Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Discussion of programming on TCM.
Mr. Arkadin
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Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Image

While most critics agree that Film Noir ended in 1958 with Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, independent filmmaker Allen Baron wasn’t ready to call it quits just yet. Blast of Silence (1960), showing on TCM Underground in the early hours of May 23rd, might not have the budget or big players of Welles film, but it’s no less a masterpiece. A contract killer arrives in NYC during the Christmas holidays. Like Santa, it’s a business trip that involves entry and delivery, but the similarity ends there. When Frankie Bono pays you a visit—the holiday is over. Still, Frankie has issues with his life and place in the world, which is what makes Blast of Silence a truly memorable film and perhaps the greatest of New York location noirs ever made. Scratch a few people off your Christmas card list and come home with Frankie tonight. You might be alone in the dark, but that’s the way it should be.

[youtube][/youtube]

Dedicated to Mr. ChiO who knows a heck of a lot more about BOS than I do and should have written this, but is on his own dark odyssey. Hope you are having fun my friend.
Last edited by Mr. Arkadin on May 22nd, 2009, 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ollie
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Ollie »

I have to admit, this one MIGHT be among my Essentials list, if I ever wanted to exclude so many other good films. It has a lush "dropped in crowded Manhattan with all its grime and glitz" feel to it, even though it's minimalistically filmed - er, on the cheap, in other words. But it offers the same 'feel' that I had when I first came to Manhattan in the mid-70s.

This also gives a sense of Allen Baron, too - there's no escaping that this is his film, much like Morris Engel's films are 'his and his alone'. I was happy that Criterion gave this a good treatment.
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MissGoddess
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by MissGoddess »

Oh, I may have to catch it even though a fellow noirista was kind enough to send me a DVD-r copy!
I still haven't seen it. Is it on late? I really have to start checking the schedule.

I believe you and ChiO are the ones who recommended SOMETHING WILD TO me, guys, which I
thank you for. It was fantastic and so was the expressive way the city of New York was photographed
like a malevolent, overarching character or fate itself. It tapped into my own very admittedly skewed
feelings about this city (which are unprintable for this forum).
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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ChiO
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by ChiO »

Thanks for posting this, Mr. Ark. When it comes to noir, for me it's GUN CRAZY #1, TOUCH OF EVIL #2, and BLAST OF SILENCE #3. Beyond fatalistic, this is a nihilistic journey into the soul of a man on the edge of the end. Also worth catching just for the performance of Larry Tucker (the opera singer in SHOCK CORRIDOR), the narration of Lionel Stander, and my favorite opening in all of filmdom (with apologies to Mr. Welles for CITIZEN KANE & TOUCH OF EVIL and Sam Fuller for THE STEEL HELMET & THE NAKED KISS). Not to be missed (unless one is at a Dewey Fest).
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
jdb1

Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by jdb1 »

MissGoddess wrote:
I believe you and ChiO are the ones who recommended SOMETHING WILD TO me, guys, which I
thank you for. It was fantastic and so was the expressive way the city of New York was photographed
like a malevolent, overarching character or fate itself. It tapped into my own very admittedly skewed
feelings about this city (which are unprintable for this forum).
Miss G, I think NYC is much more an overarching embodiment of fate (sometimes malevolent) than it is the picture-postcard frilly thing that the most recent crop of television shows and movies make it to be. The City is so crowded with hopefuls who believed that New York was going to be "Fun City," when in reality it can be much more like "Ulysses in Nightown" (i.e., a dark and dreamlike experience). What the newbies can't seem to get through their heads is that we natives like it that way; we don't wan't to turn this place into a Chamber of Commerce Showplace. If you have skewed feelings about NYC -- good. I think you're supposed to. There's just as much good as bad here; the trick is to be able to handle both.

Also -- I've been trying for some time to establish if I'm related in some way to Allen Baron (Baron being my last name you see, and he being from Brooklyn), but as far as I can determine, I am not. There's another filmmaker called Skip Baron, but I can't find any ties to him, either. Too bad; it would have been kinda cool. My only connection to fame lies in the fact that the oft-photographed Gus's Pickles on the Lower East Side is owned by a cousin of my ex-husband, which make the owner my daughter's cousin as well.
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MissGoddess
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by MissGoddess »

Miss G, I think NYC is much more an overarching embodiment of fate (sometimes malevolent) than it is the picture-postcard frilly thing that the most recent crop of television shows and movies make it to be. The City is so crowded with hopefuls who believed that New York was going to be "Fun City," when in reality it can be much more like "Ulysses in Nightown" (i.e., a dark and dreamlike experience). What the newbies can't seem to get through their heads is that we natives like it that way; we don't wan't to turn this place into a Chamber of Commerce Showplace. If you have skewed feelings about NYC -- good. I think you're supposed to. There's just as much good as bad here; the trick is to be able to handle both.

I came to New York the same way Holly Golightly did in Breakfast at Tiffany's did: because I'd never been here before. I never ever had any illusions about it, I always felt it was crime ridden and dirty so no one was as surprised as I when I ended up here. I was pleasantly surprised to find crime here MUCH lower than in L.A. where you can get shot crossing the wrong intersection or in your car going home. But, I really had no other place to go unless I wanted to go back to L.A. which didn't interest me and I certainly wouldn't have returned to Texas (what for?). I loathe NYC and cannot be phony or politically correct enough to pretend otherwise. I have EVERY reason in the world to feel this way. But I make more money here---more than I can anywhere else and since that is that is what is considered most important here it gives me independence. The kind most people just pretend to know about but really don't or they wouldn't think it's something to boast about. But I have lived here long enough that I am a native and no one can tell one thing about this city, NO ONE. I know the lot.

Don't worry, you'll never hear me touting any Chamber of Commerce B.S. about this being the "greatest city in the world." I hope the day comes when I can leave under pleasant circumstances.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

MissGoddess wrote: But, I really had no other place to go unless I wanted to go back to L.A. which didn't interest me and I certainly wouldn't have returned to Texas (what for?).
Some of us like Texas. :wink:
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MissGoddess
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by MissGoddess »

Mr. Arkadin wrote:
MissGoddess wrote: But, I really had no other place to go unless I wanted to go back to L.A. which didn't interest me and I certainly wouldn't have returned to Texas (what for?).
Some of us like Texas. :wink:

And most of you like New York but none of you would like my experienceces of either.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
klondike

Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by klondike »

Mr. Arkadin wrote:
MissGoddess wrote: But, I really had no other place to go unless I wanted to go back to L.A. which didn't interest me and I certainly wouldn't have returned to Texas (what for?).
Some of us like Texas. :wink:
And some of us just survived it.
Brownsville after dark ain't exactly Mayfair in lilac time; after struggling so hard to wrap-up my first visit to Mexico, I started wondering if I was headed in the right direction!
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

I know what you mean. This thread is the result of some drunken thug banging on my door at 3am. The result was me not being able to go back to sleep. You need dogs and guns to survive in some areas of this state. I also would never venture into Mexico at this time. The drug cartels and violence there are incredible.
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bryce
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by bryce »

This thread only further proves my point about the (lacking) character of most people in the United States, and how it is uniformly the same (mediocre) throughout. To me, there is a certain type of person that moves to Los Angeles, New York or (nowadays) Austin.

The last time I voiced that opinion I ended up earning my BIGGEST FAN YET!!!! so prepare for a deluge of personal attacks in your thread, Ark.

Edit: I'd also like to take contention with the wholly misleading statement about getting shot in Los Angeles. It is the land of fruits and nuts, gangs and gun-toting nutjobs, liberals and neocons, but the one thing it isn't is the land of raging murderous psychopaths intent on gunning down jaywalkers and bad drivers. Look, let's cut out the BS here: in Texas, after CCWs were made legal, a guy got shot in the chest after he ran up to the car of someone who cut him off and started punching him in the face. In Chicago schoolchildren are being shot by gangs. In Florida there are drugwars and drivebys. Who cares, that's the nature of the game, that's the nature of life in America, that's the nature of human existence. Crime is cyclic and the easiest way to avoid getting shot, stabbed, raped or mugged is to not do stupid s***, to not be in the wrong part of town and to act like you're the type of person who won't be easily rolled.

I had exactly one gun pulled on me in Los Angeles, on the 5, over the aquaduct, by some white gangbanging chump driving a Civic, after I pulled up next to him and gave him the finger for cutting me off. As he was pulling it out I swerved as hard as I could into his lane in my '86 Continental, causing him to slam on his breaks lest he risk finding out if his Civic can float. Then, thanks to the goodness of American muscle, I tore ass away from him as his useless pimpmobile stalled out. I should have died either from a gunshot or a horrific accident, but I didn't. Insert other similarly stupid actions on my part from when I was younger.

This isn't to validate any sense of badassery on my own part. The moral is that you get what you give. No one ever got shot for simply getting out of the mean guy's way or yielding to the towncar full of gang members at an intersection. They get shot for doing stupid s*** like giving the finger to the wrong guy in a nice part of town in broad daylight. They get shot for being the only white guy within five miles walking in Glendale after 10 at night. They get shot for being a victim of chance: an immigrant's child, in the immigrant part of town, that distrusts police and authority, that is part of a community that is scared so shitless that they won't stand up to a bunch of punkass teenagers with guns.

We don't live in John Carpenter's world...yet.
Last edited by bryce on May 23rd, 2009, 1:15 pm, edited 4 times in total.
klondike

Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by klondike »

bryce wrote:
The last time I voiced that opinion I ended up earning my BIGGEST FAN YET!!!! so prepare for a deluge of personal attacks in your thread, Ark.
And they called him . . Provocateur!
:twisted:
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bryce
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by bryce »

Well, that's one of the nicer things I've ever been called!
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

So did anybody watch the movie?! :P
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Dewey1960
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Re: Blast of Silence (1960) Tonight!

Post by Dewey1960 »

What movie?
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