THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971)

2-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes
Audio: English & Italian DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD WIdescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Sergio Martino
Cast: Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov, George Hilton, Conchita Airoldi

The titular Mrs. Wardh (Edwige Fenech, Strip Nude for Your Killer) is the gorgeous and affection-starved wife of an Austrian ambassador, and she's left on her own more often then a woman that dang sexy should be. She's a total sexpot with the mesmerizing eyes, the type actress Edwige Fenech played often, and here she is again in Sergio Martino's stylish whodunit The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971).

That there's a razor-wielding serial killer mutilating women is yet another reason not to leave her alone, plus her sadistic former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov, Planet of the Vampires) is after her, and on top of that she's even found time to have a fling with her friend Carol's handsome cousin George (George Hilton, The Case of the Bloody Iris). This is just the sort of stuff that happens when a gorgeous woman is left alone in an Italian film from the 70s. When her fling with George is discovered she is blackmailed by a stranger who sends her flowers with cryptic cards, and this blackmailer might just be the serial killer that's been stalking the area. When she confides all of this to her sexy gal pal Carol (Conchita Airoldi, Torso) her friend offers to meet the blackmailer in a public park on her behalf. As you might expect the meet-up does not go well for Carol, as she ends up slashed to death with a razor for her ill-advised kindness. Her death death is fantastically set-up and executed, making this murder a slice of giallo stalk and slash at it's finest.

Another memorable shot features a violent sex scene during a torrential downpour which elevates the eroticism to high art, watching this again it's hard to believe this was Sergio Martino's first giallo film. It's an well-crafted and suspenseful watch with the added bonus of European beauties Edwige Fenech and Conchita Airoldi, who both have a magnetic sexuality that oozes right off the screen. As with many of my favorite gialli, nudity is not a scarce commodity, it's literally in the opening shots with a flash of tits, there's nude women writhing on he floor at an orgy at one point, multiple shower scenes, and various depictions of Mrs. Wardh's sexual couplings, it's got plenty of it.

All of the cast is great, there's not a bad egg among them, Edwige is not only easy on the eyes but also a sympathetic victim, plus George Hilton as her latest playboy lover is quite an affable guy, nevermore that both are cheaters. Then of course we have Ivan Rassimov as the kinky ex, he's quite menacing in the sexually sadistic role, again perfectly cast with his angular face and wicked grin.

The script from legendary screenwriter  Ernesto Gastaldi (Torso) offers plenty of twists and turns as the thriller unfolds, with a shocker finale you won't even see sneaking up on you, with a bizarre double-edged twist that is rather silly and implausible, but all that's sort of par for the course with these gialli films. This is a stylish whodunit laced with pulse-pounding eroticism, sexualized violence and some dizzying cinematography. I still prefer Sergio Martino's Torso to this but this is still a top-ten giallo for me.

Audio/Video: The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. It's advertised as being sourced from a 4K scan from the internegative, and it's a definite improvement over the Mya DVD I have. The grain looks solid and skin tones appear warm and natural looking, with deep blacks, but what looks to be compression obscures some of the detail in the darker scenes, dampening clarity and depth.

Audio on the disc comes by way of Italian and English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The score from Nora Orlandi (The Sweet Body of Deborah) is haunting with some nice jazzy psychedelic touches throughout, it's still one of my favorite giallo soundtracks. It turns out that Quentin Tarantino was quite a fan and even re-used some of it in Kill Bill Vol.2 (2004). Fans will be jazzed that Severin have included the 31-track CD soundtrack, licensed from Beat Records, as a bonus on this release. 

Extras begin with a brief introduction from actor George Hilton, and a 24-min archival interview with Edwige Fenech. We also get new stuff by way of a 22-min interview with Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, a 43-minute interview with Director Sergio Martino, and a 19-min interview with Actor George Hilton and Italian historian Antonio Bruschini, plus a 3-min trailer for the film. All the interviews are in Italian with English subtitles. There's also a fantastic commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of ‘All The Colors Of Sergio Martino’.
  

The 2-disc Blu-ray/CD arrives in a spiffy black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork,the Blu-ray disc featuring an excerpt of the key artwork, and the CD soundtrack containing a different illustration of Edwige Fenench. Inside there is a card with a tracklisting for the CD soundtrack. 

Special Features:
- Of Vice and Virtue: Interview with Director Sergio Martino (43 min) 
- Cold As Ice: Interview with Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (22 min) 
- Vienna Vice: Interview with Actor George Hilton and Italian Genre Historian Antonio Bruschini (19 min) 
- Archive Interview with Actress Edwige Fenech (24 min) 
- Introduction by Actor George Hilton (1 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of ‘All The Colors Of Sergio Martino’
- Trailer (3 min) 
- CD Soundtrack (Limited to 3000 Units)
- The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh Comic Book [Webstore Exclusive]

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971) is a stylish and hypnotic black-gloved whodunit with some unexpected twists and turns that make for a memorable watch. The Blu-ray from Severin struggles a bit technically with compression but they won me over with the lengthy in-depth extras and CD soundtrack. 

More screenshots from the Blu-ray:

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1972) (Severin Blu-ray Review)

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1972) 

Label: Severin Films
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Region Code:  All
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English & Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Sergio Martino
Cast: George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov

Sergio Martino's stylish and surreal giallo-shocker All The Colors of the Dark (1972) opens with a wild nightmare sequence that wouldn't seem out of place in a Fellini film, with zooming and kaleidoscopic images of a drag queen queen and a nude pregnant woman on an examination table. This  introduces us to the main character of Jane Harrison (giallo royalty Edwige Fenech, Blade of the Ripper), a somewhat hysterical woman who after miscarrying her unborn child has been plagued by recurring nightmares, these visions include the aforementioned surreal stuff plus ultra, blue-eyed killer (Ivan Rassimov, Eaten Alive), whom we are told is the man guilty of murdering her mother years earlier. 

The nightmares have begun affecting her in many ways, not the least of which is her sex life lover Richard (George Hilton, Blade of the Ripper), who suggest some concentrated vitamin pills as a cure for her mental ailments. Meanwhile her sister  Barbara (Nieves Navarro, The Big Gundown) implores her to see her psychiatrist Dr. Burton (George Rigaud, Eyeball), but the psycho-babbler doesn't seem to help all that much either. At her rope's end Jane eventually meets a new friend by way of neighbor Mary Well (Marina Malfatti, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) who after learning of her problems suggests that she attend a black mass, which sure, sounds like a great idea! 

At the black mass she meets the long, blue-fingered cult leader who commands her to drink the blood of a sacrificed dog and join in on a sex orgy, which she does, naturally, it was the 70 after all.  The next day she's not sure if she was at the orgy or if it was all imagined, but either way it does seem to have improved her sex life, but the nightmares become even more pronounced, and she begins to see the blue-eyed killer stalking her on the streets with increased frequency.  As her sanity begins to crumble she loses her ability to distinguish reality from her nightmares, eventually being indoctrinated into the cult after murdering a willing participant, and then things get even weirder. 

All The Colors of the Dark has had a good reputation for years, when I first started sifting my way through the cycle of gialli films after discovering DariO Argento's seminal entries I wasn't all that impressed with it. I thought it dragged, and Fenech was a bit too much of a damsel in distress for my tastes, but it's a film that has grown on me with each viewing. Set in London the film has some Gothic trappings that set it apart from the usual black-gloved whodunit, in fact there is no black gloved killer here,we have a blue-eyed man, which is pretty cool. Also setting it apart are the occult elements, which were not unheard of in the genre, you need look no further than the criminally underrated Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) which arrived a year earlier. Also differentiating it is a more overt supernatural element with the theme of precognition which adds another dimension to the proceedings. 

Edwige Fenech is radiant as ever here, her films with Martino are among my favorites, she's simply a stunning woman, those eyes draw you right in. She's sultry and has a voluptuous body that Euro-cult dreams are made of, it's always a pleasure to see her in the buff and this film doesn't disappoint in that regard. She's a bit more of damsel in distress here than I am used to seeing, calling out for her lover throughout the film, hysterical and paranoid, but that's the character she plays. Hilton is his usual charming self, another regular collaborator with director Sergio Martino, often paired with Fenech in numerous films.

Audio/Video: All The Colors of the Dark (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films with a new 4K scan from the original camera negative, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. Having only previously watched this on the Shriek Show DVD I can say that the image is quite an improvement. Colors looks solid, skin tones look more accurate and natural, the black levels are pleasing and there's more detail visible. 

Audio comes by way of English and Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English subtitles for  both the English and Italian tracks, with some slight but notable differences in translation. The English track is more robust to my ears, both are clean and nicely balanced, the score from Bruno Nicolai (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) is fantastic.

Severin have included a terrific set of extras, beginning with the shorter 88-min U.S. cut of the film with the title 'They're Coming To Get You' presented in standard definition and cropped widescreen at 1.85:1, with lossy audio. It's a cool extra for completest, I wasn't very fond of it myself in it's abbreviated form. 

The film also gets an audio commentary courtesy of Katt Ellinger, author of 'All the Colors of Sergio Martino" and co-host Daughters of Darkness podcast. Ellinger always gives good commentaries, this one is insightful, loaded with info about Martino's filmography, focusing on his career more so than anything screen specific. 

Sergio Martino shows up for a brand new 40-min interview discussing the film, giving lots of credit to screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, describing how he wanted to something more surreal with this giallo as apposed to his others, and how that was not well received in Italy. This interview is in Italian with English subtitles. 

There's also a 32-min interview with actor George Hilton intercut with Italian horror expert Antonio Tentori. Hilton speaks about his early career and becoming a spaghetti western star, while Tentori speaks about the giallo cycle and how this film influences many other, in Italian with English subtitles. 

The last of the interviews is with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi who discusses his career, collaborations with Sergio Martino and his thoughts on this film in particular, in Italian with English subtitles. 

This 2-disc Blu-ray/CD release comes housed in a spiffy looking black Blu-ray keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, which looks to be a slight variation on an original Italian movie posters, the Blu-ray discs features the same key art. The CD soundtrack included features an image of Edwige Fenech from the black mass orgy. Inside the keepcase you will find a glossy index-card sized track listing for original motion picture soundtrack, this being the expanded 29 song soundtrack version. I always prefer a separate CD fr soundtracks as opposed to isolated score, I can't easily rip a Blu-ray score onto my iPod or play it on my stereo, so I appreciate when Severin offers these! 

Special Features:
- They're Coming To Get You- Alternate US cut (88 mins)
- Color My Nightmare- Interview with Director Sergio Martino (40 min) 
- Last of The Mohicans- Interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (18 min) 
- Giallo is the Color- Interviews with actor George Hilton and Italian horror expert Antonio Tentori (32 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, author of All the Colors of Sergio Martino
- Theatrical Trailers (3 min) 
- International Trailer (3 min) 
- They're Coming To Get You TV Spot (1 min) 
- CD Soundtrack (78 min) (29 Tracks) 

Severin have brought us a gorgeous presentation of All The Colors of the Dark (1972) on Blu-ray, a very good giallo that sets itself apart from the standard black-gloved thriller with a delerious, psychedelic cult element that's not only stylish, but offers a pleasing eyeful of giallo-queen Edwige Fenech in all her glory, highly recommended.