Blast Of Silence is a 1961 crime noir film written and directed Allen Baron. I hadn't heard of him until I picked up a copy of the Criterion DVD but it turns out I had seen some of his work in the past. This was his first feature film and one of his few credits out of the TV business. He started directing TV right after the film with a couple of episodes of Surfside 6. I remember that show with some fondness but haven't seen it in years. It hasn't ever come out on DVD and I haven't found any bootleggers with it. Allen worked in the TV business for the next 25 years directing nearly 100 episodes of various shows like The Love Boat, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Love American Style, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Arnie, The Brady Bunch and many more. I've seen a bunch of his work but didn't know it.
Blast Of Silence is about a hit man from Cleveland who comes to New York to kill a low level mob boss. Allen plays the hit man, named Frankie Bono, and he does a fair job. Frankie gets to work as soon as he gets the target's name and photo. Frankie follows the mob boss around and sets up the hit. Frankie buys a 38 Special revolver from a big fat guy named Big Ralph and gets a silencer for it. That just won't work and I don't know why people don't know that. You see it in the movies and on TV quite often. While Frankie's waiting for the right time to kill the mob boss he runs into a guy who he used to know 20 years ago. The guy invites him for a drink and to a party. Rather than keep a low profile Frankie goes and gets briefly involved with the guy's sister. That doesn't go well, the hit man isn't much good at interacting with people. When Big Ralph sees Frankie observing the mob boss at the Gate Of Horn in the Village he applies a bit of blackmail. Not a very good idea and he winds up strangled on the floor of his apartment. Frankie, kind of spooked by it all, tells the man who hired him he doesn't want to do the job anymore. The guy tells him to get his shit together and get back to work, he's already in enough trouble just for calling. Frankie fills his contract and goes to collect the rest of his money. He winds up dead in Jamaica Bay.
It was a darn good film with lots of interesting looking scenes. Baron is an artist who got the film bug. He got a couple of grand together to see if he could make his own film. He figured he'd be able to shoot some footage and use that to attract the rest of the money he would need. Baron chanced on a backer in a restaurant, got $18,000 more, and finished the film. There's a narration by Lionel Stander. He wanted $1000 if they used his name and $500 is they didn't. They went with the cheaper option. It's still a pretty good narration, Lionel's gravely voice is perfect for the job. I was really impressed with the work that everyone did on the film and was glad to have seen it. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a crime film.
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