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Baby Boy Frankie

Original title: Blast of Silence
  • 1961
  • Approved
  • 1h 17m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.1K
YOUR RATING
Allen Baron and Molly McCarthy in Baby Boy Frankie (1961)
A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.
Play trailer1:45
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90 Photos
GangsterCrimeDramaThriller

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York, but a special girl from his past and a gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

  • Director
    • Allen Baron
  • Writers
    • Allen Baron
    • Waldo Salt
  • Stars
    • Allen Baron
    • Molly McCarthy
    • Larry Tucker
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    6.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Allen Baron
    • Writers
      • Allen Baron
      • Waldo Salt
    • Stars
      • Allen Baron
      • Molly McCarthy
      • Larry Tucker
    • 92User reviews
    • 60Critic reviews
    • 75Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:45
    Trailer

    Photos90

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    Top cast22

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    Allen Baron
    • Frank Bono
    Molly McCarthy
    • Lori
    Larry Tucker
    Larry Tucker
    • Big Ralph
    Peter Clune
    Peter Clune
    • Troiano
    • (as Peter H. Clune)
    Danny Meehan
    • Petey
    Howard Mann
    • Body Guard
    Charles Creasap
    • Contact Man
    Bill DePrato
    • Joe Boniface
    • (as Bill Da Prado)
    Milda Memenas
    • Troiano's Girl Friend
    Joe Bubbico
    • Body Guard
    Ruth Kaner
    • Cleaning Woman
    Gil Rogers
    Gil Rogers
    • Gangster
    Jerry Douglas
    Jerry Douglas
    • Gangster
    Don Saroyan
    • Lori's Boy Friend
    Dean Sheldon
    • Night Club Singer
    Bill Chadney
    • Pianist
    • (uncredited)
    Ernest Jackson
    • Gangster
    • (uncredited)
    Erich Kollmar
    • Bellhop
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Allen Baron
    • Writers
      • Allen Baron
      • Waldo Salt
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews92

    7.46.1K
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    Featured reviews

    8thegulls1

    Late noir entry - I saw it in the theater in /61!... And..

    ... I got the urge recently to see it again, but I am not sure why. Subliminally, the narrator of this dark flick (Lionel Stander) played a bit role (as an Innkeeper) in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, which I also re-watched last week, but I didn't realize that until AFTER I looked it up here at IMDB. (maybe an inner voice was whispering to me?)

    Anyway, opportunities to see this little gem are fading away. I finally managed to get a link to work (instead of pop-up ads for porn or junk), and the only DVD copy for sale on eBay was from a guy in Germany (pricey).

    My dad was a classic film lover, and this one won at Cannes back in the day. So, I recalled the gritty NY street scenes, a nasty fat guy who tells the gunman 'You're nothing without a gun in your paw', and an assassin who has lost his way. Yes, my recollection was correct on all counts. What's amazing is that the film is still as gripping as it was 60 years ago when I was 10. If you can score a viewing, and you love film noir, this is a must for you. 8/10. Only 70 minutes- no fat.
    9noir guy

    Lost Classic Hardboiled Noir!

    Someone resurrect this 'lost classic' hardboiled noir! Director/Writer/Lead Actor Allen Baron (whose subsequent career took him into TV-land with the likes of CHARLIE'S ANGELS) turned out this bleak film noir in 1961, and it must surely rate as one of the all-time genre downers (and that's intended as a compliment!). Similar in tone to Irving Lerner's earlier MURDER BY CONTRACT (another must-see!), this features a protracted, yet stunningly appropriate, opening tracking shot through a railway tunnel as an early morning train spits Ohio-based contract assassin Frankie Bono (Baron) out into a wintry New York to carry out a Christmas holiday hit on a second-tier racketeer but, as in MURDER BY CONTRACT, all the meticulous planning and methodical preparation becomes unravelled as fate and his malevolent (and often unseen) criminal fraternity deal Frankie a crueller hand than the one he'd planned for his unsuspecting quarry. OK, nothing new here, but the tone, something like a cross between the cruel randomness of a Cornell Woolrich story (read this guy!) mated with an existentialist and angst-ridden take on the 'We're born in pain, We die alone' school of genre filmmaking, means that you'd need to take in a couple of Abel Ferrara movies like THE DRILLER KILLER and BAD LIEUTENANT to get your jollies after watching this one. Oh yeah, and it's topped off by a pitiless world-weary hardboiled third-person narration which ratchets up the ominous atmospherics that all the doomy foreshadowing brings to this dance of death (example - when Bono tracks his would-be victim to The Village Gate, the jazzy soundtrack switches to a beatnik vocalist/conga-drummer whose set consists solely of death-themed numbers). Atmospheric lengthy takes, often featuring a behatted and raincoated (or alternately dark-suited) Bono stalking the mean streets of the Big Apple dwarfed by the concrete jungle cityscape evoke and prefigure both Marvin in POINT BLANK and Delon in Melville's LE SAMOURAI, and his ruthlessly downbeat demeanour also recalls Henry Silva in the similarly ruthless (and elusive) JOHNNY COOL (see my IMDB review for more on this one - shameless plug!). This may be (by now) an oft-told tale, but what we have here is a true low-budget one-off for fans of the lower depths, and there's even a sweaty, weighty (excuse the pun) and telling cameo from Larry Tucker (Pagliacci in Fuller's 'SHOCK CORRIDOR') for cultists to take in amongst the no-name cast. A must-see - if you get a chance to see it.
    8secragt

    Chilly But Effective

    Saw this one a few weeks back on the big screen at the American Cinematheque and it has stayed w/ me. Baron was about as short and homely as leading men get but somehow in this bleak and uncompromising piece he's effective (particularly in voice-over). Some striking cinematography (especially the wonderful opening train sequence) and a few long takes (Baron walking an entire rundown city block of a sidewalk with no other business, the stirring snowy pier finale) are memorable. Also good is the sleazy fat bearded character actor whose name escapes me (he also appeared in Fuller's SHOCK CORRIDOR around the same time).

    There isn't a lot of humanity in BOS though, and the one moment when Baron opens up to the girl he has befriended, he gets slapped hard with cold reality. A well done scene but it only piles on to the disaffection and malaise already permeating this movie. Don't expect to laugh much or take a date; the proceedings rarely stray from deadly serious. This is a movie full of lapsed morals and betrayal but you can take heart that the system remains firmly in control at the chilling end of this downbeat but solid late entry in the noir cycle.
    7secondtake

    You can see why Criterion released a clean beautiful version of the street film...

    Blast of Silence (1961)

    In some ways, the filming and the cool grey timbre of this film are so singular and evocative, you really have to watch it. In this way it reminded me of a gritty, New York version of the 1958 Elevator to the Gallows (set in Paris). They both have some of the most beautiful, evocative scenes of people just walking the streets of the city, day and night. In "Blast of Silence" you get taken to several parts of New York, unedited, shot with a simple but elegant intuition for the place. This is a movie by New Yorkers about New York.

    But the plot, about a lone killer on his last dubious assignment, is a strain. Beyond the convincing despondency and isolation of the leading actor (Allen Baron, from Brooklyn, who is also the director), the cast struggles to be relevant. The one other shining performance is the gun dealing and rat lover, played by Larry Tucker with a kind of relish for the unsavory dirty aspects of his part. Great stuff.

    If you accept that the story isn't much, by itself, and watch it for the scenes of the city, for the impressions of ordinary New Yorkers at the time of Kennedy's election, you will be really wowed. Right from the first shot, the low budget hand held camera on a train in a tunnel, going on and on until finally finding the light of day, to the last scenes in a a light, windy, driven snow in the Meadowlands, it's a thrilling, original ride. The filming has a gritty, everyman quality that seems to come right from art school without the affectation. It really is worth it just for the scenes, and the urban scenery.
    7stephen-357

    uncompromising study of a professional hit-man

    A hard-boiled, uncompromising study of a professional hit-man, "Baby Boy" Frankie Bono. The beginning of the film is menacing; a pitch-black screen and pounding percussion driving a cynically vicious narrative, "remembering, out of the black silence you were born in pain . . . born with hate and anger built in . . . a slap on the backside to blast out a scream!" A small light becomes visible amidst the black like a moving bulls eye on a target and all of a sudden amidst a crescendo of noise you realize you've been on a train in a tunnel and are now being "blasted" out into the world. But it's like being born into a sewer because this world is seen through the eyes of our killer. Frankie Bono is played by Allen Baron (the director himself) who's appearance and acting style are vintage Robert DeNiro. Frankie has the misfortune to run into a girl for whom he once had affection, and for the first time in his career, he's having 2nd thoughts about his profession, but a killer who doesn't kill gets killed. Frankie's on a one way street that cannot go on forever. Unforgettable film.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Part of the movie was shot during the middle of a real hurricane --- the wind and snow seen during the final scenes is not artificial. The exterior chase that ends the film was filmed at the Old Mill on a Jamaica Bay estuary on Long Island during Hurricane Donna (September 10-12, 1960), the only hurricane of the 20th Century to strike the entire East Coast from south Florida to Maine.
    • Goofs
      The "silencer" (or suppressor) that Frankie Bono attaches to his revolver could not have worked due to the gap between the cylinder and barrel of the gun. They are only effective on semi-automatic or automatic weapons, except for one special revolver (when the film was made), the Nagant M1895. The Nagant had a 7-round cylinder, but Frankie's gun was a 6-shooter. This is a very common mistake in films.
    • Quotes

      Narrator: You're alone. But you don't mind that. You're a loner. That's the way it should be. You've always been alone. By now it's your trademark. You like it that way.

    • Crazy credits
      The MPAA seal appears on the bottom right corner of the Universal-International logo instead of its usual place in the credits.
    • Alternate versions
      The Criterion Collection edition of this movie includes a director's commentary.
    • Connections
      Edited into Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 9 (2002)
    • Soundtracks
      Dressed in Black
      (uncredited)

      Performed by Dean Sheldon

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    FAQ

    • How long is Blast of Silence?
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    • I may have missed the credit for this, but I believe the voice-over narration is by Lionel Stander.

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 5, 2006 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Blast of Silence
    • Filming locations
      • Village Gate - 160 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(nightclub closed in 1995)
    • Production company
      • Magla Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $65,000 (estimated)
    • Gross worldwide
      • $339
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 17 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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