The Front isn't on my high list of Woody Allen movies to recommend, but then he didn't write and direct it. It was directed by Martin Ritt and Walter Bernstein, very talented (and as Ritt says, talent with something to show for it), and also previously black-listed. They have here fashioned a somewhat conventional tragic-comedy about the dilemma of the potential squealer in people in the entertainment world, but a squealer for gain of the committee at the time that wanted to get the names more based on the principle of it than actually having the names for a purpose. The symbol of the blacklist in the world of TV and movies made for a wretched one for anyone just remotely connected with it. And it's this that Ritt and Bernstein get at with the story of Howard Prince (Allen), who acts as a 'front', a middle-man for a friend (Michael Murphy) and then his fellow writers who need to get work somehow. It soon works quite well, even a she sees alongside him a famous, clownish actor (Zero Mostel) getting the harshest treatment of all- and for an actor a blacklisting that will stick harder than he can imagine.
There are the moments of humor that get struck up (the concentration camp joke with the tie-in to the gas company is very funny), and for Allen it's definitely a part made tailor made for him, if not a whole picture as such. He is, per usual, playing a 'version' of his character, in this case an illiterate who fumbles and lies his way into being the top listed writer Howard Prince as opposed to the indebted-to-betting cashier, and it (naturally) involves a woman too. This part is a little more hit or miss in believability, and inevitably leads Prince to have to be questioned before the committee, with the big question looming 'what to do.' This has been seen in several films since, even if at the time it must've seemed like something new. On the other hand, the most tragic section of the picture comes with Mostel's character, and Mostel's performance brings out some of the best in range he has to offer, with bits of the gleeful insanity from the Producers, but a more pragmatic side too. The guy's got to work, and this is made painfully clear in the scene where the club owner wont give him the money promised. The character also has to contend with the greatest pressure of all, though more than just that. It easily raises the Front from being well done but slight to being something memorable; it's practically unfathomable that he didn't get a nomination for best supporting actor for anything aside from one.
Featuring a sweet book-ending with an opening montage with the "50's" put to Frank Sinatra, and then an incredible ending with Prince at the questioning (which actually shows Allen to be a really gifted actor), it's an even better film to see if you're after the subject matter- it's a fascinating, dark period in American history where such a term as 'Un-American' could be used as a pathological excuse during the Cold-War. As drama and comedy, however, it is really just a good movie, no more no less, with occasional brilliance. 7.5/10
There are the moments of humor that get struck up (the concentration camp joke with the tie-in to the gas company is very funny), and for Allen it's definitely a part made tailor made for him, if not a whole picture as such. He is, per usual, playing a 'version' of his character, in this case an illiterate who fumbles and lies his way into being the top listed writer Howard Prince as opposed to the indebted-to-betting cashier, and it (naturally) involves a woman too. This part is a little more hit or miss in believability, and inevitably leads Prince to have to be questioned before the committee, with the big question looming 'what to do.' This has been seen in several films since, even if at the time it must've seemed like something new. On the other hand, the most tragic section of the picture comes with Mostel's character, and Mostel's performance brings out some of the best in range he has to offer, with bits of the gleeful insanity from the Producers, but a more pragmatic side too. The guy's got to work, and this is made painfully clear in the scene where the club owner wont give him the money promised. The character also has to contend with the greatest pressure of all, though more than just that. It easily raises the Front from being well done but slight to being something memorable; it's practically unfathomable that he didn't get a nomination for best supporting actor for anything aside from one.
Featuring a sweet book-ending with an opening montage with the "50's" put to Frank Sinatra, and then an incredible ending with Prince at the questioning (which actually shows Allen to be a really gifted actor), it's an even better film to see if you're after the subject matter- it's a fascinating, dark period in American history where such a term as 'Un-American' could be used as a pathological excuse during the Cold-War. As drama and comedy, however, it is really just a good movie, no more no less, with occasional brilliance. 7.5/10