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Posted Mar. 25, 2008, 11:30 a.m. ET
Blast of Silence out on DVD!
By Dennis Dermody
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....
Comments
I watched this at work a month ago...in fact I got to pass the transfer so it could be made...little things like this make me feel I am doing something important in life at my job,It is good and the n.y. rooftop scenes are very reminiscent of Godfather 2...hmm or is it the other way around
p.s. look for Death of a Cyclist coming out soon on dvd from criterion
Posted at 5:28 a.m. ET on Mar 27, 2008 by randy focazio
Randy,
You are spot on. Just watched Blast of Silence and Coppolla must have lifted the DiNiro murder of the Black Hand dude right from this film. It starts with the lying in wait followed by the little kick after the shooting and the rooftop escape...too duplicative to be coincidence.
S.
Posted at 7:32 a.m. ET on Nov 04, 2009 by steve
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