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Blast of Silence

Play trailer Poster for Blast of Silence 1961 1h 17m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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83% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A hit man (Allen Baron) comes to New York to kill a gangster and gets the gun from a big guy (Larry Tucker) with a beard.
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Blast of Silence

Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody The New Yorker 01/14/2013
This compact and forceful low-budget film noir ... compresses a week in a hit man's bitter life into a dazzlingly brisk yet richly nuanced seventy-seven minutes. Go to Full Review Eric Henderson Slant Magazine 04/16/2008
2/4
The tension doesn't so much revolve around the antihero's job, redemption, or ultimate fate but rather the disconnect between its mundane milieu and the grandiose flourishes they're meant to convey. Go to Full Review J. R. Jones Chicago Reader 01/22/2008
With its finger-popping jazz score and beat-inspired interior monologue (in second person, no less), this might seem comical if it weren't so rooted in existential dread. Go to Full Review Shelagh Rowan-Legg ScreenAnarchy 01/16/2024
4/5
The kind of magic that come out of this scrappy indie filmmaker is fully on display in Blast of Silence. Both an homage to and perhaps something of a criticism of noir and its cynicism, a distillation of its essential components into a fractal poem. Go to Full Review Michael J. Casey Michael J. Cinema 12/26/2023
5/5
A practically perfect take on the detached killer who is looking for a way out, seeing a chance for connection, and having everything he has known, hoped for, and dreamed about crumble away for no other reason than that how it goes, baby boy. Go to Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com 01/18/2022
A+
You don't know Film Noir until you've seen "Blast Of Silence." Hard boiled. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Johnathon W @Hoppynsc Jun 15 Low budget but well-crafted crime noir that makes a tight little movie. Allen Baron does some nice double duty as the star and director, making Frankie a somewhat sympathetic character, despite being a hitman, but never makes you feel completely sorry for him. His directing makes good use of the minimal budget and the film never overstays its welcome. However, it still gets a bit cheesy at times, especially the narration but works for the most part. A nice watch overall. See more Bill B 06/06/2024 Definitely low budget and deserving credit for what it was able to achieve, but there isn't a lot of story or dialogue here, except for the voice-over narration. It is mostly the noir atmosphere; its shadowy bleakness is what will remain with you. See more S R @ScottR 05/09/2023 Unique film noir, but not one I need to see again. Props for its day. Saw on TCM. See more delysid d 12/17/2021 strangling a fat guy to death who raises rats See more 12/26/2020 Unusually effective pulp-noir thriller, written and directed by its star Allen Baron. The story is simple - a lone hitman drives into New York for one last job, but gets sidetracked by romance, and is also betrayed by a fat hoodlum, whom he kills. Shot in grainy black-and-white during a bitterly cold winter, there is considerable beauty in the snatched sequences of early-60s Manhattan. Baron has something of DeNiro in his terse silence, and the occasional slightly clunky supporting performances don't spoil what is a very well-directed B-picture. Only Lionel Stander's insistent voice-over and the occasionally hectoring jazz score work against the melancholy that courses through the movie. See more 04/14/2017 A minor work made by a guy who knows his stuff. Traveled down the way The Asphalt Jungle and The Third Man had paved for it, all the while paving a new road for noir. See more Read all reviews
Blast of Silence

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Cast & Crew

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Allen Baron

Director

Allen Baron

Frank Bono

Molly McCarthy

Lorrie

Larry Tucker

Big Ralph

Danny Meehan

Petey

Howard Mann

Body Guard
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Blast of Silence

Blast of Silence (1961) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis A hit man (Allen Baron) comes to New York to kill a gangster and gets the gun from a big guy (Larry Tucker) with a beard.
Director
Allen Baron
Producer
Merrill S. Brody
Screenwriter
Allen Baron, Waldo Salt
Production Co
Magla Productions
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Apr 15, 2008
Runtime
1h 17m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
35mm
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