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Blast of Silence

Critics reviews, audience reviews, cast & crew.

Allen Baron

Molly McCarthy

Larry Tucker

Merrill S. Brody

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Blast of silence: born to die.

Freelance writer based in London. Pacino fanboy and trash connoisseur.

A pinprick of light perforates a pitch-black frame. A train rumbles. A woman screams. “Out of the black silence,” booms a guttural, menacing voice, “you were born in pain.” The light at the end of the tunnel grows larger. The woman’s screams die down, supplanted by those of her newborn baby boy. “You were born with hate and anger built-in,” the voice continues, “Took a slap on the backside to blast out the scream… and then you knew you were alive.” As the train emerges from the darkness into Manhattan, Frankie Bono ( Allen Baron ) enters the world, and for the next 70 minutes, we watch him hurtle down fatalistic tracks as he lusts, hates, kills, and dies, without ever really living at all.

As saturated with doom as the very best works of its genre, Allen Baron ‘s Blast of Silence turns 60 this year—an anniversary that’ll be celebrated quietly by a handful of fans fortunate enough to have unearthed this bleak, brutal, underappreciated noir gem. That the film is largely unknown is a shame, of course, but undeniably quite appropriate, given its all-consuming preoccupation with separateness and self-imposed exile. Baron , both in front of and behind the camera, sustains an almost unbearably miserable descent through countless circles of chilly alienation, beginning with the cold womb of the tunnel, and ending with the even colder mud of a boggy grave, punctuated along the way by frustrated yearning and savage violence. Few films are as tangibly, desperately lonely as this.

Unhappy Holidays

Frankie Bono, the figure at the center of this yarn, is a hitman based out of Cleveland, whose work brings him back at Christmastime to his hometown, New York City, to kill Troiano ( Peter H. Clune ), a “second-string syndicate boss with too much ambition.” Hometown, though, doesn’t mean home, and the overwhelming feeling generated by Baron ‘s writing and visual style are that Frankie would rather be anywhere else in the world than back where it all began for him, where something went terribly wrong in his life. With time to kill between tailing his target and waiting for his gun to be delivered, Frankie floats through the streets that shaped him, not with an air of nostalgic reminiscence, but of resentment. The memories that come flooding back to him are of innocence lost, Christmas wishes crushed and unfulfilled, emotional injuries inflicted by uncaring adults, and faces that he’d hoped to bury.

This is a dismal tale, dismally told by Baron and his collaborators, who sculpt an existential prison out of shadow and sound. Every filmmaking choice diminishes and isolates Frankie, emphasizes his powerlessness, and situates us deep within the dark heart of his consciousness, contributing to the prevailing sense of schism. Cinematographer Merrill Brody infuses the festive backdrop with bitter irony—the busy shop windows, the myriad lights, the joyful buzz of the city’s inhabitants, all serve to divorce Frankie even further from the rest of the world and drive him deeper into his own private sepulcher of psychological torment. Try as he might to blend in with the crowd, Frankie can’t help but seem more like an extraterrestrial visitor, observing the behavior of a strange species with barely-veiled hostility.

Hell Is Other People, and Yourself

So deep are Frankie’s wounds, so baked into his personality is his estrangement from all human connection, that even kindness, we sense, is an injustice to him. In one sequence, we watch as his solitary dinner plans are disrupted by an ambush—the unexpected arrival of an old acquaintance, whose voice we don’t even hear at first. Instead, we hear only the rasping commentary of the narrator, who excavates the magmatic irritation bubbling beneath Frankie’s fidgety crust, that suspicion that even in this restaurant, the universe is conspiring against him: “Why now? You feel hot like they were crowding in and pushing you. Who? Anyone. Everyone.”

That thoroughly distinctive second-person narration, omniscient and poetic, given grim portent by the gravelly tones of Lionel Stander , prods and chips away at Frankie’s psyche, plumbing his mind for past traumas and present anxieties with which to taunt him at every turn. It’s a uniquely unsettling conduit into Frankie’s tortured soul, providing painful insight after painful insight into the roots of his uprooting. It also crystallizes the worldview that motivates this merchant of death, the philosophy behind the gun. “The sisters at the orphanage used to say, ‘God moves in mysterious ways,'” Stander ‘s narrator growls, as Frankie surreptitiously observes his prey, “Sometimes you wonder if he moved you in to rid the world of men like Troiano.”

The animating power of Frankie’s simmering rage is what sets Blast of Silence apart, psychologically, from the other existential hitman masterpieces of the era, to which Baron ‘s film is broadly comparable: Irving Lerner ‘s 1958 film Murder by Contract , and Jean-Pierre Melville ‘s 1967 film Le Samouraï . Lerner ‘s killer, the methodical and businesslike Claude ( Vince Edwards ), is driven by the promise of quick cash and a vision of the American dream, while Melville ‘s killer, the monastic Jef Costello ( Alain Delon ), is a creature of principle and habit. Frankie’s approach to the profession is far more primal, tapping into bottomless reservoirs of fury—killing, for him, is an outlet, a relief valve for the hatred that he feels towards his father, the nuns at the orphanage, the architects of his anguish. Frankie’s modus operandi, seemingly patient and precise, disguises an emotional need—as Stander informs us, Frankie’s reconnaissance strategy has as much to do with learning to loathe his victims as it does with learning their patterns of activity.

Allen’s Artistry

On the surface, too, Frankie is distinct from his cinematic killer kin. Both Edwards and Delon exude coolness with every word and every action, swaggeringly detached in their self-presentation. Baron ‘s performance, meanwhile, is unrefined, stilted, but certainly not ineffective—his gracelessness translates into plaintiveness, transmitting a persistent air of discomfort that marks Frankie as an eternal outcast. Yoked with unease by Baron , Frankie shifts, twitches, recoils, out of place not just when he’s in the presence of others, but even when he’s alone, an island of perpetual agony.

While it’s his unassuredness as an actor that makes him such a transfixing screen presence, there’s nothing unassured about Baron as a visual craftsman. Blast of Silence is the work of a neophyte director, but looking at some of Baron ‘s conspicuous formal touches, his spatially sophisticated and thematically dense compositions, you’d think it’s the work of a consummate maestro. Two moments, in particular, stand out as emphatic visual flourishes—the first is a protracted wide shot at dawn, in which Frankie, in the style of Omar Sharif ‘s spectacular introduction in David Lean ‘s Lawrence of Arabia (although actually predating Lean ‘s film by a year), starts as a speck of darkness on the distant horizon, and walks all the way into the camera lens, more alone than ever after viciously murdering a repulsive acquaintance. The second is an extreme low-angle shot that looks up from the street at Frankie, who looms, silhouetted, over Troiano from the roof of a building—it’s an image that should, you’d think, position Frankie as an elemental force of fate, in godlike command of his target’s life or death, but instead only seems to reinforce his smallness, his inability to alter his own existence and destination.

Conclusion: Always Alone

Baron would never really emerge as the formidable filmmaker that this auspicious debut, his first and only masterpiece, seemed to promise. The rest of his oeuvre is almost entirely tethered to the small screen, including credits on The Brady Bunch , The Dukes of Hazzard , and Charlie’s Angels . Only three further feature films appear in his body of work— Terror in the City , Outside In , and Foxfire Light —all of which are buried even deeper than Blast of Silence beneath the rubble of obscurity. It’s undoubtedly unfortunate that we only really have Blast of Silence as evidence of his skill because it’s seriously compelling evidence—fans of the film no doubt mourn the desolate neo-noirs that we never got.

Still, it’s hard not to recognize, once again, just how appropriate it is that this film, with its unforgiving vision of irreversible isolation, seems to exist in its own specific vacuum, suspended in a sort of solipsistic limbo. It’s a truly singular achievement, straddling the threshold between noir and neo-noir, never surfacing for long enough to gain any meaningful popularity, merely a peculiar artifact in the varied careers of its creators. Maybe that’s just how things were fated to be. Maybe Stander , narrating as Frankie steps off of the train and through the gates of hell, says it best: “You’re alone. But you don’t mind that. You’re a loner. That’s the way it should be. You’ve always been alone. By now it’s your trademark.”

What are your thoughts on Blast of Silence ? What are your thoughts on neo-noir films? Let us know in the comments below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLr33N77kXg

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Eclectic & Serious Film Criticism

A Character Study of Alienation and Loneliness: Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961)

A Foreboding Sense of Fatalism

Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961) begins dramatically with an audacious and innovative opening shot. For the first couple of seconds of the film, the screen is entirely black. Then slowly a tiny pinprick of light begins to emerge from the centre of the screen. The loud din of background noise can also be heard, although the viewer cannot yet discern any particular sound. Indeed, it initially appears as if there may be something wrong with the screen or the print.

Opening Shot

Before the viewer has a chance to adjust to what is happening, a gruff voiceover narration punctuates the blackness. Unusually, this voiceover is in the second person. It rasps, “Remembering. Out of the black silence you were born in pain.” Suddenly a woman’s blood curdling and agonized scream pierces the darkness as the voiceover continues, “Easy. Easy does it little mother. You’ve never lost a father. You’re job is done little mother.” Then there is the sound of a slap, and a baby crying. The white speck in the middle of the screen is now getting bigger, but the viewer still can’t decipher what is going on. The incessant rasp of the voiceover persists, “You were born with hate and anger built-in. Took a slap in the backside to blast out the scream. And then you knew you were alive. Eight pounds, five ounces. Baby boy Frankie Bono. Father doing well.”

The white speck in the middle of the screen now begins to come into focus. It is the light at the end of a dark train tunnel. Blinking towards the light, the viewer becomes aware that the beginning of Blast of Silence has been a shot from onboard a train that is speeding towards the end of this tunnel. The voiceover continues to rasp, “Later you learn to hold back the scream. And let out the hate and anger another way.” The train finally reaches the end of the tunnel and surges into the light. Then the title of the film explodes across the screen. Blast of Silence is barely one minute and twenty-four seconds old. But the viewer has been jolted right out of their seat and left gasping. It is a brilliant opening shot that creates a disorientating and unsettling atmosphere for the viewer: a foreboding sense of fatalism, which will continue until the film’s memorable conclusion.

Baby Boy Frankie Bono

The aforementioned baby boy Frankie Bono (played by the film’s writer and director Allen Baron) is a hired hit man who has been assigned to carry out a contract killing on a mid-level mobster known as Troiano (Peter H. Clune). Frankie is disgorged from the train at New York’s Penn Station on a cold wintery day just before Christmas. Ostensibly a straightforward story, Blast of Silence focuses on a couple of days in the life of Frankie Bono, which includes surveying Troiano’s movements and procuring a gun for the hit (a 38 special with a silencer) from a rotund and repugnant gun dealer Big Ralphie (Larry Tucker). Frankie realizes that he must bide his time for 24 hours and wait for the right moment to kill his intended victim. But having time on one’s hands can be a dangerous proposition given the need for anonymity in Frankie’s line of work as a professional killer. Frankie fulfills the contract and carries out the hit on Troiano. However, by the end of the film, a combination of fate, as well as a loss of focus will conspire against Frankie, and the consequences for him will be fatal.

In fact, Frankie Bono is a professional hit man who has begun to lose his edge. Having become lonely and alienated from the world around him, Frankie drops his guard and allows his personal life to overlap with his professional life. This is a catastrophic mistake to make in a hazardous line of work, which requires focus, precision and dedication, in order to stay alive. From the opening shot of the film, the character of Frankie Bono is explored through the second person voiceover narration spoken by gravel-voiced film and television actor Lionel Stander (who was blacklisted during the early 1950s after being exposed as a Communist Party member during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings) (Terrance Rafferty).Outwardly, Frankie Bono shows little emotion. But from the beginning of Blast of Silence and the exhilarating opening shot, Stander’s voiceover narration acts as Frankie’s internal ‘conscience’; providing the viewer with a window into his inner feelings, thoughts and anxieties. The voiceover narration continuously exposes Frankie’s personal weaknesses and inadequacies; periodically acting as a warning signal when there’s trouble approaching; on other occasions taunting him; while at times also urging him on.

Significantly, some reviewers have criticized Lionel Stander’s omnipresent voiceover narration in Blast of Silence for being verbose and irritating. (Jimmy Cline). it is a valid criticism: the viewer is continuously required to take in a lot of extra verbal information, while simultaneously focusing on other aspects of the narrative. However, the unique voice-over narration is a deliberate technique, which does serve as a clever and expedient way for the viewer to gain insights into a troubled and tormented character that cannot verbally express his inner feelings. Moreover, it is a technique that also humanizes Frankie Bono to some extent. It adds an extra dimension to Frankie’s character, thereby allowing the viewer to probe more deeply into his psychological thought processes; a rare feature for a low-budget film noir.

Lionel Stander as the voice of Frank

Allen Baron and the Making of Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence was Allen Baron’s first feature. Clocking in at a taut 77 minutes, the film was shot in late 1959 and 1960. As well as directing and starring in Blast of Silence , Baron also wrote the original screenplay. In 1959, Baron was an occasional actor and former comic book artist who ambitiously wanted to try his hand at making a feature film. He managed to raise US $20,000, which was barely enough money to put together a film that looked reasonably professional (Terrance Rafferty). However, Baron did have the advantage of knowing the Big Apple well, being a native New Yorker (he was born in 1927 and raised in Brooklyn). Most importantly, Baron (working with cinematographer Merrill Brody) is able to bring an artist’s eye to Blast of Silence . The film utilizes wonderfully expressive black and white cinematography of various cold and wintery New York locations, which infuse Blast of Silence with a look of gritty film noir documentary-like realism that mirrors the fatalistic life of doomed professional hit man Frankie Bono.

From an early age, Allen Baron demonstrated an aptitude for drawing. At 19 he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York to study illustration. But a change of artistic direction came in 1951 with a fortuitous invitation to a sound stage at Paramount. As Baron recalls, “Before I got into the film business, I was an artist. I’d gone to art school, and been a cartoonist and illustrator. Spent a couple of years as a painter. While in California I happened to be invited onto a sound stage at Paramount. The minute I saw the sound stage I thought, oh my God, it’s people who make movies. That’s what I want to do” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Although having no formal training in how to make a movie, Allen Baron nevertheless began to apply his visual language skills as a cartoonist and illustrator to the filmmaking process. As he explains, “I had no training in film, other than the use of still camera, with regard to the artwork I had done. So I knew a little about lenses, and the idiosyncrasies of black and white film at the time. Other than that, I knew nothing about formal editing, although I understood it instinctively due to my art background. There’s no doubt about that” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

At the beginning of the 1960s, it was an uncommon and risky venture to attempt to make a low budget feature film set in New York (three thousand miles from the hub of Hollywood). As Baron wryly comments, “Making an independent feature film then was expensive, extraordinarily technical, and if the film was completed the chance of it getting national distribution was equal to the odds of winning the Triple Crown in racing. Ignoring these facts, I decided to go ahead anyway. At the time it was a challenge thought to be undertaken by the psychologically underprivileged or unrealistic dreamers” (Allen Baron, Filmmaker Magazine ). Another notable low budget independent feature film made at the same time as Blast of Silence was John Cassavetes’ groundbreaking Shadows (1960), an improvisational film that explores interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era New York City in the late 1950s. Moreover, there is a connection between Blast of Silence and Shadows . Erich Kollmar, the camera operator on Blast of Silence , was also the cinematographer on Shadows (Richard Brody).

Before making Blast of Silence , Allen Baron had also acquired some acting experience (he enrolled in acting school in the early 1950s). However, it was never his intention to play the lead character of Frankie Bono in the film. In fact, Baron’s friend, Peter Falk, had originally agreed to play Frankie for a deferred salary (Falk was to become well known in the 1970s for his role as the rumpled, raincoat-wearing, cigar-smoking investigator in the long-running US crime series Colombo ). With such a miniscule budget, Baron couldn’t afford to pay Falk any money upfront. Coincidentally, Falk was offered a role that actually paid him a salary: as a hit man in Murder, Inc. (Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg, 1960), a film which chronicles the rise and fall of the organized crime syndicate known as Murder, Incorporated. With the prospect of an upfront salary, Falk decided to take the role in Murder, Inc. , which was to prove an important stepping-stone in his career. Without Falk, Baron was left with the prospect of having to take on the role of Frankie Bono himself. As he explains, “…I was the best actor available to me at the time, and I was the only one I could afford. So I wrote it, directed it, and was forced to act in it. The truth is I didn’t want to play the role” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Lionel Stander’s distinctive voice-over narration is such a crucial element of Blast of Silence . After being blacklisted, Stander was trying to get his career back on track at the beginning of the 1960s (he already had a long list of acting credits stretching back to the 1930s). Stander would go on to play notable roles as a gangster in Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-sac in 1966, as well as the loyal, gravelly-voiced butler, cook and chauffeur in the TV detective series Hart to Hart in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, Stander does not receive a credit in Blast of Silence . As Allen Baron explains, “Lionel Stander was a black listed actor. He did the narration, and he wanted US $1000 if we used his name. Or, US $500 if we didn’t use his name. Well, naturally, with the amount of money we had we took the $500 deal. So that’s why he doesn’t receive a credit” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). In addition, another blacklisted artist, writer Waldo Salt (credited in the film as Mel Davenport) wrote the perceptive dialogue spoken by Stander; the voice of Frankie Bono’s inner conscience. Waldo Salt was to subsequently win two Oscars, for the screenplays of Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) and Coming Home (Hal Ashby, 1978) respectively (Terrance Rafferty).

Cast members in Blast of Silence include roly-poly actor Larry Tucker, who is appearing in his first feature (he is probably best remembered as the mental patient Pagliacci in Samuel Fuller’s low-budget 1963 cult favourite Shock Corridor ). Tucker would also go on to achieve success in the late 1960s as the co-writer of the feature films: I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (Hy Averback, 1968) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Paul Mazursky, 1969), as well as a developer and writer for The Monkees TV series in the mid-to-late 1960s. In addition, Frankie’s love interest, Molly McCarthy, also appeared as Steve McQueen’s girlfriend in another bleak, realistic crime drama, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (Charles Guggenheim and John Stix, 1959), as well as starring in the 1980s comedy The Flamingo Kid (Gary Marshall, 1984) (JM Dobies).

Most importantly, great credit must be given to cinematographer Merrill S. Brody (his name is shortened in the film’s credits to Merrill Brody), whose expressive black and white on-location shooting in various iconic New York locations provides Blast of Silence with a dark, gritty film noir look and documentary-like realism (Brody is also credited as a producer and editor on the film). Brody’s lens brilliantly encapsulates a snapshot of New York as it was at the beginning of the 1960s. Complimenting Stander’s omnipresent voiceover narration, Brody’s moody, bleak on-location shooting visually mirrors Frankie Bono’s state of mind: his loneliness and his alienation from the world around him. Allen Baron emphasizes the importance of these New York locations: “The city itself plays a very significant role in the film. It’s practically an additional character” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Merrill Brody was also cinematographer (as well as producer) on the feature that Allen Baron made after Blast of Silence , which was originally titled Pie in the Sky (although shot in 1962, financial and distribution problems delayed the film’s release until 1964. Shortly after the initial release, it was re-titled Terror in the City ). Again based on an original script by Baron, Terror in the City has been described as a modern parable of middle-American values (Lucinda Ramsey). The film focuses on a nine-year-old boy, Brill (Richard Bray), who runs away from his parents’ farm, hitching to New York City. Brill ends up on the streets of New York, and is taken in by a prostitute Suzy (Lee Grant), who helps him to return back to his home. Unfortunately, Terror in the City met with no success and disappeared quickly.

Allen Baron directed two more features, again with no success. Outside In (also known as Red, White, and Busted , 1972; co-directed with G.D. Spradlin) appeared during the turbulent period of the Vietnam War. A melodrama, it focuses on a young draft dodger, John Bill (Bink Schroeder), who prepares to come home for his father’s funeral. Foxfire Light (1982) centers on a spoiled rich girl, Johanna (Faye Grant), who becomes romantically involved with a handsome Southern rancher. Ultimately, his lack of success as a film director prompted Allen Baron to turn his attention to television. Over the years, Baron has had a substantial career in television, amassing an impressive array of credits as a screenwriter, actor and director. His writing and directional credits include successful television productions in the 1970s and 1980s such as, The Dukes of Hazzard, Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, The Brady Bunch, MASH , Dynasty , and many others.

Blast of Silence Is Rediscovered

After Blast of Silence was completed, there was a quick distribution deal made with Universal Pictures, who released the film in 1961 (as a second feature). At the time of its release, Blast of Silence was generally well received, with one London newspaper ( The Evening News & The Star ) even beginning its review of the film with a reference to Allen Baron: “Is this the new Orson Welles?” (Allen Baron). In addition, Blast of Silence won a critics prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 1961 (Terrance Rafferty). This recognition led to Allen Baron making the decision to move to Hollywood.

As the years went by, Blast of Silence continued to acquire a growing reputation. For example, director Martin Scorsese, who was a young film student at New York University when Blast of Silence was originally released, has regularly sited the film as a key New York movie. In July 1990, Blast of Silence would be officially rediscovered when Allen Baron was invited to present the film at a special screening at the Munich Film Festival (Terrance Rafferty). Three months later, in October 1990, Baron revisited many of the New York locations used in the film with a German film crew, which resulted in a 60-minute documentary entitled: Requiem For a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart, 2007) (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). In 2006, Blast of Silence was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival to an appreciative audience (the film had originally been entered in the Cannes Film Festival in 1961, but unfortunately it arrived two weeks too late to be included in the program) (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). This renewed interest in Blast of Silence culminated in 2008, when the film was re-mastered and re-released on DVD by the Criterion Collection (with accompanying extras, including the documentary: Requiem For a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence ).

With the rediscovery of Blast of Silence , film critics have dubbed the relentlessly bleak, fatalistic tone of the film, and the moody black and white location shooting as hardboiled film noir, a term originally coined by the French to describe those dark urban crime dramas which first appeared in Hollywood at the end of the Second World War [Exemplified by films such as Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946), Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947), and many others]. The rediscovery of Blast of Silence also prompted a re-think among film critics who had previously argued that the original film noir cycle ended in 1958 with Orson Welles’ idiosyncratic Touch of Evil (Mike White).

More than fifty years after it was made, Blast of Silence remains an impressive testament to Allen Baron’s dogged determination, self-belief and artistic vision. Now well into his eighties, Baron continues to remain active, and currently lives in Beverly Hills, California, where he works as a full time painter (Allen Baron), Personal Website).

A Psychological Character Study

Allen Baron as hit man Frank

Blast of Silence can be interpreted as a psychological character study, which focuses on the loneliness and the alienation of professional hit man baby boy Frankie Bono. It is a character study, which begins from the compelling opening shot, with a train careering through a dark tunnel and bursting into the light of day; a symbolic visual reference to Frankie’s birth and his arrival into this world, and continues until the film’s fatalistic conclusion. Crucially, Lionel Stander’s distinctive voice-over narration provides the viewer with an insight into Frankie’s psychological state of mind as his life progressively unravels.

For example, from the moment Frankie arrives at New York’s Penn Station, the viewer learns that he is a loner; information that is conveyed through Stander’s gruff voiceover narration: “You’re alone. But you don’t mind that. You’re a loner. That’s the way it should be. You’ve always been alone. By now it’s you’re trademark. You like it that way.” Throughout the film, Stander’s omnipresent voiceover narration will continue to provide the viewer with insights into Frankie’s psychological state of mind.

The importance of Merrill Brody’s atmospheric black and white cinematography in Blast of Silence is also evident early in the film when Frankie rendezvous with the Contact Man (Charles Creasap) onboard New York’s Staten Island Ferry (which runs between the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island). Brody’s camera captures the cold bleakness of a winter’s day on the Hudson River in 1960, with the Manhattan skyline in the background. The wind howls and seagulls circle overhead. The Contact Man provides Frankie with information on his intended target, Troiano. Frankie also receives half his payment for the hit (with the other half to be paid once he has fulfilled the contract, providing there’s no slipups). Throughout this scene, Stander’s voiceover narration highlights the fatalistic elements of Frankie’s chosen profession: “You can depend on yourself. No one else. You’ve learnt the hard way. They all hate the gun they hire. When people look at you baby boy Frankie Bono they see death. Death across the counter. Remembering.” Intriguingly, the notion of ‘remembering’ will be a recurrent theme in Blast of Silence as Stander’s voiceover narration progressively reveals more about Frankie’s inner thoughts, as well as his troubled childhood, and a Catholic background growing up in an orphanage.

In a subsequent scene, Frankie sits in his rented car staking out Troiano’s home, and watches his target’s car pull out of the driveway. Again, Lionel Stander’s voiceover narration acts as Frankie’s ‘conscience’, providing the viewer with an insight into his psychological thought process: “Nice little home. Quiet little community. An hour in the suburbs. Every morning he’s picked up by two bodyguards. Hood written all over them. But when the neighbours read the headlines, ‘Mobster killed’ they’ll say, ‘But Mr. Troiano seemed like such a respectable man. He went to work every morning at 9.30 on the dot.’” But how does Frankie Bono kill a man he doesn’t know and has never met? Allen Baron describes Frankie’s working methods: “Frankie Bono has to build up an artificial hatred for Troiano. After all, this is a man he’s never seen. Except when tracing him, had no personal relationship with him. And yet found all kinds of devices to build up this enormous hatred to justify the killing. How can you like a man who is a murderer?” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Throughout Blast of Silence , Lionel Stander’s distinctive raspy voiceover narration is combined with Merrill Brody’s atmospheric black and white cinematography, as well as composer Meyer Kupferman’s varied and inventive jazz score (which shifts deftly from vibraphone cool, discordant hard bop, and high-pitched trumpets), to continually emphasize Frankie Bono’s psychological state of mind. For example, as Frankie walks briskly along the downtown streets of Harlem, biding his time before the hit, Merrill Brody’s documentary-like gritty cinematography, overlaid with Meyer Kupferman’s edgy vibraphone-laden jazz score, and Lionel Stander’s voiceover narration are skillfully combined to mirror Frankie’s inner thought processes. As Frankie pensively walks the streets, he draws on his experiences as a youth growing up in an orphanage to justify killing Troiano, with Stander’s voiceover narration declaring, “The sisters of the orphanage used to say, ‘God moves in mysterious ways.’ Sometimes you wonder if he moved you in to rid the world of men like Troiano.” These scenes also offer a fascinating encapsulation of an era; a gritty snapshot of life on the streets of Harlem, circa 1960. In another brief scene, which takes place on a Harlem street corner, four shady characters huddle together in the foreground of the frame, with the famous Apollo Theatre visible in the background. Shooting on the busy streets of Harlem provides the film with a documentary-like authenticity: a sense of time and place. However, shooting these scenes in Harlem did present challenges. As Allen Baron recalls, “When Blast of Silence was being shot it was very difficult to hide the camera. People were constantly glancing at the camera” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

As day turns into night, the waiting game continues, with Frankie perpetually wandering the streets of New York. It is Christmas Eve in downtown Manhattan and the festivities are in full swing. Lights on the large Rockefeller Center Christmas tree glow in the dark. The busy streets are crowded with families, and children gather around brightly lit shop front windows. Santa Claus and his reindeer entertain children on a street corner. A brass band can be heard playing O Come All Ye Faithful , and a choir sings Deck the Halls . Merrill Brody’s brilliant cinematography captures the shadowy solitary figure of Frankie Bono, silhouetted against the backdrop of the New York cityscape, with its flickering Christmas lights and atmosphere of bonhomie. Allen Baron describes the juxtaposition between the scenes of joyful Christmas cheer and the lonely and alienated figure of Frankie Bono walking the streets of New York: “I chose Christmas time because I knew New York at Christmas time is a fantastic contrast with a professional contract killer and his assignment. The Christmas carols sung by the choir in the background are all about goodwill and peace to mankind. And here’s a man in the city whose sole purpose is to murder somebody. At the same time, suffering his own inner pain” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Christmas Storefront

A Film Noir With French New Wave Influences

While the gritty film noir elements of Blast of Silence are obvious, other stylistic influences in the film are possibly less apparent, but just as important. While it may or may not be coincidental, the night scenes of an alienated and lonely Frankie Bono walking the streets of New York (overlaid with composer Meyer Kupferman’s sombre jazz score) are reminiscent stylistically of scenes in Louis Malle’s 1957 debut feature Elevator To The Gallows ( Ascenseur pour l’echaufaud ), with a lonely and distraught Jeanne Moreau wandering the streets of Paris at night searching for her lover (overlaid with a melancholy jazz score by Miles Davis).

The French New Wave was certainly very much in vogue at the time Blast of Silence was being made at the beginning of the 1960s. Indeed, when Blast of Silence was originally screened in France in 1961, it was compared with Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless , which was released a year before, in 1960. As Allen Baron explains, “Apparently, some people felt I had imitated Godard with Breathless with John Paul Belmondo wandering around Paris. Which amused me, because I didn’t see that film until about two years after I did Blast of Silence ” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). Baron emphasizes that any resemblance between the two films is “pure coincidence” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). However, Baron also acknowledges that there are similarities. As he reveals, “But in analyzing it, I realized the reason for the similarity was because Godard worked with very little money. He used Paris like I used New York. And there was that gritty wonderful feeling that it had. And it also followed one character with fantasies in his head and so on. So I suppose it had that similarity” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Nevertheless, the French New Wave seems to have been a stylistic influence on one of the most memorable scenes in Blast of Silence . Shot looking up 34th Street in Manhattan, on what appears to be a wintery morning, Frankie initially appears as a shadowy speck in the distance. This scene lasts for over a minute, with the camera remaining stationary as Frankie walks briskly towards it. Meyer Kupferman’s noisy jazz score (pounding drums, piano and brass) progressively increases in volume and intensity as Frankie walks directly into the camera lens, which has been placed at waist height. This scene, in particular, seems clearly influenced by the French New Wave. It is scene that would never have appeared in earlier ‘classic’ Hollywood film noirs of the late 1940s and 1950s.

A Combination of Fate and a Loss of Focus

Another significant scene in Blast of Silence , which further emphasizes Frankie’s loneliness, as well as his alienation from the world around him, takes place in a restaurant later on Christmas Eve. As Frankie sits at a table by himself, Lionel Stander’s raspy voice-over narration again alludes to his youth, as well as the notion of ‘remembering’: “Alone at dinner. Your hands are hot remembering the hot sweaty hands of the mother superior holding you.”

At the restaurant, fate will intervene in Frankie’s life in the form of Petey (Danny Meehan), an old childhood friend from the orphanage. Petey inadvertently spots Frankie sitting alone and approaches him. Against his better judgment, Frankie reluctantly engages in conversation with Petey. Complicating the situation, Petey introduces Frankie to his sister Lori (Molly McCarthy). As Frankie greets Lori, he momentarily relaxes: a smile flickering across his face. Underneath the hard man exterior, Frankie seems to have a genuine affection for Lori. It is evident that they know each other from the past. Petey urges Frankie to come to Lori’s Christmas party. However Frankie’s conscience, conveyed through Stander’s voiceover narration, is warning him not to get too involved: “You know you’re making a big mistake. But you tell yourself maybe it’s smarter to play it cool. Go for one drink, stay for a dance maybe, then get out.” Persuaded to go to the party, Frankie initially feels awkward and socially disconnected, but finally begins to loosen up when Lori encourages him to dance with her. Petey also challenges Frankie to a peanut-pushing contest with the nose (a game they both played as kids twenty years before). However, accepting the invitation to Lori’s party, and letting his guard down will prove to be fateful decision for Frankie.

On Christmas Day, Frankie decides to visit Lori at her apartment. He even brings a Christmas present for her. He will again let down his guard; this time with disastrous consequences. After dinner, Frankie’s edgy, pent-up emotional state will become uncontrollable when he aggressively embraces Lori, and then pins her down as they fall to the floor. While Frankie’s behaviour towards Lori can be viewed as emblematic of a profession that condones the use of violence and the suppression of feelings and emotions, it could also be construed as symptomatic of a condition that originates from birth. In the first few moments of Blast of Silence , the voiceover narration emphasizes that Frankie was, “…born in pain”; “…with hate and anger built-in. Took a slap in the backside to blast out the scream…” Later, Frankie, while waiting to kill Troiano, and desperate for human contact, will return to Lori’s apartment. However, he will suffer the indignity of seeing Lori with another man (who says hello to Frankie, and seems to be another acquaintance from the past). Moreover, adding to his ongoing emotional pain, Frankie will also discover that Lori has been kind to him out of pity, having sensed his loneliness.

Frankie pursues Troiano and tracks him down to the Village Gate (a famous nightclub in New York’s Greenwich Village, which has now closed). Meyer Kupferman’s jazz soundtrack has now been replaced by a beatnik vocalist/conga-drummer (Dean Sheldon), whose frenetic set consists solely of offbeat death-themed songs, with lyrics such as, “…why can’t I fall in love with someone who’s in love with me”, and “Deep inside I know I’ve died”, that seem to mirror Frankie’s inner turmoil, as well as his ultimate fate at the end of the film. Inside the club, Troiano is holding court; celebrating his birthday with his girlfriend (Milda Memenas) and an assortment of cronies. Also present at an adjacent table is Ralphie the repellant gun dealer and a couple of his ‘pet sewer rats’. Merrill Brody’s camera captures the dark, bohemian atmosphere of the club. A series of clever intercuts also build up tension and suspense; juxtaposing scenes of Troiano and his girlfriend, Ralphie, the conga singer and his backing musicians, and a pensive Frankie sitting alone at the bar.

In another twist of fate for Frankie, Ralphie has decided that Troiano appears to be a more important racketeer than he originally thought. Ralphie tries to put the squeeze on Frankie, by demanding more money and threatening him with blackmail. Infuriated, Frankie follows Ralphie home to his rat-infested room; loses his cool and attacks him with an axe. As the two men grapple with each other, the claustrophobia in the room is palpable, with Merrill Brody’s camera putting the viewer in the centre of the action. Frankie loses control and strangles Ralphie, killing him. It is a major mistake. Frankie knows he’s in serious trouble. As Allen Baron explains, “…Frankie Bono murdered Big Ralph, the gun peddler, which is something he didn’t intend to do. Bono basically considered himself a perfectionist. It’s kind of odd to pick up a newspaper and read about it. He also knew he was in trouble after he read about the killing” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

A Lonely, Alienated and Delusional Figure

Becoming increasingly desperate, Frankie’s tries to back out of killing Troiano, but is warned by his superiors that he must carry out the hit. Frankie knows that in his business, a killer who doesn’t kill gets killed. He purchases the gun that Ralphie ordered for him from a contact on a barge near the Queensboro Bridge (which crosses the East River in New York City). Merrill Brody’s camerawork again comes the fore, with the scene atmospherically shot in grey tones on a cold blustery day, which further emphasizes Frankie’s loneliness and disconnectedness from the world around him. Throughout this scene, Frankie’s inner thoughts are again conveyed through Lionel Stander’s gruff voice-over narration: “You’re relaxing now. Hands cold. They’ll be a gun in them soon. And your mind’s clear and cool. Expert. As an engineer designing a bridge. You could have been an engineer.” As Allen Baron points out, “Frankie Bono is essentially a very alienated figure, and I wanted to show his solitude” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). Frankie is also becoming increasingly delusional. As Baron observes, “On this barge that he came to purchase a gun, he was conducting what was, for him, a normal business transaction. At the same time, he carried these delusions. He was buying a gun to murder a man. He’s nothing but a lowly murderer. And he had delusions of being a bridge builder, among other things” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

In the following scene, Frankie stakes out the brownstone belonging to Troiano’s girlfriend. To prepare for the hit he needs to know everything about the building, as well as the architect who built it. Frankie’s delusional state of mind will again be expressed through the voiceover narration as Stander rasps, “You could have been an architect too.” As Frankie waits for his target, Frankie’s delusions about the importance of his job as a hit man will also be revealed through Stander’s voiceover narration: “You get a feeling that this is how it was meant to be.…like you are Troiano’s fate.…like you’re God.” Allen Baron elaborates on the illusionary nature of Frankie state of mind, while also stressing the importance of Stander’s voiceover narration in communicating Frankie’s inner emotions. As Baron explains, “Frankie Bono was a man of many illusions about himself. And the narration, which is designed to be a Greek chorus, his alter ego, alludes to the fact that I could have been an engineer, could have been many things, and in this case, even God. I suppose the fact that he had the power of life and death, and that he did. He was an expert at what he knew, which was killing. He had these delusions about the things he could have done, if he didn’t do what he was doing” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

Getting the job done: Troiano is dead

The bleak, unrelenting conclusion to Blast of Silence takes place in Spring Creek Park, Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, New York. It is an area that Allen Baron remembered from his childhood days. As he explains, “When I was a boy I used to come to this area to skip school very often. We used to call it the Old Mill. I think it was built some time after World War One. I don’t know why they called it the Old Mill, but it was actually a fishing village” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). It was also an area with a dubious history. As Baron recalls, “…we’d heard all these stories about the Mafia burying bodies here and killing people. Course we never found a body, but I actually do believe the act was committed here” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).For Baron, the windswept, inhospitable location of the Old Mill was an ideal setting for the end of Frankie Bono’s sordid life. As he points out, “…it was perfect, just perfect. The exact kind of atmosphere I wanted for the killing scene in the end” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart).

In 1960, when the final scenes of Blast of Silence were shot at the Old Mill, the fishing village had been largely abandoned, but a series of canals connected by rickety little wooden bridges remained. As the brutal end to the tortured life of hit man baby boy Frankie Bono approaches, Merrill Brody’s stunning cinematography captures the grey, desolate bleakness of the Old Mill. The wind howls, heavy rain lashes the tall weeds near the creek, and a snowstorm begins, all of which add an atmospheric sense of doomed inevitability to Frankie’s impending fate.

Having fulfilled the contract on Troiano, Frankie has only one last contact to make, in order to pick up the remainder of the money that he is owed for the hit. However, two syndicate thugs ambush Frankie, chasing him along one of the narrow wooden bridges that cross the creek. As the snowstorm swirls around him, Frankie is cornered and shot, falling headlong into the cold, murkiness of the creek. As Frankie makes one last effort to drag himself up the bank of the creek, his mud be-spattered face and body now unrecognizable, he is shot several more times and collapses dead in a crumpled heap.

Echoing the end of Touch of Evil

Throughout Blast of Silence , there has been a prevailing sense of fatalism, which has ultimately culminated in Frankie Bono’s brutal death. Allen Baron emphasizes this sense of fatalism: “…the choice he [Frankie] made was to be a professional killer. And I think finally when he died, it was probably the choice that he preferred, and he finally achieved” (Robert Fischer and Wilfried Reichart). It is a sense of fatalism that begins from the unforgettable opening shot of Blast of Silence , and Lionel Stander’s gruff voiceover narration, which declares that Frankie has been, “….born in pain”; “….born with hate and anger built-in”. It is therefore appropriate that, in the final scene in Blast of Silence , it is Stander’s distinctive raspy voiceover narration which provides a fatalistic coda to the end of the tortured life of hit man baby boy Frankie Bono: “God moves in mysterious ways, they said. Maybe he is on your side, the way it all worked out. Remembering other Christmases, wishing for something, something important, something special. And this is it baby boy Frankie Bono. You’re alone now. All alone. The scream is dead. There’s no pain. You’re home again. Back in the cold, black silence.”

Bibliography

Rafferty, Terrance. ‘Blast of Silence: A Bad Trip’. Criterion

Cline, Jimmy. Review of Blast of Silence . MUBI . July 30, 2009.

Fischer, Robert and Wilfried Reichart. ‘Requiem For a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence ’, 2007. Blast of Silence , DVD Extras, The Criterion Collection, New York, 2008.

Baron, Allen, “ Blast of Silence , Independent Filmmaking: Then and Now,” Essay in Filmmaker Magazine, Nov. 12, 2013 .

Baron, Allen. Blast of Silence : A Memoir by Allen Baron. Bancroft and Holmes, Beverley Hills, California, 2013, p. 198.]]

Baron, Allen. Personal Website .

Brody, Richard. “Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence .” The New Yorker, online June 19, 2012

Dobies, JM. ‘Doom Noir: Blast of Silence (1961)’, The Examiner online , February 9, 2010.

Fischer, Robert and Wilfried Reichart. “Requiem For a Killer: The Making of Blast of Silence .”

Ramsey, Lucinda. Pie in the Sky (1964), 2010, The New York Times online .

White, Mike. Film Noir of the Week: Blast of Silence (1961), March 25, 2010 .

A Character Study of Alienation and Loneliness: Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961)

Peter Wilshire is a life-long film enthusiast. He has a Master of Arts by Research in Cinema Studies from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He currently teaches Screen Practices at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. He has also taught Cinema Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. In addition, he has contributed articles for Film International , the Australian quarterly film journals Metro and Screen Education , as well as the online film journal Senses of Cinema .

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Blast of Silence: Loneliness and Christmas Noir

Despite coming at the tail end of the film noir era , Blast of Silence (1961) is one of the bluntest and most stylistic examples of the genre. Written, directed, and starring Allen Baron, Blast of Silence tells the story of a doomed hitman named Frankie Bono (Baron). After being orphaned at a young age, Frankie comes back to New York City from Cleveland to take out a boss named Troiano. Along the way, he reconnects with a childhood friend and his sister Lori. The hit starts to go awry after his contact to buy a gun, Big Ralph (Larry Tucker, who steals every scene he’s in), recognizes Frankie’s target and tries to shake him down for more money. After being forced into murdering Ralph and getting rejected by Lori, Frankie’s loneliness starts to get the better of him and he becomes increasingly erratic. He completes the contract, but his employers still decide to take him out, and Frankie dies alone in the marshes.

From the outset, the audience is treated to some of the most delightfully over-the-top noir narration I’ve ever experienced. The opening lines of the movie not only set the tone for the narration, they set the stage for Frankie’s entire life: “[r]emembering, out of the black silence, you were born in pain […] you were born with hate and anger built in, took a slap to the backside to blast out the scream, and then you knew you were alive.” The opening narration tells the story of Frankie’s birth, his mother’s death during childbirth, and the pain and loneliness that he has been carrying with him since his earliest moments.

The narration—accompanied by the bloodcurdling screams of Frankie’s dying mother—occurs over a mostly black screen. Initially, the only variance in the darkness is a small white dot that dances across the screen. As the scene goes on, the dot grows until it becomes apparent that it is a literal “light at the end of a tunnel” captured by fixing the camera onto the front of a train. When accompanied by the opening narration recounting Frankie’s delivery, this universal metaphor for death also invokes images of birth, as if the train is emerging from a womb. I think that an argument can be made that during his death scene, as Frankie tries to claw his way out of the marsh covered from head-to-toe in viscous mud, can be viewed as womb or birth imagery as well. For Frankie, life and death have always been one and the same.

Still from Blast of Silence. Frankie Bono stands alone on the Staten Island Ferry. The New York City skyline looms in the distance.

Furthermore, the train’s emergence from the tunnel hits the audience with light and sound: after being in the dark for almost a full minute, the explosion of light that accompanies the train’s emergence is a shock to the audience’s system. The moment is accompanied by a cymbal crash, which audibly accentuates and literalizes the visual “blast.” The sudden assault of light and sound instills into the audience the same confusion and disorientation that Frankie felt during much of his unmoored life.

Despite being an effective film noir, the film also subverts numerous noir conventions. The outward trappings of the noir protagonist are present—the trench coat, fedora, and no-nonsense attitude—but Frankie doesn’t remotely resemble the smooth, fast-talking, Humphrey Bogart-type of man that usually served as the genre’s protagonist. While the narration that serves as Frankie’s inner monologue has plenty to say, Frankie himself says very little. The narration, which is delivered by a different actor (Lionel Standler), projects the image of the more prototypical noir lead, in contradiction to the reality of Frankie’s character. The quality of Standler’s voice is much different than Baron’s; Richard Brody perfectly describes the voice as “graveled,” while Baron’s voice comes across much more high and weaselly.

Casting a different actor to deliver the narration emphasizes the disconnect between Frankie’s self-perception and actual character: he may view himself as a more archetypal noir character, but in reality, he’s weak, broken, and pathetic. Moreover, the narration is delivered in the second person, further alienating the audience from Frankie’s point-of-view. Frankie’s narration tells us that he has “always been alone. By now it’s your trademark. You like it that way,” but there is plenty of evidence that tells us that he does not like to be alone. As the movie progresses and Frankie’s alienation worsens, the notion he has of himself as a god when he is stalking his target (“You get a feeling this is how it was meant to be. Like you are Troiano’s fate. Like you’re God.”) is laughable in comparison with his interactions with other characters, especially Lori.

Still from Blast of Silence. Frankie Bono is shot from a low angel by the camera. He is wearing a fedora, trench coat, and holding a pistol with a silencer.

Lori subverts the familiar femme fatale trope that is common in noirs. While she is flirty with Frankie, she rejects his advances and actually lives a normal and apparently monogamous life with her boyfriend. The scene when she rejects initially unfolds like a similar scene in Blade Runner 20 years later, although I doubt that Blast of Silence had a direct impact on the later sci-fi neo-noir classic due to its relative obscurity at the time and different end result.

The scene in Blade Runner has become a central sticking point when discussing the film and its legacy, including here on 25yl . It could be easily argued that the actions of the leading men of both films constitute sexual assault, especially in Blade Runner where there is an added layer of power imbalance due to Rachael’s recent revelation that she is a replicant. But where Sean Young’s Rachael eventually (and perhaps unwillingly) cedes to Harrison Ford’s Decker, Lori rejects Frankie and asks him to leave while he grovels and desperately pleads for her forgiveness. I was surprised that the way Blast of Silence handled the scene felt surprisingly mature and is certainly less off-putting than in Blade Runner . The scene isn’t meant to be romantic or titillating: the protagonist is rightfully rejected and ceases his actions. It also dispels any remaining illusions the audience held about Frankie: he is not strong and slick but is instead weak, insecure, and lonely. Blast of Silence ’s treatment of this scenario struck me as being much more well-handled and borderline progressive for its time, certainly within a male-dominated media landscape that was much more inclined to present the Blade Runner version of the scene.

The film’s Christmas setting plays a major role in the film. Once again, the film’s narration and images belie Frankie’s actual feelings of insecurity. While Frankie ostensibly claims to despise the holiday from the film’s earliest moments—the opening credits are still rolling when his narration states that “[t]he railroad company makes sure you don’t forget you’re coming to town on Christmas. Gives you the creeps. You hate cities, especially at Christmas”—he seems inexorably drawn to it. At points in the film he stops in front of a sidewalk Santa, goes to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas, and stops in front of a Kress storefront with toys and Christmas tree lights in the window.

Still from Blast of Silence. Frankie Bono walks past the tree at Rockefeller Center. He is wearing a trench coat and looking very purposefully forward, as if ignoring the tree to his right.

The sequences in Rockefeller Center are among the most iconic in the film. Frankie pretends to ignore the tree as he walks by, outwardly projecting a hard exterior without ever even acknowledging its existence. The bustle of people around him and the prominence of the tree means that he almost certainly has to be purposefully ignoring it. But then why not avoid the tree altogether? It’s a big city and he’s not headed anywhere in particular during these moments, he’s just aimlessly wandering. His faux avoidance of the tree is exposed as he goes to the tree again later in the film, this time walking much closer to it. This time, he subtly sneaks in a glance.

The narration helps to explain Frankie’s simultaneous rejection of and fascination with Christmas:

Funny, your hands are cold when you think of Christmas. Remembering…remembering other Christmases. Pushing your nose against the plate glass store windows until the cold of it made your head ache. Wishing for something. What was it? Roller skates? Bike? Sled? Games? Nothing like that. Something bigger, more important. Something special.

To Frankie, Christmas represents everything that he missed out on as an orphan, but also everything that could have been. It is paradoxically a reminder that he went down the wrong path while also being a source of hope for him that things might get better: that he can settle down, retire from contract killing, and start a family. In his dying moments, Frankie’s narration implies that he longed for his own death for all those years (“[r]emembering other Christmases wishing for something, something important, something special. And this is it, baby boy Frankie Bono. You’re alone now, all alone. The scream is dead. There’s no pain. You’re home again. Back in the cold black silence.”), but we’ve seen over the course of the movie that this isn’t the case.

Still from Blast of Silence. Frankie Bono stares pensively out the window.

There’s a moment midway through the film where Frankie attends a party with Lori’s brother Petey. At one point, Petey stops the party and declares that he is challenging Frankie to a game where the pair race to see who can push a peanut across the floor with their noses the fastest. Frankie had previously lost to Petey in this game when they were children, and the nearly throwaway scene features the nearly throwaway line that I think tells us more about Frankie’s true motivations than any line of the narration: “I’m giving you a second chance! Very few people get that in their life.” The line isn’t given any special importance, Petey just uses it to try to convince Frankie to play. The peanut pushing contest represents a return to childhood innocence to Frankie, a childhood that he only rarely got to truly enjoy and that turned him into an apparently heartless killer. There is plenty of evidence pointing towards this being Frankie’s true motivation—from the opening narration to his relationship with Christmas to falling in love with a girl that he knew as a child. Although Frankie wins the peanut contest, he is never able to reclaim that innocence—he never truly gets the second chance that he so desperately desired.

Written by Nick Luciano

Nick Luciano received a Master’s in Music Theory from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He is a football editor for Sports Obsessive, former film writer/editor at 25YL, and cohosts the 25 Yards Later fantasy football podcast for Sports Obsessive and Ruminations Radio Network.

Allen Baron Danny Meehan Frank Bono Frankie Bono Larry Tucker Lionel Standler Molly McCarthy Peter Clune

One Comment

Dude why you gotta give away the whole plot in the first paragraph?!

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Blast of Silence

Allen Baron. You’ve probably never heard of him. But he willed into being 1961’s Blast of Silence , a remarkable late noir – or early neo-noir, depending on which end of the telescope you’re looking through – which he wrote, directed and also took the leading role in when his original star, buddy Peter Falk, bailed out on him. Understandably, Falk was being offered a paying gig in the movie Murder, Inc. and Baron’s no-budget film looked like it might never get finished.

There isn’t much of a story but there’s enough. A hitman (Baron) arrrives in New York, is given the name of the target, then sources a gun to do the job. Just before showtime arrives, hitman Frank meets an old friend by chance – a “kid from the orphanage”, in half a line giving us all the backstory we need – and through him meets a woman, Lori (Molly McCarthy) who makes him feel something for the first time in his life. The inveterate loner and perpetual outsider suddenly wants to join in. It’s Christmas Eve and… well…

This, of course, spells death, an eventuality Fate has been lining up for Frank since he was born, if we’re to take any notice of the moody narration over the black screen that introduced the film – “Remembering, out of the black silence, you were born in pain,” the gravelly voice says, as if we’d come in halfway through a bleak sermon. “You were born with hate and anger built in…” Behold the existential anti-hero.

Blast of Silence is full of Baron’s friends and family members and was shot on the fly, without permits in in New York, using camera equipment Baron himself had smuggled out of Cuba (it had got stuck there when Castro’s revolution caused filming on Errol Flynn’s final film to come to a sudden halt). The patchwork MO is part of its appeal. But having shot what he needed, and using test footage to plug gaps, Baron got the film expertly edited together (Peggy Lawson, Merrill Brody) and added sound – I don’t think there’s any live sound recording on this film though I might be wrong.

Apart from the fantastic montage work – the film could almost be a series of stills – two things sew it all together. One is the voiceover by Lionel Stander, uncredited because he was blacklisted at the time (his words are written by Waldo Salt, also blacklisted). Stander later played Max on Hart to Hart (“When they met it was moidah”) and he gives it the familiar rumble from the get-go to the climax, when Frank meets his fate in circumstances that bring to mind Michael Caine’s in Get Carter – unglamorous and pitiless.

The other is Meyer Kupferman, who’d later write a book called Atonal Jazz and gives us plenty of that here, in a big-band, blaring, urgent score that’s particularly good in the action sequences but also knows how to pare it back for the many shots of Frank pounding the streets as he researches his hit.

Because it’s all done on the fly, the film acts as a kind of documentary archive of New York as the 1960s arrive. Those shots in Harlem, where Frank is following the pimp/extortionist/rackets guy he’s later meant to kill are particularly flavourful. Because of the issues around permits, Baron shoots in places other films rarely visited, the burbs, bridges and tunnels into and out of Manhattan. It’s the grimy Big Apple and Baron’s impassive features and minimalist acting style slot right in.

It’s a simple and straightforward film in many ways but with a dark heart that some critics at the time found a bit hard to handle. It’s understandable. As the film comes to a close, Stander’s voiceover intones: “The scream is dead. There’s no pain. You’re back home again, back in the cold, black silence.” A bit much, perhaps, but also – woof!

Blast of Silence – Watch it/buy it at Amazon I am an Amazon affiliate © Steve Morrissey 2023

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[imdb]tt0054687[/imdb]

Film Walrus Reviews

Tuesday, january 6, 2009.

Review of Blast of Silence

5 comments:

Gosh, how many movies DO use second-person perspective?!

Well I got sick and dropped off the world before I could try to guess what your post would be. Sadly, I have not seen it, but it's definitely on my list now. Second person movies have to be pretty rare. I suppose you could make an argument for Lady in the Lake since Robert Montgomery keeps talking about how You are trying to solve one of his cases in all his distracting, talk to the camera interruptions.

How about Zentropa? Great site, by the way.

Mad Dog, Not many, although Wikipedia has an interesting list of novels written in 2nd person. Exactly Why, Hope you are feeling better! I want to do more noir cross-posts with you soon. JoLT, You don't even know how happy I am that you pointed out Zentropa. I almost referenced it myself as the only other example that came to mind, and the fact that you had the same reaction is awesome. Plus it's a great movie, too.

this movie is amazing

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Blast of Silence

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way. A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way. A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

Allen Baron
Molly McCarthy
Larry Tucker
89 User reviews
57 Critic reviews
75 Metascore

(as Peter H. Clune)
Contact Man
Joe Boniface
(as Bill Da Prado)
Troiano's Girl Friend
Cleaning Woman

Lori's Boy Friend
Night Club Singer
(uncredited)
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia Part of the movie was shot during the middle of a real hurricane --- the wind and snow seen during the final scenes is not artificial. The exterior chase that ends the film was filmed at the Old Mill on a Jamaica Bay estuary on Long Island during Hurricane Donna (September 10-12, 1960), the only hurricane of the 20th Century to strike the entire East Coast from south Florida to Maine.
Goofs The "silencer" (or suppressor) that Frankie Bono attaches to his revolver could not have worked due to the gap between the cylinder and barrel of the gun. They are only effective on semi-automatic or automatic weapons, except for one special revolver (when the film was made), the Nagant M1895. The Nagant had a 7-round cylinder, but Frankie's gun was a 6-shooter. This is a very common mistake in films.

Narrator : You're alone. But you don't mind that. You're a loner. That's the way it should be. You've always been alone. By now it's your trademark. You like it that way.

Crazy credits The MPAA seal appears on the bottom right corner of the Universal-International logo instead of its usual place in the credits.
Alternate versions The Criterion Collection edition of this movie includes a director's commentary.
Connections Edited into Dusk to Dawn Drive-in Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 9 (2002)
Soundtracks Dressed in Black (uncredited) Performed by Dean Sheldon

User reviews 89

stephen-357
Jan 24, 2005
How long is Blast of Silence? Powered by Alexa
I may have missed the credit for this, but I believe the voice-over narration is by Lionel Stander.
August 17, 1962 (Denmark)
United States
Explosion des Schweigens
Village Gate - 160 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (nightclub closed in 1995)
Magla Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$65,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 17 minutes
Black and White

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Blast of silence.

Directed by Allen Baron

An unforgettable experience in suspense! ... as seconds tick off a timetable ... for murder!

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

Allen Baron Molly McCarthy Larry Tucker Bill DePrato Peter H. Clune Danny Meehan Joe Bubbico Gil Rogers Ruth Kaner Howard Mann Charles Creasap Milda Memenas Jerry Douglas Don Saroyan Dean Sheldon Lionel Stander Bill Chadney Ernest Jackson Erich Kollmar Betty Kovac Mel Sponder Bob Taylor

Director Director

Allen Baron

Producer Producer

Merrill S. Brody

Writers Writers

Waldo Salt Allen Baron

Editors Editors

Peggy Lawson Merrill S. Brody

Cinematography Cinematography

Assistant director asst. director.

Carole Brody Sheppard

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Erich Kollmar

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Jack Schatz

Art Direction Art Direction

Charles Rosen

Title Design Title Design

Sherman Labby

Composer Composer

Meyer Kupferman

Sound Sound

Al Gramaglia John Strauss Lee Bost

Magla Productions

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 20 mar 1961, 31 mar 1961, releases by country.

Theatrical limited New York City, New York

77 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★

🎵 Deep inside I know I've died so I'm dressed in black all the time. 🎵

A bleak, no-budget noir procedural where every miserable, street-grime detail of what killing people for money is like—and the brutal, hateful psychological state/philosophy of alienation necessary in order to bear it, expressed in what has to be some of the most venomous pulp narration ever written—is in a constant state of war with the depressed longing for just about anything that's not the work. Doesn't really matter what it is, it would be less ugly. One of the coldest, loneliest Christmas movies ever made that's both a dirty NYC guerilla surveillance documentary and a harsh-looking yet still lyrical depiction of the bitter, tragically predetermined world of a repressed, existential hitman that (alongside Murder By Contract ) predates most of the well-known movies in this genre. Hauntingly grim final scene/shot.

Full discussion on ep 302 of my podcast SLEAOZIDS .

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★ 4

Allen Baron's documentary style noir, Blast of Silence has no business being as entertaining and groundbreaking as it is. Filmed on a less than zero budget with the director also acting as the protagonist, Baby Boy Frankie Bono; Blast of Silence is a textbook on how to kill a motherfucker dead.

Not only does the movie feature a jazzy-beatnik-new-wave-percussion-heavy-funky-sounding musical score and soundtrack; We also have one of the most unusual voiceover narrators in recent memory. We get a look into the mind of Frank Bono, but it's like his mind is talking to us in a different sounding voice. It's different, yet highly effective. By the end of the 77 minute runtime, you as the viewer, should have a…

Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★★ 5

for my money, the greatest “christmas in new york” film not only because it deliberately eschews the colors of the holiday for saturated black and white but that it puts the viewer onto the city’s streets at the busiest time of the year and asks us to spend those moments with a sullen contract killer who loathes everything that everyone else in the frame finds joy in, a cynical movie for cynical people set in the greatest city in the world and feels every bit the freewheeling verité exercise that it is while also delivering an all timer blast of no frills noir — takes everything Melville tried to do with Two Men In Manhattan a couple of years prior and makes it actually work, with some of the best footage of the city ever captured on film

Review by Jamelle Bouie ★★★★ 3

exquisitely bleak noir nihilism. could watch this a thousand times and not get bored of it.

Review by Hesse ★★★★½ 9

Like The Killer but way better bc it doesn’t have any music by The Smiths in it

Review by Jerry McGlothlin ★★★★ 15

Elemental malaise by the biting winter chill and the high strung lights of another nameless city. You are transient, always in motion, navigating backdoor dealings with cretins hoping to bang you out for another yardstick. Haggle the price, set up the drop, wander. Wander, as aimless as the trash that crowds the curbs blown out from under can lids unsecured. You were born alone. You’re, in your own mind, vermin in a self-made cage left to live meagerly on rewards reaped in service for the slayings of marked men. A touch of hope from a deceptive brush with something resembling warmth leaves you even colder than before; freezing now, as abruptly the pipe shuts and the flow from it to you is back to its default setting: Off. You have done the job. It’s finished. But now you find it’s you who has been marked. Best laid plans of lowly mice and lonely men…

Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★★ 4

Cinematic Time Capsule 1961 Marathon - Film #8

”Out of the black silence you were born in pain.”

And into focus comes an unknown film, but It’s on your list so it’s your job to watch it. You put in the dvd. You push play.

A train rumbles. Jazz blares. A man appears. And it begins.

Watch it. Danger signal. A gravely voiced narrator is commenting non-stop. It’s the kind of thing you normally can’t stand. But somehow this one’s different. It sounds like Harvey Fierstein doing the narration for Dragnet . It’s so over-the-top serious and stylized that it gives it an old-school charm. So you go with it.

By ten minutes in you’re sold. Here’s a film you can…

Review by sakana1 ★★★★½ 30

Cinematic hitmen typically fit one of two molds: either they're self-loathing cynics, or they're men who believe they rule the world, and who choose killing as a profession because they deserve to decide who lives or dies. Frankie Bono is neither of these. Frankie Bono is utterly lost and desperately lonely, someone who falls into murder for pay because it gives him something to do; because it makes him feel important; because it gives him an excuse for the solitude that hangs over him like a blanket of suffocating fog.

He's been alone for so long that he narrates his life to himself, observing his actions as if from the outside like a weary mentor, reminding a student what to feel and…

Review by Channing Pomeroy ★★★★½ 3

You like the second person voice-over. You like it starting like David Copperfield with the hero being born, a blast from silence through a dark screaming tunnel into the light. You love the visit to the Big Ralphie, the obese gun seller with his sewer rats for pets. You like what Terrance Rafferty said about this being “hands down, the best movie ever made about a common, important, and unjustly neglected American experience: the really bad business trip.” You’ve had a lot of bad business trips yourself. You wonder where they found that a such a bleak location as Jamaica Bay for the final marshy blast of silence. You wonder how they got so lucky that an icey storm was blowing that day to make the end more desolate.

You watched this movie alone. The way you were meant to be. The way you like it.

Review by Janica ★★★ 4

Primed so full of malice and nihilism that the movie itself seems to dissolve into nothingness, the film’s plot and characters reduced to the horror of existentialism in the lonely city of New York. Resembles the shreds and shambles and outtakes of a better film, but its own lo-fi, on-location precariousness makes it seem all the purer. It embodies the pathos of the hitman without any of the romanticism of better filmmakers.

Review by Justin Peterson ★★★★ 1

Recommended by: Marvin123 (🎅 Christmas Movie Season 2022 🎄) Criterion Collection Spine #428

Now here is a stylish noir anti-hitman/gangster film that I can actually sink my teeth into.

"Remembering other Christmases, wishing for something, something important, something special. And this is it, baby boy Frankie Bono. You're alone now. All alone."

I have never been much of a fan of films like 'Le Samouraï' and 'Mean Streets' that step into the more realistically solemn lives of these kinds of criminals. But the strong use of narration and engaging characters helped make Blast of Silence so much more immersive for me.

"You're alone. But you don't mind that. You're a loner. That's the way it should be. You've always been…

Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 1

"You were born in pain."

No-budget noir with buckets of style (written by, directed by, and starring Allen Baron, previously a comic book artist) which offers an interesting look at the tropes of the genre as seen just after the death of their popularity. Baron made his film in the twilight of noir's heyday and he seems to have a similar understanding of the genre as the French New Wave directors would—two conclusions from the same inspiration created at the same time on opposite sides of an ocean.

Frank Bono is an out-of-town hitman in New York City on what is turning out to be a really bad business trip. Dead from the moment he was born, entering the world…

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Blast of Silence

DVD edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
June 12 2008

See more details, packaging, or compare

Swift, brutal, and black-hearted, Allen Baron’s New York City noir Blast of Silence is a sensational surprise. This low-budget, carefully crafted portrait of a hit man on assignment in Manhattan during Christmastime follows its stripped-down narrative with mechanical precision, yet also with an eye and ear for the oddball idiosyncrasies of urban living and the imposing beauty of the city. At once visually ragged and artfully composed, and featuring rough, poetic narration performed by Lionel Stander, Blast of Silence is a stylish triumph.

Picture 7/10

Extras 6/10

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Blast of Silence

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Film Details

Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, allen baron, molly mccarthy, larry tucker, peter clune, danny meehan, photos & videos, technical specs.

Frank Bono, a professional gunman from Cleveland, is hired by a New York City syndicate to kill local racketeer Troiano. Bono arrives in town on Christmas Eve, collects half of his payment, and methodically trails his victim. As he maps out his murder method, Bono arranges to acquire a gun and silencer from Big Ralph, a repulsive, overweight fence. That night Bono encounters Lorrie, a woman he dated years earlier and accepts her invitation for dinner, only to discover later, when he tries to kiss her, that she was being kind to him only out of pity. Big Ralph learns that Bono's victim is an important racketeer, and he demands more money from Bono, threatening him with blackmail. Infuriated, Bono murders Big Ralph. In a moment of panic, Bono tries to back out of killing Troiano, but he is warned that the deed must be done. Bono finally corners Troiano and kills him. He goes to collect his fee and is instead ambushed and killed by syndicate thugs.

Milda Memonas

Dean sheldon, charles creasap, bill da prato, erich kollmar, don saroyan, mel sponder, betty kovac, joe bubbico, jerry douglas, ernest jackson.

Lionel Stander

Carole brody, merrill brody, mel davenport, albert gramaglia, meyer kupferman, peggy lawson, joel mandel, charles rosen, will sparks, john strauss.

The Gist (Blast of Silence) - THE GIST

Insider Info (Blast of Silence) - BEHIND THE SCENES

In the know (blast of silence) - trivia, yea or nay (blast of silence) - critic reviews of "blast of silence", yea or nay (blast of silence) - critic reviews of "blast of silence", quote it (blast of silence) - quotes from "blast of silence", quote it (blast of silence) - quotes from "blast of silence", blast of silence - blast of silence - allen baron's stylish low-budget 1961 film noir, blast of silence - blast of silence - allen baron's stylish low-budget 1961 film noir.

Part of the movie was shot during the middle of a real hurricane - the wind seen during the fistfight is not artificial. It was filmed on Long Island during Hurricane Donna (September 10-12, 1960), the only hurricane of the 20th Century to strike the entire East Coast from south Florida to Maine.

Filmed in New York City.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States Summer August 1961

Released in United States 1990

Shown at Munich Film Festival June 23-July 1, 1990.

Released in United States 1990 (Shown at Munich Film Festival June 23-July 1, 1990.)

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MPAA Rating

Produced by, released by, blast of silence (1961), directed by allen baron.

AllMovie Rating 5
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Review by Adam Bregman

A gritty crime film about lonely professional hit man Frank Bono (Allen Baron), Blast of Silence is interesting in its meticulous detail of the killer's work, a device that has been used in many crime films since. Most of the characters are hoodlums, except for a couple of friends that Frank meets from his past. His relationship with Lorrie (Molly McCarthy) doesn't go anywhere, while Frank's life seems like a completely solitary, friendless existence, where he's scared to get close to anyone and hasn't even bothered to come up with a cover as to what he does for work. The shots of New York in the early '60s are vivid and add to the film's somewhat authentic vibe. And Blast of Silence's end is very much in the tradition of the classic gangster film.

Movie Review: Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt deserve more than Netflix's ‘Mother of the Bride’

In “Mother of the Bride,” Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt play a pair of college exes who accidentally reunite at a resort in Thailand two decades later

Romantic comedies are in a destination wedding rut. Perhaps it’s a collective post-COVID wanderlust kicking in, or, more cynically, some combination of tax credits and a place producers want to spend time. But between “ Ticket to Paradise,” “Anyone But You,” “ Shotgun Wedding ” and now Netflix’s “ Mother of the Bride,” the conceit is starting to curdle.

The problem is bigger than the setting, of course. There’s only so much heavy lifting a picturesque location, photogenic bodies and enviable resort outfits can do to make up for a lame story. Also, the appeal of an out-of-reach travelogue is limited in this age of influencers living wildly extravagant lifestyles around the clock on Instagram and TikTok (not to mention the sharp ways “White Lotus” has skewered and luxuriated in those worlds).

“Mother of the Bride,” now streaming on Netflix, wonders what might happen if you find out a few days before the wedding that your kid (Miranda Cosgrove) is marrying the offspring of the guy who broke your heart. That’s what happens to Brooke Shields’ Lana. She arrives in Phuket, Thailand, for her daughter’s wedding, meets the groom (Sean Teale), turns around and sees that his father is her college ex, Will (Benjamin Bratt). Barely a minute passes before they both fall into a pond.

Later, she’ll walk in on him emerging from the shower, hit him in a sensitive spot playing pickleball and, after they’ve made some progress, overhear the wrong conversation at the wrong time. This is a movie that is adhering to some kind of romantic comedy checklist, but whose ingredients add up to very little in the end.

Our tolerance for a silly set-up in a romantic comedy is usually pretty generous if we’re given a clever, charming script and authentic emotions. Just think of how ridiculous so many of the greats sound on paper, from “Sabrina” to “Sleepless in Seattle”? Is it fair to compare “Mother of the Bride” to Nora Ephron and Billy Wilder? Maybe not, but it never hurts to be aware of a North Star, which veterans like screenwriter Robin Bernheim Burger and director Mark Waters no doubt are. Just look at the title. This movie even has a romantic foil in a younger doctor (Chad Michael Murray) who is smitten with Lana, which can’t help but remind of Keanu Reeves in Nancy Meyers' “Something’s Gotta Give.”

But this is so wildly contrived from the start that you never get to that moment where you’re enjoying it enough to stop asking questions, like did Lana never google Will in the 20 years they’ve been apart and find out that he’s a wildly rich and successful businessman? Or why would a major corporation offer an intern who has a barely maintained lifestyle Instagram that she started freshman year of college “six figures” to help promote their luxury hotels? Why are we supposed to root for these young people with seemingly infinite resources (one of their wedding presents in a multimillion Tribeca loft) who agree to get married in a month because a brand asks them to? Maybe more fundamentally, did the kids and a wedding have to be involved in this story at all? Does it make the idea of Will and Lana getting back together too weird to be fun? Couldn’t they have simply run into one another at a resort?

I won’t go so far as to say that “Mother of the Bride” feels like an AI creation but it does feel at least a little stitched together from pieces of other romantic comedies of varying quality. Why cast a capable comedian like Rachel Harris as the best friend only to have her say lines like “Is he on the menu”? Or give Wilson Cruz so little to do as Will’s brother?

And it’s a shame, too, because Shields and Bratt came ready to play, to fall in the pond and be minimally clothed for comedy’s sake. There must be a new generation of romantic comedy writers and directors who grew up on Ephron and Meyers out there and are ready to give us something that’s commercial and glossy but also smart and fun to revisit (ahem, remember “Set It Up”?). Maybe they just need to be given a shot.

“Mother of the Bride,” a Netflix release streaming Thursday, is rated TV-PG. Running time: 90 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

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Furiosa kicks sand in the face of boring franchise-filler movies

No spoilers: George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel is a vibrant, original surprise

Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), and Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), three extremely filthy Wasteland-dwellers with greasepaint-smeared faces, huddle close together, with Dementus holding Furiosa’s proud face in his hands, in George Miller’s Furiosa

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Like a war over gas in a post-apocalyptic landscape, the franchise-fatigue debate rages on , with multiple factions claiming that sequels, prequels , and superhero films are killing the cinematic landscape , while others claim the smoke doesn’t lead to fire, and the entire battle is overblown . The latest salvo in the war — which is to say, the latest prequel extending a decades-long franchise — is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , a prequel nearly a decade in the making. But where long experience with franchise logic would lead us to expect director George Miller to offer up a louder, bigger retread of its predecessor, the groundbreaking Mad Max: Fury Road , Miller dares to ignore that expectation. He blazes a brave, exploratory trail with a searing film that refuses to play by any of the tried, tested, and tired rules that franchise films follow.

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Fury Road hit screens nine years ago with a commanding reconfiguring of the Mad Max series. Miller recast Max (played by Mel Gibson in three movies from 1979 to 1985) with The Dark Knight Rises ’ Tom Hardy, pushing him into an ancillary role, and introducing a new leading hero, the battle-hardened war leader Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Fury Road is a visceral landmark in the action canon, relying on propulsive pacing, consciously chaotic editing , and nervy practical stunts that make the entire thing buzz with frenetic energy.

Trying to replicate that lightning in a bottle would be a fool’s errand, so Miller doesn’t even try with Furiosa . Instead, he presents an entirely different film that swaps out Fury Road ’s efficient brevity in favor of epic scope and world-building, while bringing in an even more experimental touch. If anything, it feels more like the original Mad Max films that inspired it than it feels like the film that preceded it, apart from the absence of Max himself.

Where Fury Road takes place over three days, Furiosa spans 18 years and five chapter breaks in telling the story of its titular lead, from her childhood as the captive of the maniacal warlord Dementus (a scene-chewing Chris Hemsworth, in a role so different from his signature role as the MCU’s Thor, it’s finally easy to shed those expectations) right up to the events of Fury Road.

Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), two leather-clad post-apocalyptic warriors, sit in the front seats of a truck with huge silver winged skulls on the hood and a group of War Boys with shaved heads and white face paint in the back in George Miller’s Furiosa

Each chapter begins with unsettling imagery, random narration, and tone-setting montages rather than concrete narrative. Miller and credited co-writers Nick Lathouris and Prateek Bando aren’t worried about conforming to the expected rules for prequels. In one of their smartest diversions from the format, they spend nearly equal amounts of time with young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) and her adult counterpart (Anya Taylor-Joy).

There isn’t one quick flashback to five minutes of on-screen childhood before we meet the real star. Instead, Browne plays a pivotal role in actually letting us watch Furiosa grow. Miller seems to trust the audience in a way most directors don’t or aren’t allowed to, with the narrative jumping years with no explanation or apology, and new characters appearing without a constant stream of exposition or introduction. It’s a wild ride as Furiosa grows from a vengeance-fueled child to a burgeoning warrior-woman with a greater mission.

That choice directly contradicts what we’re usually told about the importance of star power in franchise vehicles. Miller already replaced Charlize Theron, the woman who made Furiosa an action star, because he wanted to tell the character’s origin story and didn’t want to use de-aging technology to do it. Splitting time between an established star like Taylor-Joy and an unknown child actor seems like a huge risk, but it pays off, laying the foundation for the often gruesome adventure Furiosa must go on to reach the heights of heroism she does in Fury Road.

Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy), a leather-clad warrior with long braided hair, stands on the back of a steam shovel, kicking a helmeted, prone adversary in the face, in George Miller’s Furiosa

Her characterization is particularly daring: Furiosa only speaks 30 lines in the entire film. Taylor-Joy has said she spent months on set in complete silence, which makes sense when you see the raw fury and heart she’s able to convey with a single glance in the film. It’s easy to forget she isn’t a verbose lead, as Miller weaves a vibrant, loud story around her, and Browne and Taylor-Joy craft a character with enough presence that even a single word holds weight.

That choice lingers long after the film ends, especially when considered alongside Furiosa’s trauma, and the trials she endures in this movie. In her world, silence is control and power, with no quips or smart comebacks needed. Put that at the center of a film that’s more concerned with vibes than with narrative, pulling more from the surreal tones of artists like Mœbius and Alejandro Jodorowsky than famed blockbuster directors Steven Spielberg or David Yates, and you’ve got something that feels unlikely, but terrific.

An epic, nearly 20-year saga likely isn’t what most people were expecting from Furiosa , but the approach allows the world to expand in pleasing ways. The MCU-ification of cinema means that franchise blockbusters often reveal characters, important MacGuffins, narrative loose ends, and potential sequel nods in bite-size teases that are less and less likely to lead anywhere . But with Furiosa , Miller widens the scope of the Mad Max landscape exponentially, as characters old and new blast their way onto the screen, giving clearer insight into the setting of the Wasteland, its societal hierarchies, its gasoline-fueled wars, and its steampunk-hued reality.

Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a shaggy-haired, shaggy-bearded Wasteland warrior, holds a gun in one hand and steers a vehicle with the other in George Miller’s Furiosa

In other hands, the level of detail, the number of characters, and the narrative ambition of telling a story about an entire generation of Wastelanders could bog the film down. But Miller brings it all to life with his punk auteur sensibilities: Even given the movie’s 148-minute runtime, there’s rarely a moment of reprise from the gorgeously harsh post-apocalyptic action.

The almost overwhelming stunts are a large part of what made Fury Road stand out from the blockbuster pack back in 2015. For the most part, Miller returns to that gritty sensibility here. Since that film was made, filmmaking technology has evolved significantly, especially around action: the ability to manipulate CGI backgrounds on large screens in real time has given studios and filmmakers the ability to craft entire worlds with barely any practical or location shooting, with projects as wide-ranging as Our Flag Means Death and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania taking advantage of the tech.

At a recent Q&A for a Los Angeles screening of the film , Miller said new technology changed his approach. According to the director, the most important new element was an Unreal Engine-driven pre-vis program called PROXi , created by Fury Road stunt supervisors Guy and Harrison Norris, which let him prep and storyboard all of his dangerous stunt scenes in an entirely digital format. He explained to reporters at the event that it was a huge shift from Fury Road , where the team visualized stunts by physically laying out the entire set and models of each stunt-team member in a tent in the desert.

Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the bearded leader of a group of Wasteland warriors, stands in a tent with a clean white cloth draped over his head and extending down to his feet, surrounded by male acolytes of various ages in George Miller’s Furiosa

That advancement is felt on screen, with more obvious CGI than in Fury Road , especially in the backgrounds and vehicles. Some of the previous movie’s rough-and-readiness has been lost, and Furiosa occasionally feels a little too smooth and slick, despite being shot on location in Australia. But that’s a mere wrinkle in the movie’s brutal patchwork, which still boasts several complex action sequences full of practical stunts — including one that took 78 days to shoot . In its best moments, Furiosa puts pretty much every modern superhero movie to shame.

Really, the key word here is “trust.” Miller trusts the audience to go on this adventure with him. Miller trusts his own abilities, reputation, or convictions enough to make this film without checking the expected boxes. And the studio clearly trusts Miller enough to position an unconventional fantasy-action epic as a big summer release.

So even as Furiosa is inevitably compared with Fury Road , both positively and negatively, put your trust in Miller’s weird, wild filmmaking. He’ll make you root for a near-silent hero in the face of insurmountable odds, and a demented villain who will go down alongside Fury Road ’s Immortan Joe as a horrible new addition to Mad Max’s rogues gallery. Innovative and strange in the best ways, Furiosa repays that trust with a trip down a twisted cinematic rabbit hole that’ll likely once again redefine expectations for what an action film can be.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits theaters on May 24.

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Billie Eilish's 'Hit Me Hard and Soft' is a thrilling return to form for pop's leading weirdo

Billie EIlish released her third studio album, "Hit Me Hard and Soft," on Friday.
The 10-song tracklist is tenacious and experimental, reminiscent of her beloved debut.
The best songs are "Lunch," "Chihiro," "The Greatest," and "The Diner."

Billie Eilish's entrancing new album, "Hit Me Hard and Soft," arrived on Friday after much anticipation, cementing the 22-year-old singer as a true auteur.

Eilish's new sonic direction largely remained a mystery leading up to the album's release. She declined to release any of the album's 10 tracks as singles because she wanted her fans to consume the project as a whole.

"I really don't like when things are out of context," Eilish told Rolling Stone . "This album is like a family: I don't want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone."

Like her Grammy-winning debut "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" and its 2021 follow-up " Happier Than Ever ," Eilish's third studio album was cowritten and produced by her older brother, Finneas O'Connell .

O'Connell characterized "Hit Me Hard and Soft" as a return to form after the fantasy and illusion of Eilish's blonde era .

"I feel like this album has some real ghosts in it, and I say that with love. There's ideas on this album that are five years old, and there's a past to it, which I really like," he told Rolling Stone, concluding, "This album was an exploration of what we do best."

Here's our review of each song on "Hit Me Hard and Soft" upon first listen . (Skip to the end to see the songs worth listening to and the album's final score.)

"Skinny" plays like the sequel to "What Was I Made For?"

Much like Eilish's Oscar-winning "Barbie" theme , "Skinny" is a feminine ballad that grapples with existential questions.

The lyrics are closely tied to the performative and isolating demands of womanhood , especially as a woman in the spotlight: "Am I acting my age now? / Am I already on the way out? / When I step off the stage, I'm a bird in a cage / I'm a dog in a dog pound."

But unlike " What Was I Made For? " (which I previously ranked as the eighth-best song of 2023 ), the lasting taste from "Skinny" isn't drawn from Eilish's bitter lyrics, but from her full-bodied vocals.

Eilish's biggest critics have always accused her of whispering in every song. Of course, this is a stylistic choice , not a lack of skill. To suggest Eilish can't sing is to admit you're not paying attention .

That being said, I've been itching for Eilish to push beyond her typical range — to better use her voice as an instrument of expression. She's done this with some of her best songs, including the title track of " Happier Than Ever " and her brilliant Labrinth collab " Never Felt So Alone ." In both, Eilish's belts and wails offer a tantalizing glimpse of her true vocal prowess.

The second half of "Skinny" delivers on this promise — and bodes extremely well for the rest of the tracklist.

"Lunch" is a sapphic banger that sees Eilish letting loose.

Sonically speaking, "Lunch" has almost nothing in common with "Skinny," which creates a curious and thrilling juxtaposition.

In fact, according to O'Connell, "Lunch" is purposely placed as the second track to upend the listener's expectations.

"You go, 'Oh, OK. I understand this world.' Then the drums come in [on 'Lunch'], and it really is the kill-the-main-character-type beat," he told Rolling Stone. "It's like Drew Barrymore being in the first five minutes of 'Scream' and then they kill her. You're like, 'They can't kill Drew. Oh, my God, they killed Drew!'"

The sequence also serves to intensify the second track's impact. "Lunch" is a song with an unruly appetite; the lyrics depict a girl so irresistible, so seductive, that Eilish wants to devour her. Because it arrives right after the anguished restraint of track one ("People say I look happy just because I got skinny… And I still cry"), "Lunch" feels like a rebellion. The song gives Eilish permission to eat, to swell with passion and lust, to take up space; to enjoy her own life.

There's still a patriarchal expectation for women to be small and submissive (and straight). The Eilish we hear in "Lunch" is having none of that .

"Chihiro" is an exhilarating album highlight.

"Chihiro" is named after the protagonist from Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film "Spirited Away," a fantastical coming-of-age journey that's been widely celebrated for its multi-layered storytelling and animation style .

Eilish's "Chihiro" is similarly rich. It refuses to follow a traditional song structure, more closely following the ebbs and flows of a DJ's club remix — shimmering, pulsing, and blooming into bursts of heady synths and house beats.

You can tell O'Connell had a blast with this production, and it translates superbly well. During the album listening event at Barclays Center on Wednesday, "Chihiro" earned some of the most delighted shrieks and loudest cheers of the evening.

"Birds of a Feather" casts Eilish as a lovesick heroine.

"Birds of a Feather" is a bright, melodic love song fit for a blockbuster film.

The chorus boasts some of Eilish's finest vocal work to date. She audibly swoons as she declares her devotion ("I'll love you 'til the day that I die! 'Til the day that I die-ee-eeeee! 'Til the light leaves my eyes!"), as if she's prepared to run through an airport or perform a musical number in front of the whole school .

This is her big romantic gesture, and she's giving an award-worthy performance. But because she's Billie Eilish, her love is still tinged with her obsession with morbidity: "I want you to stay 'til I'm in the grave / 'Til I rot away, dead and buried." Even as new layers of Eilish are revealed on this album, she's true to her core.

"Wildflower" is the album's first lull.

This song is very pretty, but it doesn't stick out to me. Its best quality is the clarity in Eilish's voice; she often struggles with enunciation, but on "Wildflower," Eilish takes great care to articulate her wistful tale. ("I should put it all behind me, shouldn't I? / But I see her in the back of my mind all the time / Like a fever, like I'm burning alive.")

"The Greatest" is the album's emotional peak.

"The Greatest" is expertly molded, recalling the structure of "Happier Than Ever."

Both songs start humbly with delicate acoustics, belying the resentment and agony in Eilish's lyrics ("All the times I waited / For you to want me naked / Made it all look painless / Man, am I the greatest").

Both songs weaponize this tension, building toward an intense, gratifying, electric guitar-fueled catharsis.

And, accordingly, both songs can be counted among the crown jewels in Eilish's catalog .

"L'Amour de Ma Vie" will take you by surprise.

Here is what I wrote about "L'Amour de Ma Vie" during my first listen: "After the euphoric high of 'The Greatest,' this really doesn't pack the same punch. I do like the jazzy, swingy tone of Eilish's delivery (it reminds me of ' Billie Bossa Nova '), but if the album has any filler so far, this is it."

Then, I crossed the song's three-and-a-half-minute mark, when "L'Amour de Ma Vie" abruptly morphs from a soft-rock ballad into a thumping rush of '80s synths and warped vocals. Please disregard my previous notes — I stand corrected.

It should be obvious by now that I love a mid-song transition, mostly because I love to be surprised. Although "L'Amour de Ma Vie" doesn't sound anything like Eilish's debut album, the experimental risk is still Eilish-esque and uniquely memorable. Once considered to be pop's weird outsider , Eilish is a full-on pop star now — but with this album, she proves that she's still in touch with those weirdo instincts.

"The Diner" is a welcome callback to Eilish's debut album.

Now this sounds like Eilish circa "When We All Fall Asleep." The circus-freak vibe, the squeaky sound effects, the brief silence at the end of the chorus that precedes the word "me," the eerie whispers and sirens in the outro — "The Diner" is gothic and theatrical, what O'Connell once described as " the Billie sound ," but fuller, somehow. More amped. It sounds like "Bury a Friend" on ecstasy.

"Bittersuite" is all right, but it's not a standout.

"Bittersuite" has some interesting choices and it's definitely not a skip. But it also isn't particularly remarkable. The plinky mid-song synths remind me of the fan-favorite deep cut " Ilomilo ," though overall, "Bittersuite" lacks the same charm.

I doubt I'll reach for this one in the future — except, of course, during full-album spins. The seamless transition into "Blue" is essential.

"Blue" is a compelling blend of nostalgia and experimentation.

Much like "The Diner," "Blue" recalls the outré flourishes of Eilish's debut album but avoids sounding overly familiar or stale.

Throughout "Blue," Eilish and O'Connell build a strange and otherworldly soundscape that mirrors the malaise in her lyrics (" You were born reaching for your mother's hands / Victim of your father's plans to rule the world … But they could say the same about me").

It's an effective, hypnotic closer that leaves me with a dueling sense of wonder and unease — exactly what I want from a trip to Eilish's world.

Final Grade: 9/10

In their Rolling Stone interview, Eilish and O'Connell referred to "Hit Me Hard and Soft" as an "album-ass album." After just one listen, it's easy to see why.

This is a compact, tenacious, deeply intentional tracklist. With just 10 songs, every second counts. Several songs are two-for-one deals that take risks and detours by transforming into new beasts. Like the album cover, some lead to dreamlike worlds and murky depths.

I particularly relish the album's reference to "Spirited Away," a movie about stumbling through a portal to an alternate dimension where there's familiarity and fear in equal measure. Chihiro is thrust into a great adventure at an extremely young age — much like Eilish when she shot to fame as a teenager . The only options are escape or immersion. Eilish chose the latter.

Eilish is still only 22, but she has established a clear vision as an artist. These songs recall her best works — the surreal shapes and sinister themes that course through "When We All Fall Asleep," the raw emotion in songs like "Happier Than Ever," "Halley's Comet," and "What Was I Made For?" — without sounding like she's retreating back into her comfort zone. The textures are plusher, the colors are brighter, and Eilish's lyrics reveal her burgeoning maturity.

It's rare to hear an artist's identity come through so strongly in her work. "Hit Me Hard and Soft" isn't just an album-ass album. It's a Billie Eilish-ass album.

Worth listening to:

"Birds of a Feather"

"The Greatest"

"L'Amour de Ma Vie"

"The Diner"

Background music:

"Wildflower"

"Bittersuite"

Press skip:

*Final album score based on songs per category (1 point for "Worth listening to," .5 for "Background music," 0 for "Press skip").

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COMMENTS

Blast of Silence
Rated: 5/5 Dec 26, 2023 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com You don't know Film Noir until you've seen "Blast Of Silence." Hard boiled. Hard boiled. Rated: A+ Jan 18, 2022 Full Review Read ...
Review: Blast of Silence
Review: Blast of Silence. Blast of Silence begins with a brutal, uncompromising invocation of birth and ends with an almost mystically sensitive death. With one foot planted firmly in the Kiss Me Deadly era of film noir and the other closer to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, writer-director Allen Baron's Blast of Silence begins with a brutal ...
Blast of Silence: Bad Trip
The movie had a bit of success, though, even in 1961. It was picked up for distribution by Universal (which opened it on the bottom of double bills), was generally well reviewed, and won a critics' prize at the Locarno Film Festival. And over the years, Blast of Silence has, like a particularly scary local hoodlum, acquired a small reputation ...
Blast of Silence (1961)
Blast of Silence (1961) In some ways, the filming and the cool grey timbre of this film are so singular and evocative, you really have to watch it. In this way it reminded me of a gritty, New York version of the 1958 Elevator to the Gallows (set in Paris). They both have some of the most beautiful, evocative scenes of people just walking the streets of the city, day and night.
BLAST OF SILENCE: Born to Die
Blast of Silence (1961) - source: Universal Pictures. This is a dismal tale, dismally told by Baron and his collaborators, who sculpt an existential prison out of shadow and sound. Every filmmaking choice diminishes and isolates Frankie, emphasizes his powerlessness, and situates us deep within the dark heart of his consciousness, contributing to the prevailing sense of schism.
A Character Study of Alienation and Loneliness: Blast of Silence (Allen
Allen Baron and the Making of Blast of Silence. Blast of Silence was Allen Baron's first feature. Clocking in at a taut 77 minutes, the film was shot in late 1959 and 1960. As well as directing and starring in Blast of Silence, Baron also wrote the original screenplay.In 1959, Baron was an occasional actor and former comic book artist who ambitiously wanted to try his hand at making a ...
Blast of Silence
Blast of Silence - Metacritic. 1961. Approved. Universal Pictures. 1 h 17 m. Summary A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way. Crime.
Blast of Silence: Loneliness and Christmas Noir
Despite coming at the tail end of the film noir era, Blast of Silence (1961) is one of the bluntest and most stylistic examples of the genre. Written, directed, and starring Allen Baron, Blast of Silence tells the story of a doomed hitman named Frankie Bono (Baron). After being orphaned at a young age, Frankie comes back to New York City from Cleveland to take out a boss named Troiano.
Review
Blast of Silence is full of Baron's friends and family members and was shot on the fly, without permits in in New York, using camera equipment Baron himself had smuggled out of Cuba (it had got stuck there when Castro's revolution caused filming on Errol Flynn's final film to come to a sudden halt). The patchwork MO is part of its appeal. But having shot what he needed, and using test ...
Blast of Silence Review :: Criterion Forum
The Criterion Collection upgrades Allen Baron's Blast of Silence to Blu-ray, offering the film on a dual-layer disc with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode and the choice between two aspect ratios: 1.33:1 and 1.85:1. The film has been restored in 4K and sourced from a scan of the 35mm original camera negatives.
Film Walrus Reviews: Review of Blast of Silence
The film, fittingly, is set at Christmas time. So while I'm now a bit late, I'd like to riposte with a film noir holiday spotlight of my own: Allen Baron's 1961 "Blast of Silence," released last year on DVD by Criterion. Like "Lady in the Lake," it's a film noir set on Christmas with the director stepping in as the protagonist.
Blast of Silence (1961)
Swift, brutal, and blackhearted, Allen Baron's New York City noir Blast of Silence is a sensational surprise. This low-budget, carefully crafted portrait of a hit man on assignment in Manhattan during Christmastime follows its stripped-down narrative with mechanical precision, yet also with an eye and ear for the oddball details of urban living and the imposing beauty of the city.
'Blast of Silence' Blu-ray Review: The Criterion Collection
Overall. The neglected standing of Blast of Silence is the film's own best proof of its uniquely wallflowerish take on film noir tropes, but even more intriguing is its standing as one of the greatest and most unsung of American Christmas movies. Score: Cast: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, Peter Clune, Danny Meehan, Howard Mann ...
Blast of Silence (1961)
Blast of Silence: Directed by Allen Baron. With Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, Peter Clune. A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.
‎Blast of Silence (1961) directed by Allen Baron • Reviews, film + cast
Popular reviews. Allen Baron's documentary style noir, Blast of Silence has no business being as entertaining and groundbreaking as it is. Filmed on a less than zero budget with the director also acting as the protagonist, Baby Boy Frankie Bono; Blast of Silence is a textbook on how to kill a motherfucker dead.
Blast of Silence (1961)
With a voiceover that talks to Frank Bono almost as a child, a beautiful, threatening cinematography of New York and the cold gaze of Allen Baron, who was not an experienced actor, Blast of Silence is a wonderful dark film noir with a lot of atmosphere. Maybe not a Christmas film for the whole family, but one that plays (just like Die Hard ...
Blast of Silence Review :: Criterion Forum
Picture 7/10. Blast of Silence is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on this dual-layered disc. The image has thankfully not been picture-boxed. Criterion presents a very strong digital transfer, though the source material has a few issues here and there. The film's sharpness varies throughout, looking sharp and crisp most of the time but ...
Blast of Silence
Blast of Silence is a 1961 American neo-noir film written, directed by, and starring Allen Baron, with Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, and Peter H. Clune in supporting roles.Set during Christmastime, it follows a hitman who returns to his native New York City to commit a murder for hire. It was produced by Merrill Brody, who was also the cinematographer.
Blast of Silence (1961)
Peter Falk had agreed to act in Blast of Silence but withdrew from the project for the promise of "a few dollars a week and a bag of peanuts" acting in Twentieth Century Fox's Murder, Inc. (1960). The role of "Kid Twist" Reles made Falk's film career. Blast of Silence's running narration was written by blacklisted screenwriter Waldo Salt, signing himself as "Mel Davenport."
Blast of Silence (1961)
A gritty crime film about lonely professional hit man Frank Bono (Allen Baron), Blast of Silence is interesting in its meticulous detail of the killer's work, a device that has been used in many crime films since. Most of the characters are hoodlums, except for a couple of friends that Frank meets from his past.
Blast of Silence (1961) Movie Review
Swift, brutal, and black-hearted, Allen Baron's New York City noir Blast of Silenceis a sensational surprise. This low-budget, carefully crafted portrait of ...
DVD Savant Review: Blast of Silence
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson. Blast of Silence has been a wanna-see curiosity for years, ever since it showed up in the first edition of the Silver/Ward Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style.The gritty B&W independent won a minor release from Universal and some positive foreign reviews. Director Allen Baron certainly considers it a success, as it earned him a career ...
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Blast of Silence

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A Character Study of Alienation and Loneliness: Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961)

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An unforgettable experience in suspense! ... as seconds tick off a timetable ... for murder!

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