From working as an abstract expressionist painter to directing episodes of Charlie’s Angels, Allen Baron has done pretty much everything you can do in the world of visual arts. But what he did best of all was to write, direct and star in the classic 1961 noir, Blast of Silence. The drama smartly uses bold yet low-budget symbolism as it follows a veteran mob assassin who may be doomed by a crisis of conscience.
An orphan and a loner, Cleveland hitman “Baby Boy” Frank Bono (Baron) has survived into middle age by making sure other people didn’t get the same opportunity. He’s been paid to come to New York to use a mid-level mobster for target practice, just the latest body he’ll add to his count. Against the backdrop of marvelous street scenes in Harlem and Greenwich Village, Bono pursues his quarry with steely determination until a chance encounter with a childhood friend makes “Baby Boy” rethink his grown-up existence–and perhaps imperils his life.
The movie has a nearly omnipresent hard-boiled narration (performed by Lionel Stander and penned by blacklisted writer Waldo Salt) that judges, evaluates and almost mocks Bono each crooked step of the way. But the scenes that are most memorable are the ones that occur in between the narration. Especially golden are the passages in which Bono squares off with a corpulent gun dealer (Larry Tucker), who lives in a dump with cages of pet rats. They’re a pair of predators looking to turn each other into prey. When the men tussle and overturned cages allow the rats to scurry free, it’s hard to tell the actual vermin from the human kind. (Available from Netflix and other outlets.)
More Film Posts:
- New DVD: The Exploding Girl.
- Classic DVD: The Holy Mountain. (1973)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Confessions of a Superhero. (2007)
- Classic DVD: Head. (1968)
- Classic DVD: Logan’s Run. (1976)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Hi, Mom! (1970)
- New DVD: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
- Classic DVD: The Phantom of Liberty. (1974)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Face of Another. (1966)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Night Moves. (1975)
- New DVD: Greenberg.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Silent Partner. (1978)
- New DVD: Big Man Japan.
- Classic DVDs: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One. (1968)
- Classic DVD: Beat the Devil. (1953)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Targets. (1968)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: All the Vermeers in New York. (1989)
- Classic DVD: “La Jetée.” (1962)
- New DVD: The T.A.M.I. Show.
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Bad Company. (1972)
- Classic DVD: The Other. (1972)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Naked Kiss. (1964)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: “La Soufriere.” (1976)
- Classic DVD: Network. (1976)
- Classic DVD: Seconds. (1966)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: The Honeymoon Killers. (1970)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Electra Glide in Blue. (1973)
- Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Prime Cut. (1972)
- Top 20 Films of the Aughts.
Tags: Allen Baron, Larry Tucker, Lionel Stander, Waldo Salt
Subscribe to my free, monthly Substack newsletter, "Books I Read This Month." Some new titles, some older, some rare.
Categories
About
Afflictor.com is the website of Darren D’Addario. Except where otherwise noted, all writing is his copyrighted material. ©2009-18.