Blood and Black Lace1963

Mario Bava's glistening movie cocktail of violence, vivid color and opulent settings wrote half the book on Italian giallo. They're films in which death isn't peaceful, but it is stylish, downright beautiful sometimes, every hue and shadow neatly arranged. Also, there's a murder mystery, but the murders themselves count more than the investigation. It begins when a fashion model gets sent down eternity's runway one night by a killer in a faceless mask. Then another gets her face turned into marinara sauce by a glove with knives in the palm and another gets barbecued on a red hot furnace. More carnage follows. Their connection: all of our dearly departed worked for Cameron Mitchell's modeling agency and most were after the first dead girl's diary. What's in it? We get a few hints, but it's not important. Bava's more busy shooting gorgeous shots of malevolent staircases, making mannequins look demonic and lighting scenes with sumptuous day-glo unreality. He's doing exactly what he should be doing.

It is 1964, somewhere in Italy, a world in which everyone has beehives for hairdos, cat eyes for maquillage, works in a palazzo and lives in a penthouse. But one of these fabulous creatures is a serial killer. Who kills fashion models, of course. Style as substance with lots of blood.

Full review: http://its-craptacular.blogspot.com/2012/01/blood-and-black-lace.html

The Slasher elevated to art by style. Fashion models in an haute couture house are props for brutal and sadistic murders. Every scene is pause-worthy - picturesquely framed, vividly colored and lit, and full of contrasting and highlighting shadows that give a jagged, tactile sensation to even ordinary objects like walls and fabrics. More time was likely spent designing the lighting than writing the script, and the story is largely irrelevant until the last 20 minutes. The drowning might be the most elegant and beautifully shot murder scene I’ve ever seen. Like the rest, it’s gaspingly lurid. Loved it.

Fifty years after its initial release, "Blood and Black Lace" still strikes the senses like a paper cut to the cerebral cortex. Later thrillers have gone further but Mario Bava's groundbreaking giallo was the first. While the plot is structured like a 1940's murder mystery, ultimately it's an anti-whodunit. Who done it? Who cares! It didn't really matter to Bava. He was too busy orchestrating a technicolor bloodbath of murder and mayhem, shocking, cold, and sadistic, yet strangely colorful...depraved yet aethetically dyanmic. Grand Guignol, Italian-style!

Fans of color, style, passion and action will not be disappointed by this gem. Everything about it carries it. Bravo!

Film Noir meets EXTREMELY bright Technicolor....didn't really work for me. :(

THIS HORROR FILM IS AND HAS ALL THE ELEMENTS OF GREAT CINEMATOGRPHY, SUPERIOR ACTING AS WELL AS A VERY INTRIGUING STORYLINE VERY ENTERTAING AND WELL WORTH WATCHING MORE THAN ONCE BY ANYONE!

Certainly one of Bava's better films, Blood And Black Lace dances the border between artful vividity and lurid garishness as well as any of the Italian classics. I personally find Bava lacking in a few areas this time around: like many horror directors, he could stand to take a lesson from Kurosawa on movement choreography. However, he was inarguably a master behind the lense and of suspenseful - although at times, very schlocky - storytelling.

The typical giallo tropes are all there - obsessive and highly dramatic lighting, musical motifs, brilliant use of soundtrack, black leather gloves and beautiful women being violently killed. In one scene there is even a bottle of J&B, although granted it faces away from the camera. It is my understanding that this is one of the movies (essentially all of which were by Mario Bava) that founded the genre and at the same moment gave birth to the slasher film.

So, four stars. Plus one extra: the search for a quality stream of this film is what lead me to Fandor in the first place.

If you like the italian gialo films, you can't go wrong here. Also fans of Argento should take note. Great stuff !

Excellent. Style on top of style and a plot that works.

If you like 60's off beat Italian films and appreciate campy slasher pictures - this will be one you will enjoy.

It's beautifully shot and features some highly attractive talent, yet the story and plot is convoluted and weak.

puhleezzz...one of Bava's stinkeroos!

stylish slasher with stunning scenes.

Terrible dubbing. The jump-cuts were not good either. The kills were good. The use of color was good as well. Mario Bava did well.

BAVA IS THE BEST!!

Excellent selection!

Great visually.

If it wasn't dubbed, I'd give 5 stars.

very amusing, prob more so if shorter.

the dubbed version of this is hilarious. especially when the one of the guys goes crazy at about 45 minutes.

60's Guingol thriller. Not as exciting as Argento and with less blood. C+

yuck

Great movie!

so so,