giallo YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY (1972), also starring Edwige Fenech, which has the pleasant setting of a country-estate and is even more lurid, over-the-top and slightly less predictable than this one.
This was Fenech's first starring role for producer (and lover) Luciano Martino and the rest of the cast soon became Martino-regulars, playing very similar roles in his later films: Edwige Fenech as calculating victim, George Hilton as the ever-conniving smoothie and evil-looking Ivan Rassimov as the malicious outsider who would become one of the regular bad guys in Italian genre cinema. Fenech plays the kind of character here that would become her trademark, a sexually liberated, glamorous and utterly shallow fashionista. She plays Julie Wardh, the restless wife of an official at the American embassy in Vienna and an investment broker (either one of these, or both, quite an unusual combination of professions!) who is disturbed by reports about a sex killer. She is convinced she is being stalked by Jean (Rassimov), a sadistic ex-lover, and, worse still, suspects that he may the killer. We also learn, through numerous flashbacks, that they had quite a kinky and sadomasochistic relationship. In the meantime a killer, a blonde woman is slashed to death while taking a shower. This doesn't stop Julie from a little fawning with George (a suave George Hilton), the cousin of her attractive friend Carol. Unsurprisingly, she's the next target of the razor-killer who terrorizes her in an underground car park and even all the way into Spain, where she thought she was save.
Many of Martino's films feel a bit over-polished to me. I recently watched a whole bunch of his films, including his crime thriller THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (1973) as well as Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972), which easily is superior to this one, but very raw, even somewhat shabby and unpolished in comparison with Martino's carefully stylized productions. Certainly a handsome production with substantial doses of sexual perversion and misogynistic violence and enough twists and turns to make for an entertaining thriller. And one has to give it to him, Martino has a real knack in framing some impressive shots, such as the glass-breaking scene in one of Fenech's flashbacks. The plot is fairly straight-forward, not needlessly over-complicated and by giallo-standards, the number of oddball characters and bizarre suspects is limited, but the ending is incredibly far-fetched and even hints at the super-natural. Where did that suddenly came from, Gastaldi? Logic and common sense is best left home when watching this one, but - unless you're on medication - you're probably gonna need a couple of drinks to fully appreciate this pleasantly lurid masochistic puzzle.
Camera Obscura --- 7/10
