** 1\2 (out of ****)
Blood has a strange effect on her we are told. "It both excites and repels her at the same time."
It is a line said approximately one hour and twenty minutes into this one hour and forty minute movie. Depending upon your level of enjoyment, you may miss the line or not think anything of it. It is however a key line into understanding this piece of giallo cinema, "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" (1971)
Italian director Sergio Martino has given us an entire movie built around sex and violence and their (seemingly) correlating nature - "it both excites and repels us at the same time."
It has been noted for decades the blend between sex and violence in horror movies. Some believe these movies are cautionary tales about premarital sex as it is usually the sexually active, attractive female characters that seem to always meet the blade. It can be a disturbing topic but is worthy of a discussion. In American cinema we saw this on the rise in the 1980s - movies focused on teenagers being chased by serial killers. When reviewing "Slumber Party Massacre" (1980) I noted this seems to have been an unfortunately distinct American trait. In prior years, yes females were often the victim of the killer but they were adults. This can be attributed to the Hollywood Production Code which would have prevented such violence against children to be shown on-screen.
The difference is while those American slasher movies of the 80s featured gratuitous nude scenes of the female characters, "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" is a piece of erotic -ish cinema. It kind of, sort of, can be compared to 1970s soft core pornography (according to my friend that is. I of course have no knowledge of such things. This is a respectable blog!).
The woman we are talking about of course is Mrs. Wardh, referred to as Julie (Edwige Fenech). She was involved with a man named Jean (Ivan Rassimov), who either introduced Julie to this fetish of mixing blood and sex or was introduced to it by Julie and merely played along (I couldn't figure this part out). Julie is now married to a diplomat, Neil (Alberto de Mendoza) and when they return home to Vienna, Julie begins receiving flowers from Jean with notes suggesting the two are meant for each other.
As Julie deals with this marital dilemma a serial killer is on the loose killing prostitutes. In fact in the very first scene of the movie, we see a man in a car driving down a side alley where rows of prostitutes are waiting to be picked up. After the man selects one of them they find a secluded spot. The woman takes off her shirt, exposing her breasts and is slashed with a razor. Our immediate introduction to the movie's theme of titillating us and then introducing violence. At a certain point I assume we meant to ask, which is turning us on in the first place?
Eroticism and violence is also perfectly illustrated in the movie's poster. Julie lies down in lingerie, exposing cleavage, while in the back ground, slightly above her is the image of a killer attacking a woman. We can interpret this as the woman fantasizing about violence. Hence why it is important the image be slightly above Julie's head. Kind of like a thought bubble. Either way we are confronted with the movie's theme on the poster.
The lingering question in "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" becomes who is the killer? Could it be Jean? Julie begins to suspect him after she receives a phone call blackmailing her. The caller states he saw Julie with another man engaging in sex acts he is sure would shock her husband.
When American audiences hear the term "giallo" something very distinct may pop into their heads. Most likely they are thinking of gory movies directed by Dario Argento - considered the master of the genre. Outside of a few instances here and there Argento's movies weren't of a sexual nature. As such this may lead some to consider "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" as a poor example of the genre. Giallo movies did however often have themes dealing with sexuality. I wouldn't compare this movie to Argento's but would instead suggest comparisons to the work of another master of the genre, Mario Bava and "Blood and Black Lace" (1964), where models are being killed this time. It's a highly influential movie in the slasher genre. Stylistically these two movies are different. I don't recall Bava's movie being erotic but narratively they are similar and similar in their display of violence, which compared to today's standards, these movies are rather tame.
This may be the first time I have discussed Edwige Fenech. Some have given her the nickname "the queen of giallo". She most likely won't be known to American audiences but she had quite the career appearing in these Italian erotic movies with titles like - "Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer" (1977), "The Schoolteacher Goes to Boys' High" (1978) and "Confessions of a Lady Cop" (1978). Most of these movies have not been distributed in America though audiences can see her in another giallo movie, "The Case of the Bloody Iris" (1972). It doesn't take much effort but director Martino emphasizes Fenech's beauty and exceptional figure, making it a main focal point of the movie.
And I guess that explains my dissatisfaction with the movie. Martino is introducing this theme to us but doesn't have much to say about it. He pushes sex and naked women on us but doesn't make a full blown erotic movie in the tradition of Tinto Brass, best known for "Caligula" (1979) but watch something like "La Chiave" (The Key, 1983) with the equally beautiful Stefania Sandrelli. "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" is like a tease. It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that and in the end I find I still have a craving. It feels like the sex is compensating for an otherwise weak story.
It also feels like too much is being tacked onto the ending to attempt to provide some explanation to the events we have seen. Martino wants to channel Hitchcock - I won't reveal from which movie because that would give it all away - but it feels rushed and opens up too many additional questions. Causing it to be a disappointing mystery story as well.
In the end what are we left with? "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" is somewhat erotic, featuring female nudity and shows off Edwige Fenech's beauty. It has some death scenes which aren't very suspenseful and most certainly not scary. It has what I felt was a disappointing, rushed ending - cheating audiences out of the opportunity to guess what is happening for themselves. Am I missing something? If we took all of the eroticism out of this movie and left everything else, would it be a highly enjoyable movie or a ho-hum middle of the road Italian mystery story? It's the not so strange case of believing sex sells and nothing else matters.
Posts
