BLAST OF SILENCE

USA | 1961 | 35mm | 77 min.
Director: Allen Baron
Cast: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker

It’s Christmas in New York City, but Frankie Bono (Allen Baron) is in no mood to celebrate the season. Frankie is a paid assassin from Cleveland just in town to carry out a hit, a man who prefers to remain anonymous and alone, even if friends from the past keep appearing in his path. Writer/director/star Baron presents a grim odyssey, aided by a jazzy score, a sinister voiceover (read by Lionel Stander) chronicling the laconic Frankie’s every despairing thought, and a fatalistic attitude as harsh as the film’s desolate, wintry atmosphere. Produced on a shoestring budget, Blast of Silence is a thrillingly bleak exercise in film noir style. (JM)