Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh aka The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh aka Blade Of The Ripper aka... aka... (Sergio Martino, 1971)
"I don't like your sex habits!"
Set in Vienna, a diplomat's wife Julie Wardh (the divine Edwige Fenech in her early 20s) is slowly losing her precious mind. Why? Because there's a slasher on the loose who is slaughtering women in the classic, violent Gialli style. Julie believes it could be any one of the three (count 'em) men in her life. Could the killer be her husband? Could it be her current lover George (Hilton)? Or COULD it be scary man ex-lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov)? Or COULD IT??
Blade Of The Ripper was cult director Sergio Martino's first Giallo, and as the movie zips along at quite a pace, lovely lady Edwige Fenech unzips at every available opportunity, which is so disconcerting, that I had to rewind several scenes over and over again and watch them all frame-by-frame. But don't think this is just another bloody sleaze-fest, oh no, Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh is actually quite a serious affair. The flashbacks to Julie's bizarre, violent relationship with evil Jean, and the multitude of red herrings (and naked boobies and botties) thrown in for good measure are all very welcome, but it's Edwige Fenech who is the main distraction here. Fenech & Hilton bond very well here, and worked together many times after The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, including another Sergio Martino-directed slasher Tutti I Colori Del Buio (All The Colours of the Dark).
Blade Of The Ripper is an excellent, highly titillating example of a Giallo... Top 20 easily. It's well-scripted, well-directed, smart, bloody, sexy, and has a terrific soundtrack composed by Nora Orlandi. It comes highly recommended. The English subtitles on this Mya DVD release are mental, by the way, whereas the English dub is actually very good (The actors are visibly speaking English).
The best Blu-ray release however, is the German 'FilmArt' edition (With yet ANOTHER title: 'Der Killer Von Wien'). It has great video quality, and very good audio. There are English subtitles for the Italian Audio track, but the subtitles are a bit crappy in terms of spelling and Grammar.
Note for nerds: In the film Edwige gets a note from the killer that reads "Your vice is a locked room... And only I have the key". This line was later to be a title of yet another Fenech/Martino film based on Edgar Allan Poe's the Black Cat.
