Blast of Silence is another NYC film noir worth renting. As the trailer [YouTube] puts it, "Your hands will sweat with his fear!"
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Above left, the Valencia Hotel (now St. Marks Hotel) on St. Marks near 3rd Ave. Above right, at Caffe Reggio in the Village (confirmed by this photo from the cafe's website).
I was thinking "Martin Scorsese had to see this before he did Taxi Driver," and this Criterion Collection article confirms it. The protagonist here is a hit man from Cleveland, but he's got a lot of Travis Bickle to him, from his alienation to his awkward way with women -- he even looks a lot like DeNiro (with some George C. Scott thrown in).
The movie features a crusty old New Yorker narrating inside our hit man's head, a hokey twist that works fine. Plenty of black & white scenes from all over the city, from 125th St. down to the Staten Island ferry. There's some jazz beatnik action from the Village, and one of the most interesting characters keeps pet rats.
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Above left, 34th St. between Lexington and Park. Above right, walking past the Rockefeller Center holiday tree (looking much better than recent incarnations). And finally, below, running out of sidewalk in East New York.
