Blast of Silence (1961)

Blast of Silence (1961). 1h 17m | Not Rated

“Loner hit-man comes to New York City for a job at Christmas and things begin to happen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne of the last films made during the heyday of film noir this is a really good little crime drama now out on DVD thanks to Criterion. The tale is told in stark black and white images with such a stunning sense of place-it was filmed all over the city-that you actually feel youu0026#39;re pounding the streets and back alleys of Manhattan.The sense of place is gets the film many points in my book Adding greatly to the film is what should be an odd second person narration, but instead fills in details that the visuals lack. Its a perfect marriage of word and image. Its like listening to really good Chandler and Hammett narrating a story. The film itself is not perfect, there are some technical issues with the sound making it seem dubbed at times, the cast is uneven with some characters coming off as stiff as a result, and one or two twists seem more contrived then natural. Still this is definitely worth a look since its mostly a very real film.”