Hitchcoc Woody Allen acts in a film that he did not direct. While he did this early in his career, at this stage it was unusual. I imagine this was an opportunity to tell Hollywood off for what it did during the McCarthy era (see "Trumbo" if you get a chance). Woody's character is a kind of ghost writer, a "Front." He assists blacklisted writers in getting their work produced. They have been labeled communists. He works away, successfully, but then his integrity works its way into his being. What can he do stop this without sacrificing his work. There were these "Fronts" around and it allowed Hollywood not to stagnate any further. This film has an incredibly fine conclusion. This movie caught me by surprise.

Claudio Carvalho In the 50's, in New York City, the screenplay writer Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) meets his apolitical friend, the cashier of restaurant and smalltime bookmaker Howard Prince (Woody Allen) and tells him that he can not work anymore since he is blacklisted. Prince offers to sell his scripts to the producer of a TV station using his own name and Alfred offers a 10% commission to Prince.Prince uses the money to pay his debts and improve his life and soon he offers his name to two other blacklisted writers. Meanwhile he dates the TV screenplay editor Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci). When the veteran actor Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel) is blacklisted and fired by the producer Phil Sussman (Herschel Bernardi), the idealistic Florence quits her job. But when Hecky Brown commits suicide, Prince takes a stand against the unjust system.Today I have just watched "The Front" on VHS maybe for the third or fourth time (last time was on 31 May 2002). This fairytale about the dark period of the North America history known as McCarthyism is wrongly categorized as "comedy" and is actually one of the most important and a serious movie by Woody Allen that perfectly works with the situation of a figurehead that realizes the damage caused by the Powers that Be to the careers and lives of his compatriots and decides to react against them.Another attraction is that the director Martin Ritt; the writer Walter Bernstein and the stars Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi and Lloyd Gough had been blacklisted in the 50's. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Testa de Ferro por Acaso" ("Figurehead by Chance")

bkoganbing It seems almost impossible to believe that in the early Fifties there was such a thing as a blacklist. The best summation of this whole situation I ever heard was that there is no use blaming the various people in the film and television industry who worked at their craft, in front or behind the camera. Blame the studio heads who just knuckled under to a bunch or corrupt politicians who were looking to exploit the situations.Players went to the stage where the blacklist did not exist or to foreign countries to work. But writers submitted a lot of work under pseudonyms. So Woody Allen playing his usual schlepp role is approached by a friend he goes way back with to become a front, to take credit for writing scripts for 10% of the salary. Woody who has a real gambling problem with Danny Aiello looking to break his legs for unpaid debts decides this could prove lucrative and some other writers start using him as a front as well.Of course he does come to the thought police at the House Un-American Activities Committee and eventually responds to the whole business in a singularly appropriate manner. If some of the bigger fish in Hollywood had done the same, there would never have been a blacklist. As it was the blacklist kind of ran out of steam in the Sixties, but not before a lot of lives had been ruined.One of those lives was Zero Mostel who gave a farewell performance as comedian Hecky Brown who was blacklisted as was Mostel in real life. Mostel in fact gave said singular response in real life and it cost him. But not as much as his character in The Front.Mostel was one of many involved in The Front who were blacklisted back in the bad old days. I'm glad Zero and the rest lived long enough and outlasted the blacklist to make this wonderful entertaining and educational film about a really bad time.

[email protected] Having been personally involved in battling McCarthyism, I well remember the pervasive fear that blanketed much of America during the period documented in "The Front." And there were many figures in the entertainment world, including several associated with this film, who were blacklisted and denied livelihoods mainly because of the poison spread by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, not directly by McCarthy himself. He was after bigger fish -- officials at the State Department whom he ruined without any evidence and no compunction. It was the HUAC who "exposed" the Hollywood Ten (and many other actors, writers, directors and performers who had once been Communists or flirted with Communism or fellow-traveled in the 1930's).Woody Allen is mildly funny as the schmeggeh who pretends to be a writer fronting initially for a friend and eventually for a trio of blacklisted writers. But this is a serious film, and Woody is overshadowed by Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi, who were actually on the blacklist as was the director of the movie, the author and others in the cast. Mostel's character, driven to desperation, eventually commits suicide.Careers and lives were shattered by the HUAC and McCarthy,as well as by State and local officials who took up the witch hunt at nearby university campuses and at other convenient targets. "The Front" is realistic and so is the schmeggeh and the victims and the idealistic love interest, Andrea Marcovicci, who ultimately spurs Woody's character to tell congressional investigators where they can shove it.I can identify with Marcovicci's character because I was one of those naive young idealists who assumed the risk of battling the Boogey Men. That's what they actually were. The fear, though real, was finally dispelled by a few brave souls who staked their careers on exposing McCarthy for what he was: a drunk, a liar and a bully. Ultimately, the monsters retreated under the bed where they belonged, leaving a lot of human wreckage behind. A side note:Marcovicci was seen as a rising young star on the strength of her role in this movie, but she never reached her potential in films; instead, she became a singer on the cabaret circuit. Although hardly a headliner. she is still flourishing in her early sixties and has a number of CDs to her credit.