The beautiful Edwige Fenech stars as a diplomat’s wife who used to have a kinky relationship with the skeevy Ivan Rassimov. While her husband is off doing diplomatic shit, she begins seeing a dashing playboy played by George Hilton. Meanwhile, there’s a sex fiend running around slashing up women with a straight razor. Chances are he’s probably one of the three men in Edwige’s life. To make matters worse, the killer begins blackmailing Edwige, which could potentially ruin her husband’s good name.
Edwige is one of the undisputed queens of sexy cinema. If you enjoy her work, then you should definitely check out The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh as she delivers one of her best performances. Fenech has many fine moments along the way. Whether she’s getting rammed in the rain, banging on a bed of broken glass, or being boned in a boat, she has several high-quality nude and sex scenes.
Directed by Sergio Martino, who also collaborated with Edwige on Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (there’s a scene where Fenech receives some flowers from an anonymous sender and the inscription on the card has that film’s title, which I guess makes for a loose duology), The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh is a top-notch giallo with plenty of touches to please fans of the genre. In addition to delivering several solid murder sequences, Martino also gives us an excellent cat and mouse suspense scene set in a parking garage that has at least one dynamite jump scare. The ending is genuinely surprising too, which is a lot more than I can say for these kinds of things. Couple Martino’s slick, effective direction with the fetching performance by Fenech and you have yourself a real winner.
AKA: Don’t Be Afraid, Julie. AKA: Next! AKA: The Next Victim. AKA: Blade of the Ripper.
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