The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
Directed by	Sergio Martino
Produced by	Antonio Crescenzi Luciano Martino
Screenplay by	Vittorio Caronia Ernesto Gastaldi Eduardo Manzanos Brochero
Story by	Eduardo Manzanos Brochero
Starring	George Hilton Edwige Fenech Conchita Airoldi (as Cristina Airoldi) Manuel Gil Carlo Alighiero Ivan Rassimov
Music by	Nora Orlandi
Cinematography	Emilio Foriscot Floriano Trenker
Edited by	Eugenio Alabiso
Production company	Copercines, Cooperativa Cinematográfica Devon Film Laurie International MLR
Distributed by	Gemini-Maron
Release date	15 January 1971
Running time	Italy: 98 min Spain: 92 min USA: 81 min
Country	Italy Spain
Language	Italian English dub
Box office	ESP 15,193,058 (Spain)

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Italian: Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh; released as Blade of the Ripper in the United States) is a 1971 giallo murder mystery film directed by Sergio Martino. It is his first entry in the giallo subgenre. The letter "h" was added to the name "Ward" when an Italian woman named Mrs. Ward threatened legal action over the original title's potentially damaging her good name, just before the film was released. The film was also known as Next! or The Next Victim.

In Vienna, Julie Wardh, a mentally fragile American socialite and heiress to the Wardh's retailing fortune, becomes the victim of a secret conspiracy between her husband, her ex-boyfriend, and her new lover, who plot to kill her and frame it as either the work of a random serial killer who's been stalking the city, or a suicide. Her husband, a financier, hopes to collect the life insurance money to pay off debts. In return for his help in the scheme, Julie's lover has Julie's husband dispatch his cousin so that he can become the sole heir to a fortune that they've inherited jointly, a murder-trading idea borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (film). Julie's eccentric ex-lover, a sadist and struggling photographer who keeps exotic pets, is interested only in the money so he can begin a new life overseas, but he's shot dead in a double cross before he can enjoy his ill-gotten gains. The random serial killer also meets his death when one of his victims fights back, endangering the elaborate scheme. Will Julie succumb to this dastardly betrayal by those closest to her, or will the conspiracy founder?

AllMovie wrote, "Sergio Martino's first entry into Italy's giallo genre delivers everything this style of thriller requires and then some", calling it "a skillful example of how the giallo can be a head-spinning experience in style over substance."