Bento de Espinosa It seems there is some kind of connection between a movie being black and white, low-budget and receiving more positive reviews than it actually deserves. Since I love noir movies, I had lots of expectations of Blast of Silence, but the one word that best describes this movie is: dull. To use a line from a Monty Python's sketch: "It's dull, dull, dull..." Almost nothing happens during the entire movie! The music is very annoying, but the worst part is the narration: it fills the whole movie and destroys any tension it could have had, if any. Plot consists in the main character uninterruptedly going from one place to another. Completely overrated and the proof that IMDb ratings are not at all reliable.

Rockwell_Cronenberg Allen Baron established himself in 1961 as one of America's most promising new filmmakers with Blast of Silence, a noir thriller that he wrote, directed and starred in. He practically disappeared from the industry afterwards, directing only a handful of other projects that haven't lasted the test of time and mostly working in the television field, but his debut feature lives on as a gritty, atmospheric work of art. Immediately, the film explodes onto the screen, surrounding the viewer with sounds of a child being born, as we are narrated through child birth and find ourselves inching closer and closer to a distant light. The style is unique and very aggressive, as Baron is essentially giving birth to his audience into the world he's about to shove us down.The premise is a simple one, stripped down to it's essentials as Baron's hit-man Frank Bono is sent from Cleveland to New York in order to perform a job. It's a standard pulp set-up, but Baron constructs it all in a bold and innovative fashion. For starters, most of the dialogue is told through narration, but the narrator is his own character and tells everything from the second-person. Baron creates Bono as his audience, having the narrator refer to the character as "you", telling us what is happening in our mind in response to the surroundings. It's an absorbing technique that draws you in quickly and he utilizes it for the entire picture.We are constantly reminded of how Bono wants to be alone, but over and over he finds himself having to confront one person or another, be it an old flame or an overweight gun dealer and his pet rats. Baron surrounds us in chaos, a technique which gets us to deeply appreciate the serenity of isolation we are often told about. There's not much violence in the picture, but when it does come on screen it is surprisingly graphic for it's time. Thanks to some quick, chaotic editing, each moment of violence is unsettling and as aggressive as the style itself. We see Bono walk the streets of New York casually, but after seeing the violence that he is capable of this simple act takes on a much more grim and intimidating tone. The whole film has a very gritty, bleak atmosphere that is perfectly contrasted by the seasonal setting, occurring in the period from right before Christmas Day into the New Year.Blast of Silence is just what it's title suggests, an explosion of an isolated creature into a world that he wasn't ready for; or maybe it wasn't ready for him. Constantly it feels like Bono doesn't belong, and Baron utilizes this to give the film an uneasy tone, as if something dangerous could be coming at any turn. There's a theme of social unrest that lurks in the background at all times and Bono is just another of the many unruly citizens who occupy our common streets. It's a shame that Baron didn't continue displaying his immense talent after this one, because it really is one of the finest debut features I've come across.

runamokprods This film bridges the gap between classic 50s noir, and the more complex, improvisational dark NYC films to come, first by Cassavettes, and then by Scorsese. Very reminiscent of, if not as psychologically complex, surreal, and twisted as, the writings of Jim Thompson. A hit man from Cleveland comes to New York for one last job. The film uses 2nd person narration – 'You feel this', or 'You sense danger'. It's an interesting technique I can't remember encountering in a movie before, which plays with your head in a good way. Who's narrating the film? Obviously the 'you' is the main character, but by subtle implication it makes US him. The narration was written under a pseudonym by the great blacklisted writer Waldo Salt. Beautiful, stark and depressing photography – which I guess describes the film as a whole as well.A couple of terrific, odd supporting characters add to the nightmare atmosphere. While some of the acting is variable, and a few twists are too telegraphed, this is a film that has stuck with me.

MisterWhiplash Allen Baron didn't make that many films (maybe only two or three at most in a career mostly dominated by TV gigs), but perhaps one near-great film is enough. There are two kinds of directors in this world, my friend: those who make one or two fantastic films that will live on and on, and then those who make several amongst many other excellent or very good films. Allen Baron falls into the former category, and his film Blast of Silence is an example of how to do something right on a super-duper low budget on the streets of New York, with no-name (or not-at-all) actors, and the one big name being Lionel Stander a at-the-time blacklisted actor who was paid $500 to speak Waldo Salt's blisteringly powerful hard-boiled narration.Indeed the narration here is so good that it at times threatens the scenes it comes in on. It's a "you know it, Frankie" type of voice, a combination of some unseen presence looking on and perhaps just a voice of conscience ripped right off the shelf of a paperback. Stander's gravel-voice, a possible inspiration for Rourke in Sin City, and the real locations and hoppy jazz score, all add to this being a delicious fear of film-making. The story itself isn't that much more different than one might see in Melville (not exactly Le Samourai but close - take away the narration, some of the dialog and chunks of the music and its about the same), as a hired gun, Frank Bono (Baron), comes into the Big Apple on a contract killing, and suddenly finds himself in one of those crises of the existential sort.Frank is all alone, and is fine that way, until he connects with a group of guys that run into him who used to be kids at the orphanage together. He sees a woman there that he wants to spend some time with, but this all just starts to mess with his head - that and a bad deal done with a shady, fat gun seller (you might remember from Shock Corridor and Angels Hard as They Come, an unforgettable presence if not great actor) that leads him to questioning the whole job he's on. Baron has some familiar ground he's dealing with, but it's all filmed carefully in Frank's following and casing of his target. The tension mounts brilliantly, and the tone is dark without being pretentious. And those shots of Frank Bono walking on the streets in mostly darkness, fedora and hat, jazz and Christmas songs, are for the film-noir fan just about perfect.If there's a minor drawback, and it should be mentioned, it's that Baron isn't entirely fit in the role of Frank Bono, and as a first time director (save for Lionel Stander and maybe Tucker) he only gets the minimum out of his low-rent cast. On the recent Criterion DVD in an interview Baron said Peter Falk was originally considered for the role. That would've put it over the top, and something out of the ordinary to see Falk in that part. With Baron, doing triple duty as writer, director and actor, he does some decent work in some scenes, but isn't entirely comfortable speaking certain lines of dialog. He works better, and perhaps he himself knew this from seeing early test footage and whatnot, as a silent figure, moving as in Melville like some lone ghost on the streets or looking with a cold, lonely stare like in the jazz club or on a dark street.Blast of Silence is terrific when it sticks to what it should: take to the streets and buildings in Greenwich Village and Harlem and the East Side in crisp black and white and give it the feel of one of the best paperback pulp books you've ever read brought to life. It's like a slightly rusty but practically unassailable ruby. 9.5/10