The Front (1976) [HD]

POW! -- WHAT AN ENDING!!
Soon after the release of his hilarious 1975 film, "Love and Death," Woody Allen did something he rarely does...

...he starred in a movie -- that he didn't write or direct.

Back in the mid-1970s, the idea of slapstick actor Woody Allen -- crossing into "serious" territory and coming out heroic -- was unfathomable.

Yet when "The Front" came out in 1976, its ad campaign blared, "America's Most Unlikely Hero." I couldn't shake off Allen's image as a prankster, the same foolish nerd who's vividly on display in his early, fall-down-funny films.

But when I saw Allen in "The Front," directed by the late Martin Ritt, it marked the beginning of my "conversion" -- from an on-the-fence "observer" -- into a full-fledged, Woody Allen fan.

"The Front" feels like it's all Woody Allen -- because it has a comedic flair with which we're familiar in all of his films. But former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein -- not Woody Allen -- wrote the...

Perfect presentation of the absurdity of the Blacklist.
An exceptional expose on the absurdity of the Hollywood Blacklist. Allen is a restaurant cashier asked by a former high school chum to "front" as a writer so this gentleman can continue to write and get paid. It works so well, two more blacklist writers are added. It's funny to watch unassuming Allen develop an ego as he takes on the persona of an actual writer. In addition, there is a love interest which questions whether this love would grow if he were still a cashier.

The second half of this movie really builds around the conflicts involved with whether to testify and "name names". The absurdity is so evident when Allen is forced to testify to escape punishment if he will "out" a purported communist who has just committed suicide. Zero Mostel also has a great role as an actor trying to get work.

I strongly recommend this movie to challenge your beliefs about the blacklist. Also, make sure and stay for the credits to see the many involved who...

Great movie, short on features
It is always interesting to watch an old movie about an older time. This 1976 examination of the McCarthy-era serves a couple of purposes. At a time when the cold war was focusing on East Asia, the time was right for a re-examation of the excesses of the 50s lest they fade from memory (something that still applies to today). We start off during the opening credits with newsreel scenes from 1952: Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, frontlines from the Korean War, Marilyn Monroe getting her star on Hollywood Blvd, the Rosenbergs being carted off to their execution, new cars, new homes complete with bomb shelters, etc. But the movie focusus on the blacklisitng of writers, directors, and actors in entertainment; specifically at NBC television. The details and the methodology of the blacklist are exact and don't involve a lot of exposition. Halfway through the film, you get a fairly complete picture of how the blacklist worked.

The movie is also a good old-fashioned "Screw You!". The film was written...

Click to Editorial Reviews