Criterion Collection: Blast of Silence [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This movie was not like any other I have ever seen, but I haven't seen them all and I haven't seen all of Cassavetes' work, which keeps being mentioned in connection with it. Dated? Not to me unless you are referring to the Village Gate scene and I prefer to call that "period" rather than "dated."

I'd recommend this movie to anyone who happens to be reading about it--you are obviously interested in noirs and this, for being a little past the noir period, is about as noir as you can get. Unforgettable, too.

The extras on the DVD were terrific. Wish that Criterion Collection movies weren't so expensive, but I must admit they are worth it.

**** 1961. Written and directed by Allen Baron. Frank Bono, a hitman, arrives in NYC in order to kill the mobster Troiano. While he's carefully preparing the hit, he meets Lorrie, a girl he knew when he was at the orphanage. I sincerely admit that I hadn't heard of this motion picture before last night and wouldn't have had the curiosity to take a look at it if a different collection than Criterion had released it. I simply had confidence in the team who already made me discover such great movies as Sidney Gilliat's Green for Danger - Criterion Collection or Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection. In short, BLAST OF SILENCE is a film noir that deserves to be rediscovered. Far away from the Hollywood dream machine, Allen Barron shot a realistic film noir whose mood can be compared to the films of Jules Dassin of the late 40's or the first motion pictures of the French New wave. Highly recommended.

A hitman comes to the city at Christmastime. He carefully stalks his victim, ruminates in hotel rooms, haggles over weaponry, courts an old flame and eventually undertakes the job.

Allen Barron wrote and directed this anxious thriller, and also plays the hitman. His 77-minute 1961 noir is slim in plot, running time and budget, but rich in the inspiration it clearly offered to Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola.

"Blast" feels like a movie that's dated by today's standards but was probably unlike anything else around in 1961, at least this side of French New Wave ~ though it's interesting that Godard's "Breathless" was being filmed at the exact same time as "Blast."

Barron uses stark black-and-white photography and on-the-fly New York locations to great effect: The storm that serves as a backdrop to the climax is apparently real and is reportedly the only hurricane to strike the east coast during the entire 20th century. On the other hand, one scene shot in the Village Gate features a man who may possibly be the most abrasively monotonous nightclub singer ever committed to film.

The tiny apartments, narrow hallways and buildings of blank windows predict "Taxi Driver," and one tremendously awkward date smacks of Travis Bickle. The clubs and cars and gangsters seem a little like outtakes from "Raging Bull," and one particular assassination could've served as a test sketch for a later killing that appeared in "Godfather Part II." One nearly expects to spot Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes, or the gang from "Who's That Knocking at My Door," bickering in the background during other scenes.

But what makes this movie truly unusual is the narration, written by Waldo Salt and delivered by Lionel Stander, who's probably best known for playing the faithful driver Max on "Hart to Hart. Stander's voice sounds like something cranked out of a tarpit with a hand winch. Salt wrote the narration in second-person present tense, which gives it the sound of a sympathetic and schooled observer, or possibly even an imaginary friend. It may be a little too hard boiled (the yolk is fairly bursting through the shell) but it's occasionally haunting and gives "Blast of Silence" a unique voice to match its inky tones and Barron's eyes, which always appear to be shakily resisting total despair.