Regarded for mostly the first Giallo ever made,the Master gave us a new genre of picture aftewards,Mario Bava's legacy is a valuable efforts to all fans of this neglected kind,after this point and through the years slowly the genre getting strong as we knows today of utmost importance indeed,Brutal,Bloody,Cold,Fear and thriller can defines this new one!!!Resume:First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Originally titled 'Six Women for the Killer', this Mario Bava film is often cited as the movie that pioneered the giallo horror subgenre with a plot that places more emphasis on gruesome murders than catching a killer. Full of creepy tracking shots and with eerie sound effects frequently favoured over background music, the film certainly succeeds in depicting a handful of memorable murders and stalking sequences. There is a particularly effective part where one victim to-be is chased around an antique dealer's place where every nook and cranny is lit up in varying neon shades of blue, pink and purple. The opening murder is effective too. The plot, characters and acting here leaves a lot to be desired though with the story coming to a near stand-still in between the murders. Thomas Reiner makes for one of the dullest police detectives of all time, though to be fair, the cast are hardly saddled with the sort of dialogue that could have made their characters come alive. Of course, many will be quick to point out that narratives are always a secondary consideration in gialli, but when one considers what Dario Argento was able of achieve in years to come with films like 'Suspiria' and 'Tenebrae' that managed to wrestle good performances and a decent plot into the giallo formula, it is hard not to mentally compare and contrast. Certainly, if viewed with minimal expectations, there is a lot to like about 'Blood and Black Lace'; it is simply hard not to expect something more revolutionary from a film that kick-started an iconic movie trend.

I don't know why it took me so long to see this little gem, considering that firstly it was made by one of my favourite Italian directors Mario Bava and that it's considered one of the most important Giallo films and now that it has been released on Arrow films with a restored print, instead of trying to view with a not so great picture quality, and after viewing it I was pleasantly surprised by firstly at how beautiful it looked in its rich vivid colours and considering it was made in 1963, it doesn't look dated at all and very stylish.The storyline here is that on one stormy night a young model is murdered outside a lavish fashion house where she works with a group of other young models and this sparks a chain of events when her diary goes missing which reveals the sordid details of what's going on with the people who work there and not long after more women start to get murdered.This movie is definitely entertaining and relies heavily on its camera-work, set designs, artwork and lighting, all of which creates the perfect atmosphere. I have no complaints with this, only that I would say that the first half of the movie where the majority of the murders takes place is definitely stronger than the second half, which does have a neat little twist at the end which most Giallo's have and given that this movie was the one that started that started that trend, so that was pretty neat and makes this one of the strongest and influence shall of the genre.With a strong cast including Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok, 'Blood And Black Lace' is a very beautiful and violent movie where Bava really excels himself as a director and showing off his unique visual style on what otherwise would be a sub-standard script, and okay this may not be the best or most riveting of the genre, but it is very decent and it does pull you into this manic world that Bava has created within this universe.

Cameron Mitchell heads a haute couture fashion salon where the models are being murdered by a psychotic killer in a black hat, black coat and stocking mask; seems the first victim left behind a diary, which the maniac desperately wants. A police detective is immediately on the case and has a host of suspects, including Mitchell and several dressers and designers. French-Italian co-production directed and co-written by Mario Bava (who also assisted in the cinematography) has a sterling reputation among Giallo buffs and slasher fans, but the robotic English dubbing coupled with the blinking neon lights and melodramatic music by Carlo Rustichelli gives the picture a thick coating of kitsch. Bava, at this point, knows a great deal more about staging a sequence for the camera than he does about building suspense or intrigue in the scenario; thus, the film is visually imaginative and yet strangely fatiguing. ** from ****