STUDIO: Criterion
RELEASE DATE: April 15, 2008
STARRING: Allen Baron, Molly McCarthy, and Larry Tucker
WRITTEN BY: Allen Baron
DIRECTED BY: Allen Baron
FEATURES: Requiem For A Killer: The Making of Blast Of Silence (2007)
Rare on-set Polaroids
Photos of locations in 2008
Requiem For A Killer: The Making of Blast Of Silence (2007)
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty and a four-page graphic-novel adaptation of the film by acclaimed artist Sean Phillips (Criminal, Sleeper, Marvel Zombies)

Criterion has pulled another gem from the vault and given it new life on DVD with a gorgeous transfer of an underrated slice of noir called Blast of Silence. Stunningly shot by Merril Brody and marking the debut of writer/director/star Allen Baron, Blast of Silence is a dark, twisted little film that features stunning imagery and a cold, black heart. In other words, if you're a noir fan, you have to see it. Blast of Silence is simply fantastic and the fact that it's been so unheralded for so many decades - the film was almost completely underground from its release in 1961 to a small revival in 1990 but not really widely available until now - just serves as proof that there must be dozens of great movies that simply have yet to be appreciated. Like they've done for so many small films, Criterion has made it possible for another unheralded masterpiece to find the audience it deserves.

Allen Baron plays Frankie Bono, a Cleveland hitman who returns to New York over the Christmas season for an assignment after a long absence. Bono has been hired to hit Troiano (Peter Clume), a mid-level mob moss, but life and loneliness starts to get in the way during the holiday rush (which has arguably never looked more stylish on film). Forget friends. A hitman can't even have acquaintances. It's too much of a possible liability that they might get recognized at the very wrong time. And, while he's in NYC, Frankie runs across an old pal from the orphanage of his childhood. And his cute sister. Frankie starts to get distracted and a distracted hitman is a bad hitman. As the brilliantly cold-hearted narrator says, "A killer who doesn't kill gets killed."

Almost all of Blast of Silence is narrated in that hard-hearted style, making for a very unique experience, even to the world of noir. There have been plenty of narrated noirs, but very few with as cold a world view and as striking a visual sense as Blast of Silence. The film is so beautifully staged and shot that you could almost watch it as a silent movie and still enjoy the experience, making the title that much more appropriate. The fact that you have a third-person narrator who tries to open a window into Frankie's inner monologue with lines like "You want a woman? Buy one. In the dark, she won't remember your face." makes the film that much more dream-like. Blast of Silence is one of the most visually arresting films that will be released on DVD this year. In one of the special features, Baron says in a new interview that, shortly after the film was released, he saw a headline that proclaimed that he could be the new Orson Welles. In most people's interviews, that would seem like hyperbole, but after watching Blast of Silence, you can see why someone would think that he could be.

Baron would go on to direct a lot of television, including episodes of Charlie's Angels, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Brady Bunch, and the awesome and influential Kolchak: The Night Stalker but Blast of Silence would disappear into the shelves of cinema history. By the time the film was released (1961), the noir genre was in its dying days, and audiences and studios were looking for something else. Honestly, a film this dark and nihilistic - it puts most noirs to shame with its basic theme that its humanity and its associated fragility that will be your downfall - would have trouble finding a mass audience in any era, but it's a film that every hard-boiled buff should see and now can with the help of the best DVD production company for films like this one, Criterion.

Blast of Silence only appears in its original format - 1.33:1/Full Frame - and with only a monaural track but neither of those are the drawbacks that you might expect, given the film's style. The restoration of the black and white picture is stunning and the audio is never muffled or problematic in any way. As for special features, Criterion comes up with unique and interesting ones yet again, finding Allen Baron for a new interview and even going with him to many of the NYC locations where Blast of Silence was shot and noting what has changed and what hasn't in the fifty years since the film was made. A documentary that was shot in 1990 is recut with new interview footage for "Requiem For a Killer" and Sean Phillips, a great artist who has worked on Marvel Zombies and Criminal, provides fans with a cool collectible - a graphic-novel adaptation of the film. Like Baron's film, Criterion doesn't go the predictable route with their special features, always striving to provide something that feels germane to the title itself, not just a prerequisite extra. It's another home run in the most consistent line of DVDs available.

For a fantastic analysis and history of Blast of Silence, check out Tom Sutpen's article from Bright Lights Film Journal,