Mannekäng i rött is a 1958 Swedish crime/thriller film directed by Arne Mattson (who six other movies in the series of Hillman-thrillers, starting with The Lady In Black, which star author Folke Mellvig’s detective couple Kajsa and John Hillman) and written by Mellvig.

John and Kajsa Hillman (Karl-Arne Holmsten and Annalisa Ericson) are investigating a series of murders at La Femme, a fashion house filled with secrets, starting with the missing Katja Sundin (Elsa Prawitz), who soon appears with a 17th-century dagger in her back. Once you start to see models disrobing, a blackmail plot, gorgeous color, and a camera roving through all of it, you may wonder if Mario Bava saw this movie. After all, Blood and Black Lace came out five years later. It’s hard to imagine that he never did, as this is the template for that film, minus his even more beautiful camera work and the pornography of violence, a movie based around murder set pieces that would be one of the movies that we now claim as the start of Giallo.

Between this couple who love one another as much as a mystery — and have an assistant named Freddy (Nils Hallberg) — you may think of The Thin Man or Hart to Hart when watching. Obviously, Bava made a much better picture, one that inspired an entire film of bloody psychosexual excess. But hey — inspiration has to come from someplace.