Blood and Lace

Yes the "original" idea that opens Halloween has to come from on of the opening shots of this film. It's a hammer being carried through the house instead of a knife but it's very very close.

That said Halloween is a much better movie, which goes almost without saying. But this does have a lurid feeling and a warped ending. It's that modest to low budget grunge of the 70's that oozes sleaze and danger.

Unfortunately the plot here borrows from obvious sources as it goes along which dampens the more original aspects. Tayback fans from his nice guy TV star role will be shocked, or may want to be by seeing him here.

Still warts and all this film has its memorable moments especially for fans of the era.

Melody Patterson(better known as "Wrangler Jane" on TV's "F Troop") plays a young girl whose prostitute-mother is brutally murdered. Patterson's problems go from bad to worse when she is sent to an orphanage where the superintendent(Gloria Grahame, who's excellent) has her handyman(Len Lesser) murder those of her charges who try to run away. Remarkably brutal and unrelenting for its time, BLOOD AND LACE has been called one of the sickest PG-rated movies ever made and that it is, but I loved it anyway! A must for the horror film fanatic but all others are warned to stay away.

"Blood And Lace" is best described as a demented "Grimm Fairy Tale". After her prostitute mother is murdered, teen aged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is sent to an isolated orphanage run by Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her handyman (Len Lesser, now known as Uncle Lou on "Seinfeld"). Taking an avid interest in her welfare is detective Calvin Carruthers (Vic Tayback, Mel from the "Alice" TV series). Taking almost no interest at all, is social worker Harold Mullins (Milton Selzer) who is completely under Mrs. Deere's thumb, or, as Lesser puts it "under her skirt". Lots of unpleasant surprises are in store for Our Heroine, not the least of which is the fact that Mrs. Deere and her handyman are both brutal sadists, who run the orphanage like a concentration camp. The film shows it's obviously low budget only too well, but it really doesn't matter. The script is very clever, Grahame is excellent as usual, and Patterson (of TV's "F Troop" fame), is appealing. The supporting players are all good, including a young Dennis Christopher, as one of the "inmates". Definitely ahead of it's time, "Blood And Lace" holds up remarkably well.

I give this a solid 7. Didn't see the film until it was released on BLURAY.

The print I saw was excellent, with decent sound. I have read various reviews all over the place.

For a movie supposedly made for $200,000 USD 1971 ($1,238,814.07 today) it is a stellar showcase of both creativity and using well held traditional production techniques, mixed in with really off the wall but effective tricks, some taken from other movies, some movies taken from this. The sound effects aren't as cheesy in most cases as I assumed since taken from older libraries, the crickets loop at the start were probably the most heard effect ever, have heard that in TV shows, movies and cartoons. The opening title , credits is a classic gothic german font, kinda cool. I was unfamiliar with Wranger Jane, but knowing the story of her career, this appears to be a bad turn in her history, degraded her. She is a presence on screen, but no match for someone like Vic Tayback (Calvin). The lighting at times is very flattering to her, and sometimes terrible. Her character's (Ellie Masters) entire back story is basically tragedy. I was surprised again with some production details like quality , but basic camera work, showing they probably hired union guys who have done a million TV shows. This does not look rookie, just lower budget. The actors chosen are great and are what hold this interesting 'prototype' slasher film together, but I find it more psychological than slasher.

The opening scene presents a gruesome hammer-murder of a prostitute and her customer in an unusual killer's POV (point of view) camera shot. Right after, an attractive young woman – Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) – awakes from a nightmare and screams. She is the daughter of the murdered woman. Very soon, as she is without parents, Ellie is sent to an orphanage run by twisted Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and creepy handyman Tom Kredge (Len Lesser). They have the knack for capturing fugitives and keeping them in deep freeze, after they are dispatched by Kredge.

Detective Calvin Carruthers (Vic Payback) supposedly wants to help Ellie. His motives are morally ambiguous, to say the least. Another strange dude is Mr. Mullins (Milton Selzer), a social worker who enjoys the favors from Mrs. Deere for looking the other way. A teen-aged girl is tied up in the attic and deprived of water for not folding her napkin. Meanwhile there is a strange dude with a chilling mask lurking about the place. What does he want? Does he want to kill Ellie, thinking that she saw him murder her mother, whom Ellie despised? Rapes and killings abound. So yes, it's a sick movie all-around, but quite interesting. Logic is left outside the door, but the ending is a real grabber.

In short, this is a trash-lovers delight, with nary a sympathetic character. It was filmed by American International Pictures. Gloria Grahame was an actress from the 1940s to the 1980s; some of her movies are "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), and "Oklahoma" (1955). Melody Patterson had starred in the TV sitcom "F Troop" in 1965-1967. Len Lesser was featured in both movies and in TV, such as "Seinfeld." Vic Payback was in both the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), and in the TV version, "Alice." Milton Selzer was more known for his TV appearances than film.