Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

SnoopyStyle It's 1950's New York. Howard Prince (Woody Allen) is a small time bookie and cashier at a bar. He's always broke borrowing from his brother. His school friend Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) has been blacklisted for being a communist sympathizer. Howard agrees to be a front to take authorship of his scripts (for 10%). With an eye towards making more money, Howard starts being the front for Alfred's other blacklisted friends. Hennessy is hunting communists at the studio. He bullies weak-kneed actor Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel) to give up names and spy on Prince. Associate producer Florence Barrett falls for Prince and his writing.This takes the seriousness of McCarthyism and infuse it with a bit of Woody Allen's comic timing. It has its fun moments. It's effective. I wouldn't mind Woody adding a few more joke but in general, this movie works. There are varying reactions to the political pressures. Zero Mostel is amazing. There is the climatic interrogation of Woody in the end. It's walking on a knife's edge. I wasn't sure if Prince was making sense but the final take is highly effective.

madbandit20002000 Why would I start with that? I always believe that the person who wants to be a hero, looking for glory and fame is a sad joke of a human being while the person who keeps their head down is the one really meant for the job to save the day. The dichotomy's explored, quirky and dramatically frank, in "The Front", a satirical "up yours" to McCarthyism and those who supported it by those who were victims, and the first Hollywood film to handle the subject.The idea of Communism is unpopular in the 1950s. Anyone who has (or had) anything to do with it was blacklisted (forbidden to work), hurting people of all walk of life, especially those in the entertainment industry. One victim is Alfred Miller (Mike Murphy of "M.A.S.H.: The Movie" and "Tanner '88"), a TV scribe who got sacked from the NBC dramatic anthology series "Grand Central". Facing family responsibilities and an ulcer, Miller approaches the tale's unlikely "hero" to a be a front: bar cashier, low-level bookie and high school chum Howard Prince (comic mastermind Woody Allen, who was a year away from getting props for creating "Annie Hall" at the time).The deal: Miller types the scripts; Prince puts a "face" on them and gets 10% of the pay. Prince takes the deal since he's in debt, especially with his responsible brother, and all the accolades, fame and money comes rolling in. He also "fronts" for Miller's fellow scribes, also banned from working. He even gets "the girl", specifically blue-blood Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci), the show's socially-conscious story editor. The snag, however, comes in the form of Hecky Brown (a great Zero Mostel of "The Producers", his last film here), a vaudevillian comic who also got sacked from hosting "GC". Desperate to appease a cold-hearted Communist-hunting bureaucrat (Remak Ramsey) and get back to make a living, Brown gets close to Prince to see if he's "red" or not. Through it all, Prince, a born loser, refuses to let go on the ball, not knowing the jig is up.During the film's release, some critics have decried the film for being a soft touch against a serious subject, but director Martin Ritt ("Hud", "Norma Rae") and scribe Walt Bernstein ("The Magnificent Seven", "The Molly Maguires" with Ritt as director, and "Semi-Tough") should be given a break since they were both blacklisted themselves. "The Front" is vodka with mixed orange juice, thanks to Walt's sharp Oscar-nominated script and Ritt's steady, old-school TV direction. Mr. Allen, with his signature dry wit, accents the drink. As Prince, he's a happy-go-lucky, pseudo-intellectual who hurls spitballs at conventionalism, yet he doesn't realize that everyone's responsible for their fellow man. Sure, we can cheer him when he's on top. We can even chuckle when he relies on Miller to do a quick rewrite on a script or when he ignored by a "tootsie" when he discloses his "profession" to her. However, this story Prince is in is historical. Miller, post-surgery, notes to him that, unlike previous scams, there is no "out" when the curtains close.Reflecting his own experience with the blacklist and echoing the demise of fellow actor Phillip Loeb (the sitcom, "The Goldbergs") in the role, Mr. Mostel's really in the dark. He looks for a way out, but it's way too late. The powers-that-be are voluntarily deaf to his penance pleas, let alone ribald humor. A Catskills hotel owner financially stiffs him, after a successful mercy gig. Even the wife of a TV executive is forbidden to talk to him in a bar, all because he got "friendly" with a cute Communist girl he met at a International Workers parade some years ago. Mr. Mostel's Brown is subtlety jealous of Allen's Prince, but, seeing that he has become like his oppressors, warns him: "Take care of yourself. The water is filled with sharks". Why didn't Mr. Mostel get Oscar-nominated for this role is a wonder.Though she might not come off as strongly vigorous, Ms. Marcovicci's fine in a role that shows how women, despite being in a high-level position, were supposed to act, pre-Gloria Steinhem. When she and Mr. Allen are together, you know they work because they're too smart for a world filled with conformists and jingoists. Mr. Murphy's durable as the pal in a jam who inadvertently puts his friend in a jam, creating an infant terrible in the process. He loses it, during a lunch meet, when Prince critiques one of his friend's scripts.Along with Mostel, Ritt and Bernstein, the production has other blacklisted talent. Herschel Bernardi is a TV showrunner who's in the crosshairs of his elite bosses and money-minded, small-time sponsors; Joshua Shelly is the aforementioned hotel owner who carelessly stiffs Hecky and Lloyd Gough is another blacklisted scribe. Look out for Danny Aiello ("Do The Right Thing", Allen's "Radio Days") as a fruit stand vendor. Cinematographer Mike Chapman ("Taxi Driver") captures 1950s NYC in contained shots, reflecting the pressure McCarthyism has put on its' victims.No matter what political belief you may have, it's insidious to use the law to harass, let alone prosecute those who differently from the status quo to the point where they can't make a living. With ruined careers and destroyed lives in its wake, McCarthyism is indefensible and those who try to defend it are nothing more than certifiable. Even in its debut in 1976 (a time capsule within a time capsule), "The Front" does regard those who uphold the scandalous "ism" as certifiable, and Mr. Allen, in front of an investigation committee, tell them what to do with themselves in a profane way. Don't be surprised if you clap and cheer.

ptjlmbaldwin I had heard about "The Front" many years ago but had only recently had the opportunity to see it. The recommendation to see it came from a book which detailed the films that the author thought, in hindsight, SHOULD have been awarded "Best Picture" ("Rocky" won in 1976).There is so much talent here, both on screen and off--and yet the sum is not greater than its parts. One would think that a film about the 1950s entertainment blacklisting written and produced by those who not only lived through it but were also adversely affected by it would be thoughtful, serious, complex and sober...or satirical, ascerbic, and horrifying.Instead the film, as a whole, comes off as a "TV movie of the week" with a feel of having been put together by those who only heard about the blacklisting debacle fifth-hand. There is an occasional glimpse of the lives that were ruined: Zero Mostel's downward spiraling character and his suicide is easily the best element in the film, for example.But the focus is not on the blacklisted characters themselves but on Woody Allen's character, a schlub who with turtle-like drive tries to deflect the ramifications of his willingness to act as a "front" for three of his friends, all blacklisted writers, until all of a sudden, with literally 30 seconds left in the film, he has a change of heart: he believes! And he goes to jail a conquering and celebrated hero (who gets the girl) in a sappy ending this subject matter doesn't deserve.Furthermore, everyone is mostly reduced to a two dimensional portrayal: the network executives, the token girlfriend, the blacklisted writers themselves AND the agents leading the persecution resulting in the blacklistings. Granted the producers had an axe to grind against those who initiated the witch hunts...but if you're going to have an enemy the audience can take seriously, don't make them cardboard cutouts: that's what comic books are for.I wanted to like this film. But the irony is that the "Front" refers to writers not able to produce great works due to censorship based on their political philosophies--yet none of the characters would submit this screenplay in real life. Unfortunately, the real life victims did.

Merwyn Grote The McCarthy blacklisting era was a most peculiar time in America. On the one hand you had conservatives who felt fully justified in defending the rights and freedoms of Americans by supporting an ad hoc system that stripped some Americans of their rights and freedoms without any sort of due process or legal avenues. On the other hand, you had liberals who defended the rights and freedoms of those who advocated a political system that by its nature would strip Americans of their rights and freedoms. And there were quite a few people who were trapped in between, forced to choose either their freedom to think for themselves or their right to live their lives in peace.The only people not greatly effected it seems were the source of the confrontation, the communists. Though few in number and largely ineffectual as a group (at least, in America), they no doubt sat back and amused themselves as the country was being forced into two bitter camps. Had they had any real power within the United States, all the hub-bub about the communist influence might have served a purpose. But in reality it was hysteria over a non-existent threat, or a barely existent one. In hindsight, the panic over the Red Menace seems like the premise for a comic farce.THE FRONT isn't such a farce. Though it does star Woody Allen during his "early, funny" years and it is structured like a comedy, THE FRONT is a drama. It uses the talents of many who were blacklisted –- director Martin Ritt, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actors Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Joshua Shelley and Lloyd Gough -- and it tries to focus on those in the middle who lost their livelihoods and reputations because they were considered "pink," ordinary citizens whose paths crossed those of others who may or may not have been communists. Guilt, or at least proof of it, was irrelevant; the mere suspicion of being a communist sympathizer was enough to deny individuals the right to work in their chosen field, the cost being their careers, their families and even their lives. In the view of the House Un-American Activities Committee, you were either on their side or a threat to the very fiber of the American being. It was mostly played out in the political arena, but as with most politics it seeped into the pop culture. Perhaps because the government had relied so much on the media for propaganda purposes during WWII, the fear of its power was strong.In THE FRONT, Allen plays Howard Prince a part time bookie. When a friend of his, a writer for a network TV show, gets blacklisted, the friend persuades Howard to act as his proxy. The writer will create the scripts for the show, but Howard will submit them under his name, for a cut of the commission. The scam works so well that soon Howard is fronting for several other writers as well –- and Howard's reputation as a prolific and versatile author starts to grow. The complications come when Howard is expected to do on-the-spot rewrites of the material, and when he is suspected of red ties due to his friendship with the real liberal writers. As he sees first hand the dangers of the blacklisting, he also grows a conscience. Not a bad premise for a movie, even a comedy.One would think, with the involvement of those who were scarred by the blacklisting playing such a prominent role in the film, that THE FRONT would pulsate with a certain degree of rage. But it doesn't; the film isn't so much angry as it is wistful. It is not a question of the honesty of the material so much as the quiet feeling of hopelessness that pervades the story. The story unfolds in a slow, deliberate fashion, occasionally sticking in a joke or two, but mostly just reliving the past in a sad monotone. Perhaps it is supposed to be a reflection of the era the film is about, the 1950s, an era of passivity. Or maybe it is a reflection of the era in which the film was made, the 1970s -- after the chaos of the 1960s, maybe McCarthyism had just lost its power to scare. Either way, neither Ritt nor Bernstein inject much passion into the tale. Likewise, the characters lack depth; the bad guys who support the blacklisting are cold and mechanical (heaven forbid they might be acting out of genuine patriotism), while the good guys are either pure and passionate in their left-wing leanings or guileless innocents bewildered by it all. Thoughtful and low-key, THE FRONT is certainly sincere, but it isn't insightful and doesn't carry much of a punch.Even the big finale lacks power; after playing an ineffectual verbal game of cat and mouse with a HUAC subcommittee, Howard drops the "F-bomb" in a moment that is supposed to be shocking. Though it is jarring, it is because it is so pointless as a gesture. Did Ritt and Bernstein really think that uttering the F-word would jolt audiences in 1976? Even now, are we suppose to see such a foolish gesture as an act of courage on Howard's part? It is a key moment in the story and comes off as being just, well, stupid. In the end, Howard ends up going to jail, presumably on contempt of court charges; but is Howard's childish act of defiance really an heroic action? He takes a stand, but doesn't make much of a point. And neither does the movie.