Blast of Silence out on DVD!

Years ago a friend turned me on to Blast of Silence, a fascinating offbeat 1961 crime drama, written and directed by and starring Allen Baron. It's about a hitman who arrives in New York at Christmas to bump off a hood, and the camera follows him up and down the mean streets stalking his prey while an existential voice-over (care of blacklisted actor Lionel Stander) gives the soundtrack a hard-boiled sheen. This low budget wonder was way ahead of it's time and really delivers. Thankfully Criterion is releasing it beautifully restored on April 15th. It also includes a terrific German documentary which followed the director around his NY locations in 1990 as he reminisced about making the film. The DVD also has recent photos of Allen Baron revisiting locations and rare Polaroids taken during the shooting of the film. What a blast, indeed....