Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

BLOOD AND THE BLACK LACE is a mysterious horror film, which is based on a series of brutal murders, drug trafficking and unconvincing police investigation. A profile of killer and ways of liquidation are the biggest advantages of this film. All other elements are somewhat retrograde and its go to an unclear extreme.A wealthy Cristina and her greedy lover Max lead a respectable fashion salon. One of many beautiful models employed at the salon is attacked and violently killed by an assailant wearing a white featureless mask. A police investigation is under way, while all her friends and acquaintances, it seems, shocked. One of the girls finds a victim diary. All of the fashion house's various sins, including corruption, abortions, blackmail and drug addiction are explained in that diary. Suddenly almost every employee becomes nervous...Mr. Bava has used, on an imaginative way, exploitative resources, through the beauty and attractiveness of the actresses in this film. His mix of eroticism and explicit violence was an innovation in the genre. He has disrupted the motives in a way, because the killings point to a drug addict and a sexual predator. The concept of greed and jealousy can be seen only in metaphors.A creepy atmosphere is in a kind of contrast to the visual beauty of the film. However, other elements are quite neglected.In short, imaginative and decorative murders of beautiful and attractive women.

This is another thoroughly underwhelming horror entry from Mario Bava, injudiciously praised because of it coming so early in the giallo canon. If it had been released ten years later, you never would have heard of it.The movie is set in (and indeed, never leaves) a fashion house where, of course, the models are the victims of a masked killer. There is no reason for the killer to wear a mask; if anything this would make the job more difficult. They would be spotted so much more easily by anyone who happened on the scene. The mask is, of course, only worn to surprise the audience when we find out who the killer really is.Not that it really works as a surprise.The movie has no characters who make any kind of impression, and certainly no one we care about. Its many shots of mannequins invite unfavourable comparisons between these dummies and the women that sometimes stand in front of the camera. The mid sixties release date means that the movie isn't particularly violent and there is no nudity or sex. There is a mention of - shock, horror - drug abuse that is accompanied by some raucous strains on the soundtrack as if the mere word "cocaine" should be enough to send us into palpitations.Nothing else in the movie will have that effect on you. There's no tension, or surprise, or shocks whatsoever. When the killer is revealed, it's not even much of a surprise.

Cited as the most prominent ancestor to the slasher movie (sorry, "Psycho"), "Blood and Black Lace" is more than just a stalk-and-slash splatter fest; it is also an artistic orgasm for the inimitable Mario Bava, a director so obsessed with the connection between romanticism and horror that his films, more often than not, found themselves as drenched in Technicolor mystique as they did claustrophobic shadows. "Blood and Black Lace" is important when considering the history of horror, but it is also a huge step for Bava. He kicked off the 1960s with great black-and-white chiller "Black Sunday", furthered his potential with an eventful 1963 (which included "The Whip and the Body", "Black Sabbath", and "The Girl Who Knew Too Much"), and then cemented his status as a visually adept horror maven with 1964's "Blood and Black Lace".Though not a success in its native Italy, its reputation has grown over the years, in part to the renewed interest in the giallo genre and a newfound respect for the filmmakers who were almost Hitchcock but never quite made it. Though I am not as fond of "Blood and Black Lace" as I am "Kill, Baby, Kill" and "Danger: Diabolik" (the former a Gothic spooker, the latter a campy soul sister to the early days of TV's "Batman"), I still find myself haunted by its images, so simultaneously dazzling and freakish that I, a day later, cannot decide if the film is beautiful or nightmarish."Blood and Black Lace" details a series of callous murderous disturbing the lives of the models employed by the Christian Haute Couture fashion house. Run by the physically stunning Countess Cristina Como (Bartok), whose husband has just died, the grounds seem to see tragedy regularly; so when Isabella (Francesca Ungaro), a flighty model, is offed one night by a masked assailant, it becomes clear that something is afoot at the mansion. Death may not just be a frequently occurring coincidence. The film then deviates into whodunit grounds, accentuating its red herrings and its murders. Surprisingly, though, the final result is not satisfying but predictable — one can only kill off so many people before a suspect(s), who never seems to be in trouble, turns into a definite beast of slaughter."Blood and Black Lace" has a reputation that precedes it, and though I cannot deny that it is extravagantly shot and opulently envisioned, the stiff acting of the cast, not to mention the bland dialogue of the screenplay, becomes distracting. Bava is unparalleled when it comes to visuals — why must he ignore his actors in favor of optic luminosity? The photography of the film is so brilliant that it, certainly, deserves its own review. But the material is so flimsy (and eventually been-there-done-that) that making excuses for "Blood and Black Lace"'s lack of unfiltered thrills becomes hopeless. Don't fear, though: there is no denying the film's other strengths. The girls are memorably alluring, the murders are impressively staged, and the music, which sounds more like background noise to a Spanish café, gives the impression that danger is running amok but is going unnoticed by the patrons of the invisible party going on outside. Everything looks great: if only there wasn't an underlying feeling that "Blood and Black Lace"'s accomplishments consist of being historically important and acting as an unusually exquisite Tumblr gif set.

A vicious killer who's looking for a diary knocks off various beautiful female models who all work at a swanky fashion salon. Acclaimed Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, working from an absorbing script by Marcello Fondato, does his customary expert job of creating and sustaining a profoundly spooky and sinister midnight-in-the-graveyard gloom-doom atmosphere, makes exceptional use of garish colors and striking lighting, generates a considerable amount of tension, and stages the brutal murder set pieces with startling savage aplomb (one victim has her face pressed against a hot stove in an especially gut-churning scene!). Cameron Mitchell contributes a fine performance as smooth and sneaky heel manager Max Marian; he receives sturdy support from Eva Bartok as his equally treacherous mistress Contessa Cristina Como, Mary Arden as the sensitive Peggy Peyton, Thomas Reiner as the persistent Inspector Silvester, and Franco Ressel as the slippery Marquis Richard Morrell. Veteran character actress Harriet Medin has a nice small part as housekeeper Clarice. Ubaldo Terzano's vibrant cinematography delivers a wealth of breathtaking visuals. Carlo Rustichelli's swinging jazz score radiates a cool'n'sleazy lounge vibe. But it's Bava's trademark gorgeously lurid, yet classy and arresting style and remarkable grasp of a certain divinely creepy flesh-crawling mood that in turn makes this honey so special and praiseworthy.