BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964)

Director: Mario Bava

Writers: Marcello Fondato, Mario Bava, Giuseppe Barillà, Mary Arden (adapting dialogue into English)

Producers: Massimo Patrizi, Alfredo Mirabile

Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner, Mary Arden, Arianna Gorini, Lea Lander (as Lea Krugher), Claude Dantes, Dante DiPaolo, Massimo Righi, Franco Ressel, Luciano Pigozzi, Francesca Ungaro, Harriette White Medin, Giuliano Raffaelli, Heidi Stroh, Enzo Cerusico, Nadia Anty, Mary Carmen (as Mara Carmosino), Goffredo Unger (uncredited), Calisto Calisti (uncredited), Romano Moraschini (uncredited)

A masked man in black brutally murders Isabella (Francesca Ungaro), a model at the Rome fashion house Christian Haute Couture. Many of the models and staff at the fashion house have secrets to hide. While Police Inspector Silvestri (Thomas Reiner) investigates, the killer claims more victims. Silvestri suspects one of the men who work at the fashion house or are having relationships with the models.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

The now-revered Italian director Mario Bava worked in many genres, but his horror films are what have received the most acclaim. He is also celebrated for originating the giallo film, that Italian subgenre of horror and suspense. Bava’s 1963 The Girl Who Knew Too Much is usually considered the first giallo film. However, it is his Blood and Black Lace, made the following year, which established the iconic stylistic template most associated with the genre. All of the traditional giallo elements are there: a black-gloved mystery killer; beautiful victims; prolonged stalk-and-kill set pieces; plenty of suspects and scandal in a posh environment; and the use of music, lighting, and editing that stylize the violence and terror.

Blood and Black Lace is must-see viewing for Mario Bava fans that showcases the director’s visual aesthetic. It was the signpost pointing the way for the giallo genre that would become increasingly popular in its native Italy and abroad by the 1970s. Bava and the film genre he initiated would inspire and influence Italian directors such as Dario Argento and Sergio Martino as well as Americans like Brian De Palma and John Carpenter.

It seems almost unthinkable that this pioneering film in this distinctive Italian genre was not successful in Italy at the time of its release. Despite some of its influences, such as the then-popular German krimi films (usually based on the crime thriller novels of British author Edgar Wallace), Blood and Black Lace may have been just a bit ahead of its time. The mystery aspect of the story is little more than a guessing game rather than a clue-laden plot. This is clearly an exercise in style over substance. Just as much as any Gothic horror film, the best giallo films are meant to disturb and excite with their atmosphere and menace.

One distinction that probably made the giallo an acquired taste was the lack of the sort of moral triumph concluding most typical horror and crime films at that time. Giallo films reveled in a world of glamorous sleaze, amoral ambitions, and sadistic violence. Representatives of law and order meant to solve the mystery and apprehend the culprit were not the main protagonists and were often ineffectual.

Another reason that Blood and Black Lace may have been off-putting was that there are no characters we can really bond with. They are all rather remote or secretive and conniving. This just confirms the cold and corrupt environment that makes the ongoing murders seem inevitable.

It is not surprising that Mario Bava would initiate this stylish and cynical genre. Bava had a strong streak of pessimism regarding the capitalistic, modern world. His later Bay of Blood (1971) is not only his most violent production and a direct influence on the American slasher film; it also seemed to vent his disdain for society’s amoral greed that consumes almost the entire cast. That pervasive pessimism seems to have its roots in Blood and Black Lace. Most of its main characters are corrupt or shamed and may be capable of anything. Their conflicts and secrets seem to be the catalyst for ongoing homicide, despite the best efforts of those enforcers of the social order, the police.

The reason that any of this engages the audience is its technique of presentation. Mario Bava had always been a great cinematographer, and his colorful and moody lighting here is every bit as striking as his earlier black-and-white classics. His visuals and shot choices tease us as much as the identity of the killer. It is Bava’s artistry that makes this grim tale of murder amid a cast of one-dimensional characters into a visceral experience for the viewers.

The biggest name in the cast is American star Cameron Mitchell as the fashion house co-director Massimo Morlacchi. He exudes a cold reserve that makes him seem just as suspect as anyone else. Mitchell made plenty of films in Europe, and this was the second of his three Bava-directed pictures. Mitchell and Bava seemed to really hit it off, and Mitchell considered Bava probably the greatest director he had ever worked work with. Mitchell admired Bava’s creativity and ingenuity in making good and interesting films despite budgetary limitations.

Eva Bartok also tops the cast list as the widowed Countess Cristiana Cuomo, the fashion house owner and business partner with Massimo Morlacchi. She appears to be all business and seems as remote a personality as just about every other character. Her performance becomes much more interesting as the film progresses and the plot develops. Blood and Black Lace would be the penultimate film in Bartok’s 20-year career of film acting in both the US and Europe.

If ever an actress went above and beyond the call of duty for a film, it was Mary Arden. Her character of model Peggy Peyton was subjected to probably more prolonged physical abuse than any other woman in film up to that time. While we take such physicality in movies for granted, this is all being performed in take after bruising take by Arden without a stunt double. I hope all of the pain and terror she expressed was just good acting. Arden was also nearly killed by the sharp latch of an automobile trunk lid that slammed down on her while filming a scene. The multilingual Mary Arden even pitched in to do the translation of the screenplay’s dialogue into English. After all of that injury and effort, Mary Arden never got paid!

Another lady in the cast deserving kudos for efforts way beyond her job description is Lea Lander. Billed as Lea Krugher in Blood and Black Lace, she plays the model Greta. A decade later Lander would act in Mario Bava’s Rabid Dogs (1974). That film’s post-production was not completed due to the bankruptcy proceedings resulting when one of the film’s financial backers died. Rabid Dogs went unfinished and unseen for almost a quarter century until Lea Lander took the initiative to help finance its DVD release. This would be worked on further by Mario Bava’s son Lamberto and grandson Roy along with producer Alfredo Leone to be released in 2002 as Kidnapped. Bravo to black-laced beauty Lea Lander! She not only graced a classic giallo, but she also resurrected Mario Bava’s most atypical and cynical film.

A key accessory to any giallo film hoping to make a stylish impression is the soundtrack. Carlo Rustichelli’s Blood and Black Lace score sets the pace for the musical flourishes that adorn the genre’s best. His main theme is sinister lounge music that is reprised throughout the film, often building up to horrific intensity. Rustichelli also scored two of director Bava’s Gothic horror classics: The Whip and the Body (1963) and Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966).

For the giallo curious, Blood and Black Lace is the perfect introduction. It is the trendsetting model of the genre designed to knock ‘em dead by that morbid maestro Mario Bava. So, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? You can ditch the tuxes and gowns and just barge on into this sanguinary salon for a bloody good time.

THE TOOLBOX MURDERS (1978)

Director: Dennis Donnelly

Writers: Robert Easter, Ann Kindberg, Neva Friedenn

 

Producer: Tony DiDio

 

Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicholas Beauvy, Aneta Corsaut, Tim Donnelly, Marianne Walter, Faith McSwain, Marciee Drake, Evelyn Guerrero, Victoria Perry, Robert Bartlett, John Hawker, Betty Cole, Alisa Powell, Don Diamond, Robert Forward, Kathleen O’Mally, Gil Galvano, James Nolan, George Deaton

In an apartment house, three women are brutally murdered one night by an intruder using various tools from his toolbox as weapons. The following evening another woman is killed in her apartment, and teenager Laurie Ballard (Pamelyn Ferdin) from the apartment above is kidnapped. The police have no clues, so Laurie’s brother Joey (Nicholas Beauvy) begins following his own hunches about the mysterious assailant.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

The Toolbox Murders is a brutal and offbeat shocker that just beat Halloween (1978) to the punch at the box office by about half a year. It is very tempting to lump all mystery-killer-picks-off-victims-one-by-one movies into the slasher film category. This certainly qualifies as a slasher, yet it precedes the movie most feel started the trend, and it does not play out like any that followed. Its structure is as unbalanced as its killer, and it never feels like it is just trying to push the usual thriller entertainment buttons. This may be due to it trying to be simply as nasty and crazy as possible, but it has created its own matter-of-fact and dismal vibe.

For many, this is a film that is hard to like and even harder to defend. I think this is due to the near absence of plot and the unrelenting and senseless brutality of its first act. Most of the violence occurs early on, and then we are left with very mundane characters coping with the aftermath. The cops can’t seem to find any real clues. The lead detective on the case is trying, but he is rather cynical and does not want any suggestions from the missing girl’s brother. The girl’s brother feels like he is a suspect. The girl’s mother is just trying to keep working to cope with the wait for news of her missing daughter. There are no heroes here and the story does not progress through a series of set pieces and stunts that are meant to thrill and entertain. Whether by accident or design, The Toolbox Murders has a real world feel that is often lost when films are planned to satisfy expectations.

This movie’s killer actually has the very motivations that many slasher movie critics accuse the slasher moviemakers of having: The punishment of those indulging in drugs and, especially, sex. It is shown that the killer has a very puritan set of values, and he feels that he is literally cutting out the world’s evil with his crimes and leaving behind only the good. Like most movie maniacs, there is a specific incident in his past that has triggered his violence. Even if you have the killer figured out early on, you have an unsavory surprise coming from another character. It is that development that seems to pile up the deviance and insanity to the point where there seems to be no hope or justice to be found in this movie’s awful little corner of the world.

Cameron Mitchell is the top-billed star and is supposed to have either improvised or added bits for his character in this film. He has stated that he did not care for gory films like many he would be appearing in late in his career, but he sure seems to be giving it his all here like a pro.

Aneta Corsaut gets back to her horror movie roots in The Toolbox Murders. She starred alongside Steve McQueen in The Blob (1958). She is probably most recognized for her long-running television role on The Andy Griffith Show; she’s come a long way from Mayberry. Corsaut plays the mother of the kidnapped girl Laurie and serves to drive home the point that there is emotional wreckage suffered by a victim’s loved ones. Most slasher films never deal with this aspect. It is not a plot point, but an emotional touchstone that helps establish this film’s own sense of discomfort.

My favorite performer is Tim Donnelly as Detective Lieutenant Mark Jamison. He seems like a guy just doing his job that has probably been soured by his work and is not some super sleuth that intuits grand insights into the killer and his crimes. He wants things to quickly make sense. His frustration is apparent when he is asking the missing girl’s brother Joey questions at the police station. He also commits one of the most socially uncomfortable acts in any horror film. When he is asking the missing girl’s mother questions, he also seems to be hinting at making a date with her. Lieutenant Jamison is one emotionally tone-deaf guy.

I think that the featured teenage actors (Pamelyn Ferdin, Nicholas Beauvy, and Wesley Eure) perform well. They come across as real rather than anything idealized to stroke the teen audience. Ferdin has the rather thankless task of being tied up and gagged for a good portion of the film, but she registers plenty of real emotion, even when she can’t speak or move.

Aside from Cameron Mitchell, probably the best remembered performance is by Marianne Walter. She went on to perform in adult films as Kelly Nichols and later became a make-up artist. Walter performs most of her role in the nude, and her scene is probably the film’s most notorious. It seems to be trying to hit both of the exploitation bases of sex and violence. But with its slow build of the sensual, to the voyeuristic, to the violent while a country love song sung by a male and female duo plays on the radio, it has a rather twisted and tragic perversity to it. This is going for something more than just being a down-and-dirty horror movie moment.

It should be noted that the murders that open this film are mostly “scored” with just the music playing on the stereos of the victims in their apartments. This lends the atrocities a mundane intimacy that draws us in and increases the discomfort. What happens is extreme but not stylized.

Of course, this flick is always condemned for its violence-against-women element. The intent was twofold. The nudity and violence are there for sensational value in the movie, but they are also dealing head on with the drives of the killer and his acts. The killer is mostly driven to destroy those he sees as being sexual beings, which makes them evil in his judgment. There is even a touch of hypocrisy shown by the anti-lust killer when he seems to be momentarily enticed by one victim trying to offer herself sexually to him to avoid any violence. We are confronted with our own sexualized feelings about the victims, too. They are total strangers to us. We know nothing about them when they are killed. Some of us may be titillated by the nudity, but I don’t think anything about the victims or their fates make us feel good about what happens to them.

The overall tone in this film is very bleak. The bloody extermination of the victims is not presented as a spectacle but as an atrocity. The fact that nothing turns out in emotionally satisfying movie terms means we are experiencing something uncomfortable and uncompromising. That may not qualify as art, but if this film tried to be conventional plot-wise and gave us a pat ending, it would still face exactly the same criticism of being misogynistic.

The Toolbox Murders is not for the casual filmgoer deciding to check out a horror movie for a change of pace. It was intended to horrify in the most blunt and uncomfortable way possible. The closing caption claims that the story is based on actual events of 1967, though this does not appear to be true. As important as the violence in its everyday setting is to the movie’s impact is the odd structure of this story and its constant refusal to meet audience expectations.