BLAST OF SILENCE
US, 1961, 77 minutes, Black-and-white.
Allen Baron, Molly Mc Carthy, Larry Tucker, Peter Clune, Danny Meehan. Voice-over: Lionel Stander.
Directed by Allen Baron.
Note: this reviewer was alerted to Blast of Silence by an article in the Catholic Herald, 2018, commenting on films about Christmas, reminding readers that It’s a Wonderful Life focused on a suicide, and alerting readers to Blast of Silence with its emphasis on Christmas, negative aspects of Christmas, and its portrait of a hitman.
The film is well worth seeing. It was a modest film noir of 1961, not taken up by distributors and little seen. It was rediscovered in the early 21st-century and praised as an excellent example of its kind. It is.
This is the story of a hitman from Cleveland, played by the director, Allen Baron, who appeared as an actor in some films (looking like a younger version of George C.Scott), who made another feature, Terror in the City, with Lee Grant, but who spent several decades as a television director, with episodes of many of the very popular series. It would have been interesting to have seen his career had it been boosted by Blast of Silence in the noir direction.
While the director also wrote the screenplay, there is a very effective voice-over commentary, spoken by veteran actor, uncredited, Lionel Stander. The attribution of the voice-over is to Mel Davenport, in reality, the veteran writer Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy).
The rest of the cast is little-known but there is a very effective performance by Larry Tucker as a rather large gun dealer. Molly Mc Carthy bring some tenderness to her role as Lori will, attracted to the hitman, actually putting him off his determination and course.
It is interesting to see and hear the pervading atmosphere of Christmas, the streets, shoppers, decorations, Santa Claus, the songs and hymns, the churchgoing. And in the context of the pessimistic downfall of a hitman.
The film is very effective in its portrait of Frank, the hitman, the voice-over explaining his inner life, motivations, behaviour, reasoning. But, while he has been alone and ruthless, the more personal encounter puts him off his control – and, while he achieves his mission, is under suspicion from those who hired him and it leads to his death.
1. A film noir of the early 1960s? Lack of success in its time? The career of the director? Its rediscovery and acclaim in the 21st-century?
2. A film of pessimism? A hitman and his work, defeat? Yet the atmosphere of Christmas, the emphasis on the Christmas season, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Santa Claus and the shops, shoppers and gifts, carols and hymns, churchgoing? The contrasting moods?
3. The black-and-white photography, the lighting, the framing, the effective picture of New York City, of the hitman pursuing his target, exteriors and interiors? Clubs? Apartments? Going outside the city, the open fields and water? The musical score – and the songs in the club, the bongo drummer, the band, their ironic lyrics?
4. The importance of the voice-over, the voice of Lionel Stander, the tone, the commentary on the central character, his inner life and feelings, his action? The ironies?
5. The opening in the darkness, the voice-over, the tunnel, the imagery of birth and Frank’s origins, parents, the orphanage? Emerging into the light of the subway?
6. The character Frank, as portrayed by the director? Age, experience, reputation, hitman, lack of conscience? Memory of family, of the orphanage, the nuns, the treatment by the nuns? Memories of Christmas, tones of bitterness? His later looking from the roof with the nuns organising the orphans?
7. Arrival in New York, winter, the overcoat, on the ferry, the meeting with the contact, half payment, the promise for the future? The photo of the target? His settling into the hotel for the week? Looking at the target, discovering that he was a gangster, following his routine, his collections? The discovery of his mistress? With the family at Christmas, religious, then with the mistress, at the club, drinking?
8. Frank, going to see Ralph, Ralph and his size, his apartment, the dealings about the money, the silencer? The contact for the gun? The later encounter with Ralph at the club, the scene in the toilet, Ralph and his threatening? Frank going to his house, the confrontation, beating him to death?
9. Frank, going to the contact with the gun, getting it easily, no contact made by Ralph?
10. The encounter with Petey, memories of the past, Petey and his genial insistence, meeting Lori and the Christmas gifts, insisting that he go to the party? Out of place, Lori welcoming him, the dancing, his change of attitude? Loosening his grip? His feeling lonely, going to the apartment, Lori welcoming him, the dinner and the gifts, dancing? His losing control, the sexual advance, Lori and her reaction, his apology? Going to the house the next day, seeing Lori with her boyfriend?
11. Is Not wanting to do the hit, the phone calls, the pressure on him to complete the work?
12. The surveillance of the apartment, the preparation for the hit, hiding, killing the target? The woman cleaning the floor, his having to go to the roof, getting down?
13. The drive, the phone call, the rendezvous, the abandoned area, the men following him, his going out onto the jetty, shooting him, death in the mud?
14. The irony of the life and death of a hitman? And the comments by the voice-over?
