NOT Available on DVD: BLOOD AND LACE

The shocking 1971 thriller BLOOD AND LACE (not to be confused with Mario Bava’s similarly titled BLOOD AND BLACK LACE from 1964) opens with a bloody hammer murder shot from the point of view of the killer that predates an almost identical opening to John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN by 6 years. The plot of BLOOD AND LACE involves murder, pedophilia, incest, and a freezer full of child corpses. And it was rated PG! (more accurately GP, the 1971 equivalent). An irresistible mix of bad psychodrama, overacting, and gratuitous gore, BLOOD AND LACE is a disturbing film of genuine misanthropy, bereft of humanity on any level and it’s hard to believe that children in 1971 were allowed into movie theatres showing it. It’s also hard to believe that it is NOT available on DVD.

The victim of BLOOD AND LACE’s aforementioned hammer attack was village hooker Edna Masters, leaving her troubled teenage daughter Ellie (Melody Patterson) an orphan. Ellie becomes a ward of the state and is sent to an orphanage in the woods that presents an even greater danger than the hammer-wielding psycho who offed her mom. Deere Youth Home is run by the degenerate Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her beastly handyman Tom (Len Lesser). Mrs. Deere sleeps with the local social worker so that he will ignore the squalid conditions of the orphanage and the obviously lifeless teens in its infirmary. It seems that whenever a child tries to escape the Deere Youth Home they are dispatched with a meat cleaver by Tom, stored in the deep freezer, and brought out only when social services come to call (the blue corpse makeup in these scenes is terrible). Ellie is miserable there but she does like handsome young orphan Walter and they strike up a romance. Ellie finds a starving girl held prisoner in the attic and is almost raped by Tom, but Walter makes sure she is never able to flee the home, informing Mrs. Deere of her escape attempts. Meanwhile Detective Carruthers (Vic Tayback), investigating Edna’s murder, pops in occasionally to check on Ellie, but his interest in the teenager isn’t as gallant as it seems and he’s got some dark secrets of his own. There’s also a guy with a Freddy Kruger-type mask who shows up at the orphanage wielding a hammer and all these seedy characters come together for a twist finale involving a jaw-dropping incestual revelation.

BLOOD AND LACE is a nasty, mean-spirited piece of work without a single sympathetic character. Mrs. Deere is a foul-tempered nutjob, Tom the handyman is a drunken miscreant, Walter shows constant failings by refusing to break out and ruining the escape attempts of others, Detective Carruthers has an unhealthy sexual interest in Ellie, and the social worker accepts sexual favors to ignore the dilemma of the abused orphans. Even Ellie, the film’s nominal heroine, is not particularly likable, coming across as a petulant brat. Unpleasant as BLOOD AND LACE may be, it actually has a very clever, if humorless, script and it predates other grim rural horror films such as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974). The film is scored with loud stock music used throughout that sounds like it came from a 1940’s melodrama which adds to the film’s overall oddness and at times BLOOD AND LACE plays like a prison film as written by the Brothers Grimm with Mrs. Deere as the ultimate sick warden.

BLOOD AND LACE was the only feature for director Philip Gilbert who did manage to assemble an interesting cast. Gloria Grahame was once a sexy Hollywood star, having won an Oscar in 1952 for THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and is even better remembered for two other roles: the local temptress Violet in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1945) and the gangster’s moll whose face is disfigured by Lee Marvin in THE BIG HEAT (1953). By the 1970’s, Ms Grahame was accepting roles in cheap films such as THE LONERS (1972), AUTOPSY (1973), and MANSION OF THE DOOMED (1975). She’s wonderfully hateful and depraved as Mrs. Deere in BLOOD AND LACE and would play a very similar character three years later in MAMA’S DIRTY GIRLS (another trashy gem MIA on DVD), a sleazy crime drama cast as Candice Rialson’s homicidal mother. Gloria Grahame died of cancer in 1981 at age 57. Melody Patterson is fine as Ellie but seems a bit old to playing a teenage orphan (she was 23 at the time) She was best known for playing Wrangler Jane Thrift on the TV show “F-Troopâ€� as a teenager in the mid-60’s. She was in a couple of biker films before BLOOD AND LACE but seemed to drop out of showbiz soon after. Vic Tayback as Detective Carruthers is recognizable for playing Mel on the TV show “Aliceâ€�, a character he originally played in Martin Scorsese’s ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE in 1974 and Len Lesser, who plays the decrepit handyman Tom, was a familiar character actor in movies and TV for decades (and is still working at age 88. I always remember him in THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) but many would recognize him as Uncle Leo from “Seinfeldâ€�. Dennis Christopher, who would go on to star in BREAKING AWAY (1979) and FADE TO BLACK (1980) has an early role as one of the “inmates”.

BLOOD AND LACE has got to be the most appalling film to ever be rated PG. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) and CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) had both just been slapped with “Xâ€�s so I don’t understand why it got by with such a mild rating (even its poster is grisly). Maybe it’s the lack of nudity and vulgar language but its murder scenes, overall tone, and adult themes are enough that today it would easily get an “Râ€�. BLOOD AND LACE used to air uncut on afternoon local television frequently in the mid-70’s and its sadistic nature and bleak tone always got under my skin. Though produced by American International, BLOOD AND LACE has never had any type of home viewing release in the U.S. but it isn’t too hard to track down on the collector’s market and is highly recommended. It’s perverse, dreadful, and amusing in equal measure and shouldn’t be missed by fans of oddball 70’s horror.