Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Like Love, Only More So: The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971)

And man, what a vice. Sultry euro-starlet Edwige Fenech (All the Colors of the Dark, The Case of the Bloody Iris, Your Vice Is a Closed Room and Only I Have the Key) stars as a businessman’s wife who accompanies her boring husband to Vienna so that he can conduct his dreary financial affairs with other boring businessmen. So what’s a luscious, vivacious sexpot to do? Why, conduct an affair of her own, of course. Unfortunately, Mrs. Wardh has a suppressed hunger for violent sex—hence the title--and the volatile men who can give it to her. And one of her ex-paramours still carries a flame for her. Too bad he may also be a psychopathic killer. This stylish, ruthless, and seductively enticing psychological thriller is pure entertainment for fans of the Italian giallo genre. Director Sergio Martino (All the Colors of the Dark, Violent Professionals, Torso) keeps the pace moving, the murders plentiful, and the convoluted plot twists and red herrings overflowing in psychedelic splendor. The film also stars George Hilton (who made several films with Fenech) as a sleazy lothario bent on troubling Fenech’s waters. In other words, it’s a certified classic of the genre.

More Fenech and gialli to come . . . .

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh is available on DVD from NoShame Films.

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