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Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l'assassino) [DVD]

Screenplay : Giusseppe Barilla, Marcel Fonda, Marcello Fondato, & Mario Bava

MPAA Rating : NR

Year of Release : 1964

Stars : Mitchell (Max Marian), Eva Bartok (Contessa Cristina), Mary Dawne Arden (Peggy), Dante DiPaolo (Frank Sacalo), Lea Krugher (Isabella), Ariana Gorini (Nicole), Giuliano Raffaelli (Zanchin), Thomas Reiner (Inspector Sylvester), Franco Ressel (Marquis Richard Morell), Massimo Righti (Marco)

The work of Mario Bava, often considered the grandfather of Italian horror, was largely misunderstood while he was alive. Although his first film, 1960's Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio), received a warm critical reception during its initial release, many of his subsequent films did not, including Blood and Black Lace (Sei donne per l'assassino). For instance, in his otherwise excellent and perceptive history of horror and science fiction films of the classical era (1895-1967), Carlos Clarens misses the mark completely when he describes Blood and Black Lace as a film with "minimal plot" that "consists of a string of brutal murders, each staged with relish and in the most redolent hues, attesting to the fact that Bava is simply trying to titillate a very specialized segment of his audience that requires neither rhyme nor reason."

Although the film does consist chiefly of "a string of brutal murders" that are certainly "staged with relish and in the most redolent hues," it is a gross understatement to assume that Bava is sinking to some lowest common denominator in order to titillate viewers. Unlike the rash of slasher films in the 1980s for which Blood and Black Lace served as a forerunner and model, Bava's film is a complex murder mystery raised to a higher level through artistry and innovation.

Blood and Black Lace is generally considered the first giallo, Italian mystery thrillers that feature graphic violence. The name itself is derived from lurid Italian paperbacks, the covers of which were always yellow. Thus, unlike most slasher films, Blood and Black Lace is set up as a mystery--a whodunit with a significant body count. While there is plenty of violence throughout the film (six beautiful women are murdered in unique and sadistic ways), the violence is but one element of the larger whole. It is not, like some horror films, the sole reason for its being.

The majority of the story takes place at the Christian Haute Couture, a fashion salon in Rome run by Contessa Cristina (Eva Bartok). In the opening scene, a young model named Isabella (Lea Krugher) is murdered outside the salon by someone dressed in a black trench-coat and fedora whose face is covered by a white mask of cloth, which gives the impression of a waxen, featureless visage. It turns out that Isabella had kept a diary in which she recounted the dark secrets of everyone involved the fashion salon. Her small red diary, which changes hands numerous times and becomes a prized object for many (which is why so many characters come under suspicion of the murder), contains information about affairs, blackmail, abortions, and drug use.

However, as the diary changes hands, the death toll grows. One by one, each model is murdered in a particularly nasty way (the worst being one woman who is burned to death by having her face pressed against a red-hot stove), and at various times, the shadow of suspicion falls on different characters. At one point, the frustrated police detective in charge of the investigation (Thomas Reiner) holds five men in prison because he thinks any one of them may be the culprit ... and another murder still occurs.

As with Bava's other films, Blood and Black Lace is a visual marvel. Even those who find the story and violent imagery repulsive cannot help but admire Bava's skill behind the camera. A former cinematographer, Bava had an intricate working knowledge of the effectiveness of lighting and shadow, and he bathes his horror film in showy Technicolor that gives an aura of professionalism and technical polish that betrays the film's meager budget. (The acting, however, is not particularly good; many of the performances are stiff and unconvincing, with the exceptions of Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok.)

Appropriately enough, the dominate color in Blood and Black Lace is red, from the crimson curtains that adorn much of the fashion salon, to Isabella's diary cover, to the blood of the victims. Bava gives the film a distinctly modern feel (in contrast to his earlier films, such as Whip and the Body, which take place in historical contexts), but he still manages to incorporate classic whodunit motifs such as hidden passageways and an ominous underground catacomb. He generates suspense and tension by complete control of the camera; although always in motion in complex tracking shots and sudden zooms, he expertly trains the lens only on that which he wants you to see. At times, the killer is readily visible in the corner of the frame, but you don't notice the figure until it is right on top of the victim because Bava keeps your interest focused elsewhere.

Like Hitchock's Vertigo (1958), the screenplay for Blood and Black Lace takes a serious gamble in revealing the solution to the mystery well before the end of the film. While it does not take place halfway through the narrative, the identity of the black-clad murderer is revealed with a good 20 minutes left in the film, which opens new possibilities and reveals further complications in motive and deception. Although the complete narrative is not as clear as it probably could have been, Blood and Black Lace maintains the ability to surprise right up until the very end, which is always the hallmark of a good giallo.

©2001 James Kendrick