The Front 1976 ft. Woody Allen

The Front (1976) (ft. Woody Allen) | Full Movie | Cinestream

CineStream
 Jan 31, 2025  #TheFront #WoodyAllen #FullMovie
A blacklisted writer has a friend act as a front for his TV scripts. The front becomes famous and falls in love with a script editor. He has to face the truth when he is called before an investigative committee to testify.

***
The Front

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Simpsons episode of the same name, see The Front (The Simpsons). For other uses, see Front (disambiguation).
The Front

theatrical release poster
Directed by Martin Ritt
Written by Walter Bernstein
Produced by Charles H. Joffe
Jack Rollins
Starring Woody Allen
Zero Mostel
Michael Murphy
Herschel Bernardi
Andrea Marcovicci
Cinematography Michael Chapman
Edited by Sidney Levin
Music by Dave Grusin
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
September 17, 1976
Running time 95 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Front is a 1976 American drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s, when artists, writers, directors, and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of being Communists themselves. It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Michael Murphy.

Several people involved in the making of the film—including screenwriter Bernstein, director Ritt, and actors Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough—had been blacklisted. (The name of each in the closing credits is followed by "Blacklisted 19--" and the relevant year.) Bernstein was listed after being named in the Red Channels journal that identified alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers.[1]

Plot
In New York City, 1953, at the height of the anti-Communist investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), television screenwriter Alfred Miller is blacklisted and cannot get work. He asks his friend Howard Prince, a restaurant cashier and small-time bookie, to sign his name to Miller's television scripts in exchange for ten percent of the money Miller makes from them, i.e. to serve as a "front" for Miller. Howard agrees out of friendship and because he needs the money. The scripts are submitted to network producer Phil Sussman, who is pleased to have a writer not on the television blacklist. Howard's script also offers a plum role for Hecky Brown, one of Sussman's top actors.

Howard becomes such a success that Miller's two fellow screenwriter friends hire him to be their front as well. The quality of the scripts and Howard's ability to write so many impresses Florence Barrett, Sussman's idealistic script editor, who mistakes him for a principled artist. Howard begins dating her but changes the subject whenever she wants to discuss his work.

As investigators expose and blacklist Communists in the entertainment industry, Hecky Brown is fired from the show because six years earlier he marched in a May Day parade and subscribed to The Daily Worker, although he tells the investigators he did it merely to impress a woman he wanted to have sex with. In order to clear his name from the blacklist, Hecky is instructed to find out more about Howard Prince's involvement with the Communist Party, so he invites him to the Catskills, where Hecky is booked to perform on stage. The club owner short-changes Hecky on his promised salary, and when Hecky confronts him, the club owner fires him, denouncing him as a "communist son of a bitch". The professional humiliation and the inability to provide for his wife and children take their toll on Hecky and he kills himself by jumping out of a hotel window.

Howard witnesses other harsh results of the investigative actions of the communist-hunting "Freedom Information Services" on the network's programming. Suspicion is cast his way, and he is called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He privately tells Florence that he is not a writer, just a humble cashier.

Howard decides that he will respond to the Committee's questions evasively, enabling him to neither admit nor deny anything. After briefly enduring the HUAC questioning – including being asked to speak ill of the dead Hecky Brown, and being threatened with legal consequences for his admission of having placed bets in his capacity as a bookie (which is illegal), Howard takes a stand, telling the Committee that he does not recognize their authority to ask him such questions, and telling them to "go fuck yourselves" before leaving the interrogation room. The film ends as Howard is taken away in handcuffs, with Florence kissing him good-bye and many protesters cheering him on.