Blood & Black Lace [Import]

If you are looking for a breathtakingly beautiful use of color and lighting, YOU MUST SEE "BLOOD AND BLACL LACE". This has to be one of the great overlooked movies of all time. Great Jazz score.
What happened to the mentality that could both make and go see this kind of movie? After watching this one, and looking over the current cinema listings in the local paper, I nearly cried at the lack of anything like this to see.
The rich jewel tones that flood every frame in this film are amazing. Eastmancolor must be one of the most underrated processes in film history. Notice how shocking the white undergarments of the models seem after the killer rips their bodices away.
A great movie in which nearly the whole cast lies dead at the end. Eva Bartok is amazingly beautiful, why didn't she become more of an international star?
Recommended.

A great looking murder mystery that clearly laid the groundwork for later directors
(DePalma in particular), and has a fun macabre sense of humor to go with some
very effective tension.

Considered a masterpiece by many, I can't quite go there, with the bad dubbing,
some over the top acting, and a few silly twists. But that's not to say I didn't really enjoy it.

Someone is killing models at a high fashion house, and there are plenty
of suspects to go around.

Bava's use of color is wonderful, if not quite up to what he did in his own
`Whip and the Body', and there's also very effective use of shadows and
moving lights. Yes, many of those devices are now visual clichés, but
someone had to invent them, and Bava gets a lot of the credit.

Some women want to strangle models, but most people don't actually go that far. That's not the case in "Blood and Black Lace," where models run, scream, and die in all sorts of gruesome ways. Mario Bava's classic giallo has some monotonous moments, but mostly it sticks to stylish slayings.

Just before a fashion show, the model Isabella is found dead in a wardrobe. The police investigate the fashion house's various models and managers, but can't find any solid evidence. And during the show, one of the other models finds Isabella's diary, which is loaded with scandalous information about drugs, lovers, abortions, and debts.

But then the diary is stolen, and trenchcoated killer waits until the models are alone -- and then he burns, strangles, drowns, and claws them. The police suspect the men -- designers and managers -- at the fashion house, but even detaining the suspects won't stop the gruesome murders...

At first glance, "Blood and Black Lace" seems like just another bloody slasher movie. Well, giallo is to slasher movies as fine cheese is to Velveeta, and "Blood and Black Lace" is a perfect example of a giallo, with the arty lighting, graphic violence, colourful sets, and of course those black gloved hands.

The plot is a pretty straightforward whodunnit -- it's not blatantly obvious who the killer is, but seasoned movie fans can probably guess. And while there are gruesome slayings, the killer doesn't just jump out and kill. Bava builds up the tension and fear (which the characters also demonstrate) until it's almost a relief when someone dies.

But one of the biggest necessities for a giallo is visual style. The fashion house is lushly palatial, and the murders are elaborately choreographed chases, with weird lighting and lots of luxurious surroundings. The second murder, for instant, is like hide-and-seek in an antiques store. The only problem is a misogynistic edge, such as when the women have their shirts ripped halfway off.

None of the characters really stand out much -- they're the Models, the Creepy Boyfriends, the Skeptical Police, the Weird Landlady, and a handful of others. So it's a credit to the actresses like Mary Arden and Eva Bartok that they are able to make us feel sorry for their characters.

"Blood and Black Lace" is a beautiful, bloody guilty pleasure, and a perfect example of a giallo horror movie. Good stuff.