Blood and Lace (1971)

Overrated

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Masterpiece!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

"Blood and Lace" (not to be confused with Bava's unrelated "Blood and Black Lace," though most likely a ripoff of that title) follows teenaged orphan Ellie Masters, whose prostitute mother has been clobbered to death with a hammer alongside a john in bed. When she arrives at Mrs. Deere's bizarre foster home, however, things go from bad to worse.An indisputable oddball of the early seventies, "Blood and Lace" has the unique character of occupying the space of both a whacked out splatter film, as well as a demented familial drama with Freud written all over it. The film opens with a double hammer murder straight out of any B-slasher flick, but while you'd anticipate the unfolding of a slasher film from thereon, the film does something of the opposite.Instead of opting for a straightforward slasher framework (which arguably didn't even exist at the time of this film's production), the narrative runs straight into an even more morbid situation at a foster home run by a strict sadist and her hired help. What is perhaps most striking about the film is the disparity between what the opening sets out to do, and what the film actually ends up doing; there is a strange lack of synchronicity between the two, but the hybrid nature is perhaps what makes the film memorable. The bulk of the picture unravels the twisted goings-on at Mrs. Deere's orphanage, and draws sparse links between them and Ellie's ordeal, which are never entirely fleshed out, yet the film never really demands enough of the audience for it to matter.The cinematography in the film is surprisingly lush for being such a low budget picture, and there are some great scenes focused in and around the large, eerie foster home. Melody Patterson is likable as the tortured heroine, while Hollywood classic Gloria Grahame plays the sinister Mrs. Deere remarkably well. Vic Tayback is also fantastic as the investigator with a pressing interest in Ellie's case. The film's conclusion is implicatively disgusting, and there is an absolute resistance against any happy resolutions, but this falls in tone with the rest of the film in all its cynical glory.Overall, "Blood and Lace" is a fine piece of early seventies sleaze. It's well-shot, well-acted, and in some ways sophisticated in spite of all its morally disreputable engagements. You may be surprised to find the film landed a PG rating in 1971, which is hard to believe given the sheer amount of wickedness inflicted on the underaged. Not a perfect film, but a fine example of lurid exploitative horror from days past. 7/10.

"The Baby" from 1973 kind of takes the cake for the most twisted movie to ever get a PG rating (that this viewer has seen, anyway). But "Blood and Lace" would have to rank as a strong contender for that title. Its final revelations elevate it (or lower it, depending on your sensibilities) to something truly special.It can boast a stylish opening murder set piece. Done mostly from the killers' perspective (with some cuts here and there), it actually predates sequences from both "Black Christmas" and "Halloween". It's got a cast of familiar faces, with the lovely Melody Patterson of 'F Troop' starring, screen legend / Oscar winner Gloria Grahame as a nasty antagonist, Len Lesser (Uncle Leo from 'Seinfeld') as her handyman / henchman, Vic Tayback (Mel from 'Alice') as police detective Calvin Carruthers, and TV veteran Milton Selzer as a social worker.Ellie Masters (Patterson) is a teen whose mother, the extremely busy town whore, is murdered along with one of her johns. So Ellie is shipped off by Mr. Mullins (Selzer) to an orphanage, a den of corruption where uncooperative kids meet cruel fates. And not only will Ellie yearn to escape, she'll fall in lust with hunky resident Walter (Ronald Taft, "Night of the Witches"), compete with Lolita-like character Bunch (Terri Messina, "Single Room Furnished"), and a mysterious goon in a hideous mask will prowl around the premises.Some buffs may cringe seeing Ms. Grahame in this kind of exploitation fare, but she does a solid job. Lesser, Tayback, and Selzer are all good as well. Patterson and Messina, despite clearly being substantially older than their characters, are appealing. That's a young Dennis Christopher ("Breaking Away", "Django Unchained") as orphanage resident Pete, and none other than June Foray can be heard as the voice of Ellie in her first scene in the hospital.Strikingly violent, definitely melodramatic, and offbeat enough to be amusing, "Blood and Lace" is a shocker that ought to satisfy curiosity seekers.Seven out of 10.

After her prostitute mother and her john are beaten to death while they are asleep in bed, teen-aged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is sent to an isolated orphanage run by Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her handyman (Len Lesser).While Melody Patterson is known for being Wrangler Jane in "F Troop", she will now forever be branded in my mind as Ellie Masters. I found this film to be far better than the ratings people assign to it, and Patterson was an excellent choice as the film's star (why she no longer acts is a mystery to me).Perhaps most interesting, from a historical standpoint, is this film's impact on the slasher subgenre. I generally like to think of "Black Christmas" as the first true slasher film, but there were elements here that had "slasher" written all over them. The film in general is not a slasher film, but the opening scene with the "hammer cam"? Heck, it was very much like the beginning of "Halloween". Coincidence or inspiration?

This is a weird one, one example of the trashy movies made around that time. Surely not done these days, again a movie about child abuse. This time in a orphanage. First we see in the first minute a murder of a man and a woman. A child is left alone afterwards. So she has to go to an orphanage. Real punishment is given over there, it was the time that in real life it was done to give your child(ren) some spanking or ear pulling or physical punishment. All shown in this flick. The girl from the house has a bad mouth still talking about her mother as a whore (which she was) messing around with teens and all the men of the town. And at the orphanage it's the same, the gardener (what a cliché) is messing around with all the girls even with the sixteen year old one. There is almost no blood in this flick and almost no killing but it has a strange feeling and atmosphere. At the end everything is revealed and even that has this strange feeling. The copper asking something (won't spoil the plot or killer) that makes you feel, only in those 70 grindhouse/exploitation ones. This one was never released and will never be released due the matter of the child affairs. But make sure to have a watch, it will leave you with a bitter feeling.