A variation on the oft-told Sweeney Todd story, The Mad Butcher stars Victor Buono as Viennese butcher Otto Lehman, who, after spending three years in a madhouse for slapping a customer with two pounds of liver, is finally declared sane. Of course, this being a horror movie (of sorts), Otto is still far from mentally stable, his mind eventually snapping while being nagged by his shrewish wife Hanna (Karin Field). After throttling her, and breaking her neck, he decides that the best way to dispose of his wife is to turn her into sausages, which he sells to the public. Other victims follow, with the sausages a huge success with Otto's customers. Meanwhile, intrepid reporter Mike Lawrence (Brad Harris) has his suspicions about the butcher but struggles to convince the police that he is up to no good.Black comedy is the order of the day here, with the horrific notion of grinding up people for sausages played for fun rather than frights, sweaty lard-bucket Buono's performance almost as camp as his King Tut in TV's Batman. Director Guido Zurli gives his picture a ghoulish, garish look through strong use of primary colours, which adds to the comical tone, and employs a jaunty soundtrack throughout. Since there is very little blood on show, Zurli compensates with a reasonable amount of gratuitous female nudity, Otto ogling his shapely neighbour Berta (Franca Polesello) as she undresses each night at her window, while his brother-in-law Karl (Luca Sportelli) brings home prostitute Frieda (Hansi Linder) who happily displays her wares.Very cheesy, a little bit sleazy, and surprisingly breezy, The Mad Butcher is by no means a great film, the story-line rather predictable and repetitive, but it passes the time easily enough. 5/10.

Combining elements of horror and comedy isn't easy. Though usually rather pathetic or miles off the target, the mixture is occasionally successful: to mind come Roman Polanskis "Dance of the Vampires" and Peter Jackson's "Brain Dead". Another thing that comes to mind are (often) gritty European productions of the 1960's and 1970's, that where brimming with pitch-black humour and which combined horror and comedy at a well-balanced 50/50 level. And among the finest example is "Lo strangolatore di Vienna": The story is very similar to the Sweeney Todd tale: Otto, a humungous, mentally unstable butcher is released from the madhouse and ends up with a string of (originally unintentional) murders on his hand. Post-war times being hard and meat scarce, Otto does what comes closest and grinds his victims to sausage meat. The sausages are bestsellers and eventually even the Viennese police are on the Ottos list of customers.I've mentioned that it's hard to believe that this film actually is Italian, not Austrian. That's mainly because I've watched the synchronized German version which has been dubbed into finest Viennese dialect, as you'd only find it backyards and working class quarters. If familiar with (Austrian)-German, it's a joy to watch; the quick-talking yet always wordy and always biting dialogue – it's about authentic Viennese as it gets.Pillar of the film is actor Victor Buono – Buono shines in sweaty role, slowly transforming from a gentle, even though mentally instable hulk, originally murdering (almost) by mistake, to a truly scary, blood-thirsty psychopath. Buono has that rare gift to convincingly appear mild, kind-hearted, creepy and psychotic at the same time – the nearest one could compare this to would be some of Donald Pleasances finest performances.Granted, those 1970's Euro B-flicks have often not aged very well, today coming across as 1960's Doris Day and Tony Randall kind-of affairs (just with more nudity) and slightly gorier Hammer productions but if names like Brad Harris or Karin Field ring a bell, then this may well be a little, forgotten gem, wrapped up in a original Viennese sausage – just remember: never mix swine and beef and try to go for the German dubbed version if you have a chance! 8 from 10 points.

Vegetarians, and all those with an aversion to red meat (like me), should be warned away from the 1971 Italian/German horror comedy "The Mad Butcher" (or, as it is called here under its earlier title, "Meat Is Meat"). Though the film's violence is not explicit and is mainly limited to bloodless throttlings, the initial close-ups of bloody chops, steaks and schnitzels being sliced and torn is guaranteed to turn the stomachs of all those soyboys and soychicks. In the film, Victor Buono plays Otto Lehman, "the best butcher in Vienna," who is released from a mental institution, after three years, for beating a customer over the head with a raw liver. (She had it coming, as it turns out!) Otto's wife, brother-in-law and neighbors soon rouse his temper to a murderous pitch, however, and before long, his pushcart sausages are sporting a new, all-natural ingredient! Made on the supercheap, rarely funny, and with poor dubbing and sound to boot, "The Mad Butcher," like Otto's sausages, is a real mixed bag at best, though there are some joys to be had. For one, the score by Alessandro Alessandroni (who had so impressed me with his wonderful music for such disparate films as "Killer Nun" and "The Devil's Nightmare") is quite amusing and catchy, reminiscent of a Munchen beer hall in the 1920s. And Buono himself is quite marvelous, by turns sympathetic, amusing and scary. The sight of him, with his 300+-lb. bulk and wielding a straight-edge razor, practically frothing at the mouth in a berserker rage, is one that will surely stick in the memory. The film is rarely interesting when Buono is offscreen--such as during the tedious scenes of a Chicago reporter romancing one of Buono's neighbors--but when he's on, you can't take your eyes off him. An amusing curiosity at best, "The Mad Butcher" might still do you the favor of forever turning you off to those mystery monkey-meat sausages you've been scarfing down with your breakfast!

The jolly, but deranged Otto Lehman (marvelously played to the wacko hilt by the great Victor Buono) gets released from an asylum and becomes determined to live up to his sterling reputation as the best butcher in Vienna. Otto inevitably goes crazy and murders several folks. He disposes of the bodies by grinding them up and turning them into his famously delicious sausage. Director Guido Zurli, working from a wickedly witty script by Dag Mollin and Dick Randall (Randall also co-produced the picture and pops up in a small role as a police officer), does an expert job of creating and sustaining a playfully macabre sense of often hilariously twisted pitch-black humor. Buono's sweaty, quirky and massively bulky presence elevates the film's quality a few extra notches. Brad Harris contributes a solid performance as meddlesome, sarcastic American reporter Mike Lawrence, the luscious Karin Field supplies a tasty eyeful as Otto's enticing neighbor Berta, and Franca Polesello is a snippy riot as Otto's naggy, shrewish wife Hanna. Better still, a couple of lovely ladies remove their clothes and bare their beautiful bodies. Alex Alexander's wonderfully catchy and jaunty score likewise scores a bull's eye. A real treat.