Front The (1976)

Clever dramatic comedy written directed and even acted (some) by blacklisted artists about blacklisting during the period of time when persons in the entertainment industry were being scrutinized for their communist sympathies and un-American activities. Written by formerly blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein who received his only Oscar recognition with a nomination for his Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen and directed by formerly blacklisted Martin Ritt (Hud (1963)) it stars Woody Allen (in the title role) and formerly blacklisted actors Zero Mostel Herschel Bernardi Lloyd Gough and Joshua Shelley among Michael Murphy Andrea Marcovicci Danny Aiello and others.

Allen plays Howard Prince a restaurant cashier who’s also a bookie that never has any money. Hence he’s always borrowing money from his brother Myer (Marvin Lichterman) to pay off his clients (e.g. Aiello’s character) who runs a fresh fruit stand. Enter Alfred Miller a blacklisted writer who proposes to give his former schoolmate 10% of his earnings if Howard will pretend to be the writer of his scripts. Needing the money Howard readily agrees to the deal going blindly into the enterprise without fully appreciating the potential consequences. He meets and falls in love with a television network’s script “doctor” Florence Barrett (Marcovicci) who’s working for Phil Sussman (Bernardi). Eventually Howard becomes “the front” for two more blacklisted writer friends of Alfred’s (David Marguiles & Gough). Fame riches and regular sex make Howard feel invincible such that he starts to tell the writers “what good writing is” in the film’s funniest scene. Mostel plays Hecky Brown a famous gregarious comic who’s initially on “Howard’s” show before he finds himself blacklisted on investigator Hennessey’s (Remak Ramsey) recommendation. When Sussman fires Hecky Florence quits to start a pamphlet about the injustice. Hecky plays a stand-up gig at a hotel run by a sleazy operator (Shelley who actually calls Hecky a “commie bastard”) who takes advantage of his situation to pay the comic half what he’d promised him. Intimating a second chance for Hecky Hennessey uses him to snoop on Howard who’s eventually brought before an HUAC-like committee (run by Josef Sommer’s character and includes TV’s Murphy Brown news anchor Charles Kimbrough) where he utters a classic (if censurable) line. Howard was being represented by the network’s “play ball” attorney (Norman Rose). The film ends the way it began with newsreel-type B&W footage of the events of the day (the era of the blacklist) and “Young at Heart” by Frank Sinatra as background music.

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