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The Front (1976)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Walter Bernstein (written by)
Release Date:
17 September 1976 (USA)
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Tagline:
America's Most Unlikely Hero.
Plot:
A cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
1950s
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Cashier
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McCarthyism
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Bookmaker
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Communist Menace
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Awards:
Nominated for Oscar.
Another 3 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
A chat with the cast of Woody Allen's Whatever Works
(From The Hollywood Interview. 18 June 2009, 11:52 PM, PDT)
Andrea's Still Sure-handed
(From New York Post. 14 November 2008, 8:48 PM, PST)
(From The Hollywood Interview. 18 June 2009, 11:52 PM, PDT)
Andrea's Still Sure-handed
(From New York Post. 14 November 2008, 8:48 PM, PST)
User Comments:
A funny and savage indictment of a crazy era
more (40 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Woody Allen | ... | Howard Prince |
 | Zero Mostel | ... | Hecky Brown |
| Herschel Bernardi | ... | Phil Sussman |
 | Michael Murphy | ... | Alfred Miller |
 | Andrea Marcovicci | ... | Florence Barrett |
| Remak Ramsay | ... | Hennessey |
| Marvin Lichterman | ... | Myer Prince |
| Lloyd Gough | ... | Delaney |
| David Margulies | ... | Phelps |
| Joshua Shelley | ... | Sam |
| Norman Rose | ... | Howard's Attorney |
| Charles Kimbrough | ... | Committee Counselor |
| Josef Sommer | ... | Committee Chairman (as M. Josef Sommer) |
 | Danny Aiello | ... | Danny LaGattuta |
| Georgann Johnson | ... | T. V. Interviewer |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
95 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Black and White |
Color (Metrocolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Singapore:PG |
Iceland:L |
Sweden:11 |
USA:PG (Approved No. 24495) |
Argentina:13 |
Chile:14 |
Finland:K-12 |
West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The scene where Hecky Brown commits suicide is based on the real suicide of blacklisted actor Philip Loeb. This information is revealed the documentary Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009).
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Goofs:
Continuity: Investigator Hennessey, as his name is spelled in the credits, is shown sitting at his desk on which there is a nameplate which reads Francis K. Hennessy.
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Quotes:
Sam:
This friend of yours, Alfred Miller...
Howard Prince: We went to school together.
Sam: And you had no idea that he was a Communist?
Howard Prince: He was only 12.
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Howard Prince: We went to school together.
Sam: And you had no idea that he was a Communist?
Howard Prince: He was only 12.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in I Am Woody (2003)
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Soundtrack:
Daisy Bell
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (40 total)
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This film is directed by Martin Ritt from a screenplay by Walter Bernstein. Both director and writer, along with several members of the cast, were blacklisted during the 1950s. Woody Allen stars as Howard Prince a good-for-nothing restaurant cashier and part-time bookmaker. At the start of this film, Allen has the total schmuck persona that he used in many of his earlier films but as the film progresses he gradually develops a conscience until the ‘happy' ending when he performs an honorable act and is led away to prison. Ritt and Bernstein are highlighting the idiocy of the blacklist by having as their hero the money-grabbing, self-serving Prince. Eventually, even he cannot stomach what is going on in the name of decency and freedom. The film is darkly humorous and chilling in its depiction of an era when the owner of a small grocery store could dictate to a national network who it could and could not employ. At one point Prince has to rewrite a script about the holocaust because the programme sponsor is a gas company.
The film is a real achievement being both funny and a savage indictment of a crazy era, told with feeling by people who lived through it and suffered under it. The only misjudged performance is Zero Mostel's maudlin comedian. Michael Murphy turns up again as he does in many of Allen's early films. Andrea Marcovicci is effective as the beautiful and cerebral script editor who falls for Prince. Prince agonises over whether she loves the man or the artist, surely the inspiration for Allen's own exploration of the same theme in Bullets over Broadway nearly 20 years later.