Apparently, this and Special Effects were shot back to back in 1983/84 as part of a package low-budget deal with Hemdale Films, and Cohen looked at Blind Alley as the "less complicated" one of the two (and hey, what says in-complicated like trying to direct a baby, right? By his account the baby Matthew did what he was told for the most part with help from his parents, and to Cohen's credit he's a great Baby Actor if that's a term I can throw, oh hey it's my review so I just did). The general impression on the whole from this one - which I like just slightly more than Special Effects) - is that it feels like Cohen in both the script and execution is making this like a Poverty Row director might in the 1940s, only updated for gratuitous nudity and occasionallu more brutal violence.
This is both to the benefit and detriment in the final product. I get that the film is about this baby who sees a killing, and even matches eyes with Johnny the killer (the actor Brad Rijn carries a certain intensity that works overall, a highlight being when he explains in his way of "comparative analysis" to Matthew via magazine how his predicament is not unlike... Elliot in ET, and it makes me smile to think of Larry Cohen watching ET like everyone else in the world, but I digress), and that Johnny is so pathological about pleasing his underworld boss that he'll stop at nothing to make sure the baby doesn't uh squeal or rattle or what have you, but... He's a baby. Cute one, but still not quite exactly able to pick a guy out of a line-up.
And the extent to which he ends up going to to shut a tyke up who can't even form words past Mom and No is kind of ridiculous. Moreover, Johnny is a pretty stupid and (connected with the Cohen ouvrere) violent and crazy, but by a certain point it's also the mom's fault for not seeing his other motives (Anne Carlisle, who actually does quite well with what she's given, most of all that intense real-crowd filmed set piece in the Soho streets with mom's baby daddy).
On the other hand, I like that only a story with such a nutty premise and execution, including a cast of supporting women friends of the Mom who make this a semi-sorta commentary on Feminist action against scumbag men (which in Cohen's world is almost a redundant statement) could come from such a mind and cinematic personality as his. It doesn't all work and sometimes drags, like with a police detective working the murder case who gets saddled with some clunky lines that only leads to a predictable (if dark) point, but Cohen, when he and his DP aren't using that high contrast or glaze or whatever it is on the lens to make exterior day scenes too bright, has some captivating compositions, like that other murder in the building set in silhouette against the downtown Manhattan skyline, or that wild shot where we see the kidnapping as the baby is on the carousel attached to a truck(!)
And how this ends ultimately is satisfying, even if it takes some time to get there. It's probably minor Cohen, but if you're like me and working your way through his body of work, it has its moments and eccentric and funny and hard-edged dialog to get you through.
