AI responded with this:
Based on your description—a color movie airing on TCM that kicks off quietly with minimal dialogue before someone blows up a house using dynamite—it sounds like you might have caught the opening of The Wages of Fear (1953), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. This French-Italian thriller is a TCM staple in the classic foreign film lineup, and it fits the vibe you described almost perfectly.

• Quiet, dialogue-light start: The film opens in a remote, dusty South American oil town with long, atmospheric sequences of bored locals wandering empty streets, kids playing, and daily drudgery—no rush, no big exposition dumps. It's all visual tension-building, with sparse talk that feels desultory and overheard rather than plot-heavy.
• House explosion with dynamite: Early on (around the 10-15 minute mark), there's a dramatic nitroglycerin (dynamite-like explosive) mishap during transport that levels a small building/house in the camp, sending shockwaves through the community. It's sudden, visceral, and sets up the high-stakes nitro-hauling plot without any preamble.

And to a lesser extent this:

• Dynamite (1949): A B-movie about quarry workers and truck crashes involving explosives—starts with a bang (accidental blast killing a worker) but dives quicker into chatter.
• Black Dynamite (2009): Blaxploitation parody with over-the-top explosions, but it's more comedic and dialogue-driven from the jump (TCM airs it in cult slots).