Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 25, 2016

If you have yet to experience the Italian horror genre known as giallo, there’s probably no better place to start than with Mario Bava’s 1964 opus Blood and Black Lace, a film which is (probably at least somewhat incorrectly) often cited as having started the idiom. It’s notable that at the time of its release Blood and Black Lace was actually perceived as something of a letdown for some Bava fans, after the success of Bava’s Black Sunday and Black Sabbath (could a little marketing machinations have played into the recurrent use of “black” in these titles?). But like a killer who is thought to be taken out of commission who suddenly springs back to life, Blood and Black Lace rose from the cinematic “dead” to experience new life and appreciation by both critics (who largely dismissed it at the time of its original release) and audiences, especially after the advent of home video. Blood and Black Lace may not hold together especially well as an actual mystery, but it has style to spare, and its lurid color schemes, interesting framings and brutal (for 1964 anyway) murders make it a riveting viewing experience. Arrow has been releasing some interesting, if frankly second tier, gialli with relatively recent outings like Death Walks Twice: Two Films by Luciano Ercoli and Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia, but for those wanting to “go for the gusto,” classic giallo style, there’s nothing quite like Blood and Black Lace.

There’s a wonderfully gothic, maybe even Baroque, ambience wafting through Blood and Black Lace which contrasts interestingly with the film’s nascent psychedelia and mod fashions which obviously plop it down firmly in its timeframe of the mid-sixties. The film’s putative setting in and around a place of haute couture gives it a sleek, pencil skirted look that frequently gives way to women in various stages of undress, especially when they’re viciously attacked and/or tortured by a creepy looking assailant wearing a fedora, black overcoat, gloves and (just for good measure) a weird stocking like accoutrement over his (or her?) face.

As with many gialli, the mystery’s twists and turns may seem at least somewhat predictable to jaded modern day armchair sleuths more used to “surprises” than 1964 audiences probably might have been, but Blood and Black Lace is at least as much style as it is about content. This is a film that exploits one of the most lurid and yet effective palettes of any (color) horror film, with many scenes almost drowning in deep purples and reds, and Bava and cinematographer Ubaldo Terzano (reportedly aided by Bava himself) indulging in some fanciful framings. The camera acts quite like a voyeur in the more graphic murder sequences, perhaps subliminally evoking Michael Powell’s infamous Peeping Tom (still curiously and maddeningly absent on Blu-ray).

For more information on Blood and Black Lace's plot mechanics, I encourage you to read Svet Atanasov's Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray review of the UK release from Arrow which came out last year.

Note: For those who value a DVD copy over SteelBook packaging, another edition of this film can be found here: Blood and Black Lace.

Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blood and Black Lace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. I've included one of the text cards that appear before the film starts as screenshot 21, where you'll see that this release was reportedly sourced off the original camera negative and scanned at 2K. Why this release is in 1.67:1 and not 1.85:1 is a bit of a mystery, as Svet Atanasov spoke to in his Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray review of the UK Arrow release (which is for all intents and purposes identical to the domestic Blu-ray release). I also reached out to Bob Furmanek, whom I personally consider to be one of the most knowledgeable experts about aspect ratios, and Bob provided a really fascinating chart that shows that at least a few films were still being projected from 1.66:1 to 1.75:1 in the UK in the mid-sixties, so it's entirely possible that in at least some European screenings the film did in fact appear at or near this current aspect ratio. Those of you who know Bob know that he's a treasure trove of information, and there's quite a bit of fascinating content on aspect ratios on his site. I'll defer to Svet's cogent comments about the actual "look" of the transfer in terms of color, densities, grain resolution and stability. I'll only add that I personally wasn't quite as bothered by the framing issues Svet mentions in his review, and if as Bob suspects this was hard matted at 1.66:1 for safety (as for example Bob mentions VistaVision releases typically were), there may not be any "missing" information on the sides since any wider aspect ratio would have been created by removing content from the top and/or bottom (this of course assumes that the scan captured the full width of the original source elements, which it may not have). I am therefore giving the video a slightly higher score than Svet did, though I concur with his wish that the wider aspect ratio version could have been included in this release.

Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blood and Black Lace features decent sounding mono tracks encoded via LPCM in both English and Italian. While these tracks aren't overly ambitious, and both show telltale signs of post-looping (a regular practice in Italian cinema, even for "native" Italian language films), generally speaking things sound fine. As Svet mentioned in his review of the UK Arrow release, there's a hint of distortion in the upper midrange which Svet termed a "buzz", which is most immediately noticeable when the music plays. It's pretty prevalent though ultimately not that distracting. However, I'm docking the audio score by half a point from Svet's review just to indicate that there's some room for improvement.

Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Tim Lucas is a typically exhaustive and well done piece by the Bava and giallo expert.


• Psycho Analysis (1080p; 55:08) is an interesting examination of the film, and giallo generally, which features a generous assortment of interviews with the likes of Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava (Mario Bava's son).


• Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (1080p; 10:35) is a kind of casual joint interview with the creative forces behind Amer. Some find my interview with them (done at the time of the Blu-ray release of Amer) to be of some interest.


• Yellow (1080p; 26:02) is a so-called "neo-giallo" by Ryan Haysom and Jon Britt.


• Trailer (1080p; 3:24)


• Gender and Giallo (1080p; 38:01) is an interesting piece by Michael Mackenzie where he separates the genre into "F-giallo" and "M-giallo" depending on the gender of the protagonist(s). This comes with a warning that it includes spoilers for countless gialli.


• Blood and Bava (1080p; 11:21) is a panel discussion featuring Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Steve Dellacasa, from the 2014 Courmayeur Film Festival.


• The Sinister Image (1080i; 56:25) is a two part appreciation of Cameron Mitchell hosted by David Del Valle.


• US Opening (1080p; 1:56) is an alternate animated credits sequence done by Filmation for the film's American release.

Additionally, Arrow's typically informative insert booklet contains essays and stills.

Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blood and Black Lace is one of those films that is sui generis, despite the fact that it obviously influenced scores of film which followed in its wake. Arrow has done its typically excellent job of providing generally very good to excellent technical merits and a bounteous supply of bonus material. Highly recommended.