Back in May of 2005, NoShame Films released THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, a classic giallo from Italian director Sergio Martino. Since NoShame has fallen away, Mya Communications picked up where they left off. Now re-releasing the film under a different US title BLADE OF THE RIPPER, which offers a different connotation to what the film might be about.

A sex killer slices up a woman near the airport boundaries, just as Julie Wardh (Edwin Fenech) and her husband Neil, an ambassador land in Vienna. When he is whisked away for work, she makes it back to her place. Once there, halfway in the shower, the door knocks which a bell boy delivers flowers with a note attached from Jean (Ivan Rassimov). We discover he is her sexually violent former lover. Later, at a party with her friend Carol, (she introduces her handsome cousin George (George Hilton), who aggressively flirts with her, eventually to win her over after some motorcycling through the hills of Vienna. She is charmed and re-assesses his personality and starts to fall for him.

Meanwhile, more killings are occurring and Julie slowly believes it is Jean. But not before she gets a phone call blackmailing her love her affair with George by threatening to tell her husband unless she antes up 20,000 shillings. When Carol decides to make the money exchange for Julie, she ends up being the next victim. This sets Julie more and more towards paranoia as she believes the killer is out for her, or more specifically, Jean is out to kill her. But when she is attacked in a dark parking garage, narrowly escaping, her husband is there to help her out by going to Jeans house to put an end to this. There, they discover Jean dead in the bathtub.

Julie, wrapped in another terrible nightmare, tomented by her relationship with Jean and cannot bear it anymore. When her husband finds a security camera photo of the slasher, he takes it to the police. In that time, she runs to George one last time asking him to take her away. They go off to Spain where the real mystery begins to unravel itself.

BLADE IN THE DARK is one of director Sergio Martino's earlier efforts and comes off like a fairly established filmmaker. It shows no real presence of amateurish work, nor is any of the film wasted or, at least, a sense of filler used, but paced exactingly, even if it does not always add up to an air tight logical conclusion. But that is more at the hands of the script than the direction. There are a few moments of fanciful atmosphere such as the two girls at Carol's party who are suddenly tearing their paper dresses apart only to be nude in a matter of seconds, but that is par for the course. All the acting is played to the utmost believability and sincerity of the characters. Fenech looks as gorgeous as ever and is taken full advantage of her beauty. Equally, her characer is not wasted, but rather she plays a strong female role capable of being intelligent and sexy without being obvious or even caricatured like so many modern films are wont to a hardened feminist.

The plot as a whole is engaging, despite it being a little on the shallow side. The characters have little depth to them, and even when they want to get some psychoanalysis in there, its far too late for it to have relevance because we don't know anyone's motivation. In fact, the motivation of these characters are non-existent giving off an icy temperment to their relationships. Even the romance between George and Julie has the passion of paranoia with the lights turned on. But this is not necessarily a deterrent as Martinez assembles a great looking film and keeps things moving. The nightmare sequences that Julie has frequently are sometimes cliched by today's standards, but I really found the scene, where Jean smashes a bottle in slow motion while all the pieces shatter around her, almost like she was being showered with diamonds, to be an outstanding piece of visual artistry. There was a sense of reverence to her beauty, yet at the same time threatening, where Jean pointing the broken bottle at her to cut her up in some sexually violent manner. A bizarre sense of familiarity within the fear.

In all, BLADE OF THE RIPPER is compelling fun and riveting enough to keep you watching and lots of guessing. This release by Mya Communications, according to 10Kbullets.com, states the transfer is the same as the previous NoShame release of THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (a classier and more original title if you ask me). They also state its in its proper 2.35:1 ratio aspect, however, on my TV during the opening credit sequences, the names were considerably cut off on the edges. They write:

Blade of the Ripper is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that retains the film’s original aspect ratio. Blade of the Ripper was original released in North American on DVD by No Shame Films in 2005 under the title The Strange vice of Mrs. Wardh. Even though the film has been given an alternate title, this transfer looks very similar to the transfer for the No Shame DVD release. It should be noted that the listed running time of eight[y] one minutes on DVD back cover is incorrect. Both releases clock in at ninety six minutes and 24 seconds. This release like the No Shame DVD release is interlaced and has not been flagged for progressive playback. The No Shame DVD release was a dual layer, while this release is a single layer presentation.

  If giallo is your genre, and you missed on the NoShame release, then this is definately a must to fill your collection. Unfortunately, however, completists will still want the NoShame release, if not for title alone, certainly the extras that are on there, as the Mya Communications release comes only with a trailer and a photo gallery. There is two audio options, one for English dubbed and Italian soundtrack with English subtitles. This title was released February 9, 2010. Runtime is 96 minutes (as noted, erroneously packaged as 81 minutes).