Blood and Black Lace

Blood and Black Lace is a 1964 Italian crime horror mystery directed by Mario Bava, who co-wrote the screenplay with Marcello Fondato and Giuseppe Barilla. It is set in a Rome fashion house run by Contessa Cristiana Cuomo, where a young model, Isabella, is killed by a masked figure. When her diary goes missing, the killer keeps striking at the models connected to the house in order to recover it, since the diary records the secrets and misdeeds of the people who work there. Inspector Silvestri takes charge of the investigation, but the culprit stays ahead of him as the deaths continue.

The film stars Eva Bartok as the Contessa, Cameron Mitchell as Massimo Morlacchi, and Thomas Reiner as Inspector Silvestri, alongside Ariana Gorini, Dante DiPaolo and Mary Arden among a credited cast of twenty-two. It was produced by Massimo Patrizi and Alfredo Mirabile for several companies across Italy, France and Germany, and runs eighty-eight minutes.

Released in March 1964, it followed a run of earlier Bava films that included Black Sunday, Black Sabbath and The Whip and the Body. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 15,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a 7.3 from 485 votes. A critics' rating of 7 out of 10 from sixteen reviews places it close to the audience scores.