Trailer
Plot summary
Raised in a Cleveland orphanage, Frankie Bono now works as a hitman. He comes back to his native New York during Christmas week for a job: Troiano, a middle-management mobster. The go-between who hands Frankie half his money up front warns that the contract is off if anyone spots him before the hit. Frankie studies Troiano's daily routine to choose a spot, then buys a revolver from Big Ralph, an old acquaintance who keeps rats as pets. With days still to wait, he runs into Petey, a friend from childhood, who invites him to a Christmas party with his sister Lorrie, someone Frankie remembers.
Cast
- Bill DePratoas Joe Boniface (as Bill Da Prado)
- Peter H. Cluneas Troiano
- Danny Meehanas Petey
- Joe Bubbicoas Body Guard
- Ruth Kaneras Cleaning Woman
- Howard Mannas Body Guard
- Charles Creasapas Contact Man
- Milda Memenasas Troiano's Girl Freind [sic]
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Blast of Silence (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The lead was written for Allen Baron's summer-stock friend Peter Falk, but Falk took a paying role in Murder, Inc., so Baron played hitman Frankie Bono himself, using the film's test footage as his screen test.
- Blast of Silence was shot with equipment abandoned in Cuba after Errol Flynn's last film, Cuban Rebel Girls, when the crew fled the Cuban Revolution; Allen Baron struck a deal to use it if he smuggled it out of Cuba. Baron was also wanted there for accidentally shooting and wounding a man during that shoot.
- The chase that ends the film was shot at the Old Mill on a Jamaica Bay estuary during Hurricane Donna in September 1960, the only 20th-century hurricane to blanket the East Coast from Florida to Maine. Baron picked the spot because it was said to be a dumping ground for mob-hit bodies.
- The narration was added after filming to tie the film together, written by blacklisted writer Waldo Salt under the name Mel Davenport and read uncredited by blacklisted actor Lionel Stander. Stander was paid $500, and putting his name in the credits would have cost $500 more.
- The film's final shot was completed in one take, and Allen Baron, who directed and starred as hitman Frankie Bono, performed his own stunts.
