- Year
- 1971
- Country
- Spain · Italy
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Director
- Sergio Martino
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (35/100)
- Also known as
- Next! · The Next Victim! · Blade of the Ripper · The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
The Martino/Fenech formula, arriving fully formed. Cut and retitled Blade of the Ripper in the US.
The Martino and Fenech formula arriving fully formed. A diplomat's wife with a taste for dangerous men is stalked through Vienna by a black-gloved killer, and the film weaves her masochism into the mystery until the two are hard to separate.
It is glossy, nasty and expertly paced, with the flashback-heavy structure the cycle loved. Fenech carries it, and Nora Orlandi's score got a second life when Tarantino used it in Kill Bill. Cut and retitled Blade of the Ripper in the US.
A definitive example of the early-70s giallo at its most stylish.
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Written about
- The giallo, 1963 to 1976
A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.
Filed alongside
▶ watchcultDeath Walks at Midnight
Ercoli's brighter, faster Death Walks. Nieves Navarro sees a murder and nobody buys it.
▶ watchcultThe Perfume of the Lady in Black
Barely a murder mystery. A slow psychological collapse, and superb.
▶ watchcultDeath Walks on High Heels
Ercoli's best. Structurally cleverer than most of the cycle.
▶ watchcultShort Night of Glass Dolls
Narrated by a paralysed man presumed dead. Unusual and very good.
cultThe Case of the Scorpion's Tail
Martino at his most efficient. Nobody wastes a frame.
▶ watchcultThe College Girl Murders
The point where the black-and-white krimi tips over into full-colour giallo delirium.