{"id":26580,"date":"2012-07-23T16:19:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T23:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26580"},"modified":"2023-09-25T13:37:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T20:37:15","slug":"front-the-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26580","title":{"rendered":"Front, The (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Nobody admits there&#8217;s a blacklist &#8212; I mean, they just say your script&#8217;s not good enough, you&#8217;re not right for the assignment, that kind of thing.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Poster-206x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-26581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Poster-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Poster-88x128.jpg 88w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the 1950s, an apolitical cashier (Woody Allen) agrees to act as a &#8220;front&#8221; for his blacklisted friend (Michael Murphy) and two other television writers, taking 10% of their earnings as commission. Soon he finds himself in a sticky situation, as his activities are monitored by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Huac\">HUAC<\/a> and he&#8217;s asked to &#8220;name names&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character Arc<\/li>\n<li>Hollywood<\/li>\n<li>Martin Ritt Films<\/li>\n<li>Michael Murphy Films<\/li>\n<li>Woody Allen Films<\/li>\n<li>Writers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary&#8217;s clearly an enormous fan of this &#8220;excellent, often forgotten little picture&#8221; (written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and starring Woody Allen) &#8212; enough so that he names it the Best Picture of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>, and lists no &#8220;runners-up&#8221;. He writes that it&#8217;s &#8220;humbly, gently, humorously made&#8221;, with &#8220;much ironic humor com[ing] from the absurdity of the situation, where a man can be blacklisted if the committee gets his name mixed up with that of a &#8216;leftist sympathizer&#8217; and he can&#8217;t clear himself unless he can name names&#8221;. He adds that &#8220;despite the film&#8217;s friendly tone, viewers get a sense of the paranoia, desperation, and insanity of the period, and come to understand why those who were blacklisted &#8212; like Bernstein and Ritt&#8221; (and several actors in the film, including Zero Mostel) &#8220;still detest those who gave testimony during the fifties witchhunt&#8221;. He concludes his review by noting that the &#8220;film is a tribute to those who took moral stands during that time&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>While I agree with Peary that <em>The Front<\/em> remains a powerful and riveting drama &#8212; one which all film fanatics should see, simply for its important subject matter &#8212; it&#8217;s not quite &#8220;best picture&#8221; material; it eventually devolves into comedically melodramatic fairy tale territory in its final reels, and the romantic subplot between Allen and a beautiful television employee (Andrea Marcovicci) feels underdeveloped. The most affecting aspect of the film is the subplot involving comedy actor &#8220;Hecky Brown&#8221; (Mostel), whose situation most succinctly embodies the true paranoia of the period. His inability to remain employed after being unable (or unwilling) to &#8220;name names&#8221; sends him on a degrading downward spiral; Mostel&#8217;s performance is both brave and visceral in its depiction of Hecky&#8217;s despair and resignation. Allen gives a fine performance as well, playing a variation on his typical character (his &#8220;Howie&#8221; is &#8220;a funny guy, which makes him appealing&#8221; to his girlfriend and Hecky), yet one who undergoes a profound shift in political awareness. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Woody Allen as Howard Prince (nominated by Peary as one of the Best Actors of the Year in <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Allen.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Allen.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"304\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Allen.png 576w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Allen-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Allen-300x158.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Zero Mostel as Hecky Brown<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Mostel.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Mostel.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"304\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-26583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Mostel.png 576w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Mostel-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Front-Mostel-300x158.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a powerful evocation of a notorious era in Hollywood. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Good Show<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0074554\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1976\/10\/01\/archives\/screen-woody-allen-is-serious-in-front.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/the-front-1976\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitallyobsessed.com\/displaylegacy.php?ID=5688\">Digitally Obsessed Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Nobody admits there&#8217;s a blacklist &#8212; I mean, they just say your script&#8217;s not good enough, you&#8217;re not right for the assignment, that kind of thing.&#8221; Synopsis: In the 1950s, an apolitical cashier (Woody Allen) agrees to act as a &#8220;front&#8221; for his blacklisted friend (Michael Murphy) and two other television writers, taking 10% of their earnings as commission. Soon he finds himself in a sticky situation, as his activities are monitored by HUAC and he&#8217;s asked to &#8220;name names&#8221;&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=26580\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26580"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92078,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26580\/revisions\/92078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}