For film noir fans.
I learned today that BLAST OF SILENCE (Allen Baron, 1961) is being released by Criterion in April. To the best of my knowledge, this is its the first non-DVD-R release.
Frankie Bono is an independent hit-man hired to assassinate a mob guy. Within that ultra-thin narrative, Baron creates a character study, with most of the emotional tension driven by loneliness, that is a film noir classic. Although film noir is generally discussed as having a focus on existential man, BLAST OF SILENCE has a nihilistic man. Not only is there no redemption or hope of redemption, the very concept of redemption seems foreign.
Prior to BLAST OF SILENCE, Baron directed some episodes of Hawaiian Eye and Surfside Six. After BLAST OF SILENCE, his career was limited mostly to TV, directing episodes of, for example, Room 222, Barnaby Jones, and Charlie's Angels.
Frankie Bono is portrayed by Allen Baron, whose only other acting performance was in CUBAN REBEL GIRLS (1959). Larry Tucker has a role that is marvelous, and the voice-over narration is by Lionel Stander. The film's opening shot with Stander's narration (You were born with hate and anger built in. Took a slap in the backside to blast out the scream. Then you knew you were alive.) alone is worth the purchase price. I prefer this film to MURDER BY CONTRACT, perhaps its nearest kin in the sleaze-noir family. I'm looking forward to replacing my "5 Minutes to Live" copy.
BLAST OF SILENCE
ChiO - Your posting on BLAST OF SILENCE reawakened a lively chapter in my personal history as a theatrical film programmer. BLAST was a film that I had seen on television (once, in the middle of the night) in the late 60s back in Detroit and it etched itself vividly in my imagination despite not even knowing the film's title. It never appeared again and I was left to sort out its jumbled images in my mind over the next twenty-five years. For a while I even thought that I had possibly dreamed that I saw this film and perhaps it didn't really exist...
By the early 90s I was in the enviable position of programming one of the leading arthouses in the country and naturally allowed my vague obsession with this film to drive me to seek it out---at any cost. With the help of other film freaks I was able to identify the film as BLAST OF SILENCE and tracking its origins to Universal Studios who initially distributed it in 1961. I contacted Universal and learned that they still controlled the film but had no prints. I then set out to locate the film's director (and star) Allen Baron. This proved to be a simple task; he was alive and well in Los Angeles and very much involved in the industry. At the time he was embroiled in the TV show Cagney and Lacey and doing quite well producing and directing it. We talked on the phone at length about reviving BLAST OF SILENCE and we agreed to have our theater mount a week-long premiere revival. Baron had his own print but the booking was handled through Universal, who would receive the revenue. We opened the film in early May, 1992 to glowing reviews and brisk business. Allen Baron's mysteriously odd little film was suddenly being reborn in a swirl of high profile activity. The local press rolled out the red carpet for the film and for Baron as well. He came up in advance for interviews and stayed around long enough to do a Q & A on opening night.
Ultimately Baron proved to be a prickly personality, arrogantly egotistical and bitter over his failure to find work in features yet strangely ungrateful for the great success he had found in television. By the end of his visit, I had had my fill of Mr. Baron and was glad to see him go. The success we had with the film, however, was enough of a mitigating factor to make the experience memorable. I'm thrilled that it's finally getting its due on DVD and that Criterion is actually doing it.
By the early 90s I was in the enviable position of programming one of the leading arthouses in the country and naturally allowed my vague obsession with this film to drive me to seek it out---at any cost. With the help of other film freaks I was able to identify the film as BLAST OF SILENCE and tracking its origins to Universal Studios who initially distributed it in 1961. I contacted Universal and learned that they still controlled the film but had no prints. I then set out to locate the film's director (and star) Allen Baron. This proved to be a simple task; he was alive and well in Los Angeles and very much involved in the industry. At the time he was embroiled in the TV show Cagney and Lacey and doing quite well producing and directing it. We talked on the phone at length about reviving BLAST OF SILENCE and we agreed to have our theater mount a week-long premiere revival. Baron had his own print but the booking was handled through Universal, who would receive the revenue. We opened the film in early May, 1992 to glowing reviews and brisk business. Allen Baron's mysteriously odd little film was suddenly being reborn in a swirl of high profile activity. The local press rolled out the red carpet for the film and for Baron as well. He came up in advance for interviews and stayed around long enough to do a Q & A on opening night.
Ultimately Baron proved to be a prickly personality, arrogantly egotistical and bitter over his failure to find work in features yet strangely ungrateful for the great success he had found in television. By the end of his visit, I had had my fill of Mr. Baron and was glad to see him go. The success we had with the film, however, was enough of a mitigating factor to make the experience memorable. I'm thrilled that it's finally getting its due on DVD and that Criterion is actually doing it.
From yesterday's Facets Multimedia weekly newsletter:
"Nothing short of a revelation...a rare B-movie by-product of Fuller, Melville, and Cassavetes," writes Rob Nelson (City Pages) of this low-budget first feature from actor-writer-director Allen Baron. He plays lonely hitman Frank Bono, who prowls the Manhattan streets for days as his loathing for his mobster target intensifies. Hardboiled narration (spoken by Lionel Stander) glides with viewers through energetically choreographed and edited sequences captured with handheld cameras on location in New York City. These more poetic passages stand in contrast to Blast of Silence's adherence to brutal noir conventions. Written by Waldo Salt (Serpico).
Available on April 15, 2008, from Criterion.
The line forms behind me.
"Nothing short of a revelation...a rare B-movie by-product of Fuller, Melville, and Cassavetes," writes Rob Nelson (City Pages) of this low-budget first feature from actor-writer-director Allen Baron. He plays lonely hitman Frank Bono, who prowls the Manhattan streets for days as his loathing for his mobster target intensifies. Hardboiled narration (spoken by Lionel Stander) glides with viewers through energetically choreographed and edited sequences captured with handheld cameras on location in New York City. These more poetic passages stand in contrast to Blast of Silence's adherence to brutal noir conventions. Written by Waldo Salt (Serpico).
Available on April 15, 2008, from Criterion.
The line forms behind me.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
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Mr. Arkadin
- Posts: 2645
- Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm
I always have a link to Criterion's site and had seen this, but knew nothing about it. Thanks for the info guys (what am I, third in line? I hope I don't have to take a number! 
).
Link:
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=428
).Link:
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=428