Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Blood and Lace Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 10, 2015

Years ago one of my uncles who dabbled in some fringes of show business arranged a Manhattan lunch meeting for me with a pretty well known Oscar winning producer. I was a kid and interested in pursuing an acting career, something this elder actively discouraged me from doing, imparting some advice I’ve never forgotten. “You don’t want to be one of those people who judges their whole life by how many column inches their obituary in Variety is.” It was funny, and kind of weirdly nonsensical, and yet it conveyed a kind of psychological truth of sadness underlying the supposedly glamorous life that some stars ostensibly enjoy. It came to mind when I read with some sadness about the recent passing of Melody Patterson, an actress who for whatever reason never really grasped the brass ring of stardom, but who made quite an impression for those of a certain age as the (very young) co-star of the relatively short lived ABC sitcom from the mid sixties, F Troop. Patterson was barely 16 when she debuted on the series (which was for all intents and purposes a 19th century McHale’s Navy or Sgt. Bilko), playing a kind of young version of Calamity Jane, in one of the few female roles on the series. The bumbling incompetence of Ken Berry’s Captain Parmenter or the Bilko-esque shenanigans of Forrest Tucker’s O’Rourke and Larry Storch’s Agarn may have provided most of the comedic impetus of the show, but Patterson offered more than mere eye candy, actually building a reasonably believable character in what was in essence a kind of over the top live action cartoon. Patterson’s Variety obituary may indeed not have been very long, concentrating mostly on her tenure in F Troop, perhaps because her film career never really took off. Blood and Lace is one of Patterson’s few big screen starring roles, in a film which intentionally or not dances around certain giallo tropes that were exploited in the very similarly named Blood and Black Lace, a Mario Bava effort from 1964. (This particular version actually sports the title The Blood Secret.)

Iconic director Michael Powell (Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes) at least severely hobbled if not outright killed his career with his 1960 film Peeping Tom. The thriller played on the very notion of what it means to be an audience member viewing a film, for one of Peeping Tom’s central conceits was that it dealt with a serial killer who filmed his murders, and at least some of these deaths are presented as “point of view” moments within Peeping Tom itself. The lurid subject matter combined with this then unusual presentation method was too much for critics and audiences of the day to really comprehend, though in hindsight Peeping Tom plays at least as disturbingly and compellingly as another famous 1960 horror outing by an iconic British director, Psycho. Blood and Lace certainly doesn’t rise to the level of either Peeping Tom or Psycho (and it frankly doesn’t have any pretensions in that regard), but it does employ a POV device very much like the one Powell exploited in his film.

In this particular instance it’s a “hammer’s eye” view of a horrific murder where an unseen assailant takes the claw end of the tool to the heads of a sleeping couple. It’s a decently done sequence which is only hampered by some less than convincing “special effects” makeup work on the victims. It’s soon revealed that the female who expired was a “working woman” (so to speak) who was also the mother of Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson). Perhaps due to her mother’s profession, Ellie, who is still a minor, is not in the most stable mental health, and now left parentless is sent to an orphanage run by the harridan Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame).

Meanwhile, in just one of several florid touches Blood and Lace indulges in, it seems likely that Ellie is being stalked by whomever killed her mom and her mom’s “client”. The first suspect chases Ellie hither and yon, only to divulge he’s actually a cop named Calvin Carruthers (Vic Tayback). Later at the orphanage, Mrs. Deere’s creepy assistant Tom Kredge (Len Lesser) is shown to be quite facile not only with hammers but various other tools, leading to a succession of bodies in various nooks and crannies of the institution. To say this is all misdirection is a bit of an understatement, and the film ends with not one but two supposedly surprising denouements that may not make one whit of sense, but will at least leave some viewers feeling a bit breathless.

There’s a decidedly smarmy feeling to a lot of Blood and Lace, including a subplot involving a rather unlikely romantic dalliance between Mrs. Deere and a slimy social worker named Harold Mullins (Milton Selzer). In fact one of the twin reveals toward the end of the film is genuinely provocative in a pretty unseemly manner. Blood and Lace certainly has an eclectic cast to its credit, including Oscar winner Grahame, who may have hoped to reinvigorate her career a la Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (a film probably not so coincidentally about the vagaries of stardom). Unfortunately, Blood and Lace only retains the histrionics of the Robert Aldrich classic, without any of the underlying plot mechanics and compelling characters.

Blood and Lace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blood and Lace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This has a slightly dated look, with somewhat faded elements that still can pop quite vividly when things like blood enter the fray. Still, there's a somewhat dowdy brown ambience to much of this transfer. Elements have typical signs of age related wear and tear, with average amounts of speckling, dirt and other small nicks and scratches. Detail is very good in close-ups, though overall clarity and sharpness are average at best. Grain resolves naturally and there are no major problems with any compression issues, perhaps due to the fact that much of the film plays out in relatively well lit environments.

Blood and Lace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blood and Lace features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which capably supports the film's dialogue and use of stock music cues. There's a fair degree of dynamic range here, despite an overall boxy, narrow sound. Fidelity is fine if never breathtaking, and there's no damage of any kind to report.

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

• Alternate Opening Title (480p; 00:18)


• Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1:52)


• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith. Smith provides a lot of interesting information about the various participants as well as the film's production history.

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

There's a certain irony to the cover art included with this release. While no one on the cover bears even a slight resemblance to anyone actually in the film, the emphasis on a hammer wielding villain, as well as the person depicted doing the wielding, might be seen as at least a potential spoiler of sorts. The film itself is clunky, alternately formulaic and fairly outré, leading to a number of pretty smarmy developments. Technical merits are generally good to very good for those considering a purchase.