Blast of Silence (1961)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Expected more

As Good As It Gets

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Dear Allen Baron,your film could have been named "The Portrait of the Assassin as a Reluctant Square". The beginning in the railway tunnel with the baby crying and the slap - it was almost like the emergence of some sort of childhood consciousness (I wonder if the beginning influenced one of the songs by the heavy metal band Tool). But then we see the adult walk out of the train. Almost as if you're saying that innocence does not last for long. The extremely cynical narrator adds to the air of decay and loneliness. The narrator is pretty sensational. He hits you on the head with the situation of the assassin. He is almost like the main character's patron. It is almost like he is talking to the assassin and not narrating a story (like in The Big Lebowski) Egging him along towards his inevitable destruction.I guess a young Martin Scorsese was watching this. All those scenes with Baby Boy Frankie Bono walking around the city all alone, the brightly lit Christmasy areas and the run down sleazy locations must have inspired his visual style. There is even a long sequence where Franky Bono works with a gun and even points it at the screen.Anyway, I liked the portrayal of Bono the assassin as a normal guy who longs for the regular life.The actors are not fantastic or anything. And there were instances when you went over the top with the music. I was wondering why it was called Blast of Silence. I mean, it was a pretty noisy film.I enjoyed it. It is definitely a very influential film. And very entertaining as well.Best Regards, Pimpin.(8/10)

Blast of SilenceChristmas shopping is easy for a hit man because everyone on his list gets a bullet.But as this drama demonstrates it's the other traditions that distress an assassin this time of year.Dispatched to New York over the holidays to deal with a low-level mob boss (Peter Clune), Cleveland contract killer Frankie Bono (Allen Baron) is uneasy with returning to his hometown.His unflappable nature is further tested when he encounters an old friend from the orphanage and reignites a holiday romance with her (Molly McCarthy).However, Frankie's violent lifestyle doesn't quite mesh with his old acquaintances.The most honest portrayal of a professional killer ever produced, this haunting 1961 noir Christmas story captures the pathos and loneliness akin to a killer's career, and the callousness needed to endure it.By the way, the only gift a mobster wants from Santa at Christmas is his help moving a body. Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Though far from being great and containing way-way too much voice-over narration for its own good (as you'll find out for yourself), this grungy, low-budget Crime/Drama from 1961 (featuring one of the blandest protagonists imaginable) is still well-worth a view for anyone who can appreciate this particular genre of film.Though Blast Of Silence (BOS) is not quite what I would consider to be true "Film Noir", its grubby, greasy, cynical, little story about thugs, ruffians and lowlifes certainly had its fair share of entertaining moments.Set in NYC (just a day or 2 before Christmas), I guarantee you that BOS's black-hearted story will not, in any way, put you into the yuletide spirit. But, its up-tempo jazz score (which was pretty cool) may help to alleviate some of the story's more depressing moments.And, hey, if you're looking for some comedy relief - BOS actually does offer the viewer just that (unintentionally, of course).There's one episode where Frankie Bono viciously attacks the obese Ralphie with an axe. And this alone is certainly worthy of a couple of laughs.But BOS's ultimate comedy gem was when Frankie (who's attending a festive Christmas party) gets down on his hands and knees beside his opponent and at the word "Go!" these 2 fools vie to win the peanut-pushing race using only their noses to nudge the peanut along. (Yep. 'Tis the season to be jolly!?) Anyways - BOS's story concerns the callously-minded activities of Frankie Bono, an emotionally dead (well, almost) hired killer from Cleveland who has come to NYC to fulfill his contract obligations to rub out an arrogant, second-fiddle crime-boss named Troiano. As expected, when Frankie's comfortably numb "cool" gets seriously rattled, things tend not to go as originally planned.Filmed in stark b&w, BOS had a mere running time of only 77 minutes. You may find, like I did, that this film's story bared a lot of similarities to Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" from 1976.

This has to be the bleakest movie ever made. Nothing I've seen comes close.It lasts a mere 77 minutes but seems twice as long. Identically filmed tracking shots of the hit-man, Frank Bono, walking along grey winter Manhattan streets as dozens of storefronts pass monotonously behind him take up 20 minutes. There's one static shot of Bono, starting as a speck, walking towards us from a full city block away that doesn't end until he literally almost runs into the camera. Add to these, two prolonged scenes photographed from Bono's car as he trails the man he has contracted to murder. These scenes kill about a half hour, leaving 45 minutes.From this you can subtract another 10 minutes during which Bono goes into a Greenwich Village nightclub and sits drinking at a bar while his prey hangs with a group at a table. In this sequence, the camera dwells mostly on a bongo-playing singer as he belts out two or three full-length beatnik songs, each as boringly dreadful – and pointless -- as the next.During all of the above not a single word of dialogue is spoken. Over most of the above is a relentlessly despairing and repetitive narrative voiced by a raspy actor speaking in comic book gangsterese. He provides Bono's boilerplate backstory and what's going through his mind as he endlessly walks and drives the streets of the city. Many, many allusions to hot hands/cold hands.So, now we're down to about a half hour of actual interaction and (dull) conversation between four (dull) characters, plus three (dull) killing sequences. The last shooting is filmed in the frigid Jamaica Bay wetlands during a perfectly bleak sideways-blowing snowstorm that is the perfectly bleak icing on the perfectly bleak cake.I know, I know. The movie is meant to be gritty and grim. It's noir, right? But what's its point? What of value is the viewer supposed to glean from this?