Le prête-nom

It's amazing to me that it has been more than a quarter of a century since this movie was made. I think at the time the movie was made it was said that it could not have been made before then because of the controversy; "Hollywood" would not have allowed it to be made.

This movie is of historical significance because it is based on reality; a reality that seems impossible now. I saw this movie in a theater in which another movie was shown first. The first movie was a documentary of the search for communists and the real-life story preceding the fictional portrayal of the same thing was a powerful combination.

I think this movie must be seen by all to see how unreasonable people can be if we are too intolerant.

The Front (1976)

Deeply serious and sometimes hilarious, Martin Ritt makes an improbable critique of McCarthyism using several once-blacklisted actors and Woody Allen, then at one of his peaks of fame.

Allen, though, is limited by his role, and seems to be Woody Allen rather than one of his more exaggerated characters. Some of his lines seem written by him, rather than just for him, which would be appropriate (people writing under assumed names). The real star of the show is Zero Mostel as a blacklisted comic actor. He plays it straight and zany with equal power, a real joy.

Most of all is the point--that we can't forget how insidious this kind of spying and lying and persecution can get, so that even well meaning people go along as a matter of fear, or expedience, or just laziness. We'd like to think we wouldn't fall for a new McCarthy, but I think we very well might, in some new form, and sooner than we'd like. Movies like this (and Good Night and Good Luck) might forestall it. While not a work of terrible originality or genius, it's completely enjoyable and worth the time.

In the 50's, in New York City, the screenplay writer Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) meets his apolitical friend, the cashier of restaurant and smalltime bookmaker Howard Prince (Woody Allen) and tells him that he can not work anymore since he is blacklisted. Prince offers to sell his scripts to the producer of a TV station using his own name and Alfred offers a 10% commission to Prince.

Prince uses the money to pay his debts and improve his life and soon he offers his name to two other blacklisted writers. Meanwhile he dates the TV screenplay editor Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci). When the veteran actor Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel) is blacklisted and fired by the producer Phil Sussman (Herschel Bernardi), the idealistic Florence quits her job. But when Hecky Brown commits suicide, Prince takes a stand against the unjust system.

Today I have just watched "The Front" on VHS maybe for the third or fourth time (last time was on 31 May 2002). This fairytale about the dark period of the North America history known as McCarthyism is wrongly categorized as "comedy" and is actually one of the most important and a serious movie by Woody Allen that perfectly works with the situation of a figurehead that realizes the damage caused by the Powers that Be to the careers and lives of his compatriots and decides to react against them.

Another attraction is that the director Martin Ritt; the writer Walter Bernstein and the stars Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi and Lloyd Gough had been blacklisted in the 50's. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Testa de Ferro por Acaso" ("Figurehead by Chance")

Fictionalized look about the 1950s blacklist. Woody Allen (in a rare dramatic role) plays a man who sells the scripts of blacklisted writers under his name. He splits the proceeds with the writers. He's apolitical--he's just doing it to help friends. Then he starts to see how horrible the blacklist is and how it's destroying people and careers. He wants to take a stand--but how can he?

This is often mentioned as being a comedy. In that respect, it fails. There was nothing funny about the blacklist. But, as a drama with light moments, it works. It moves quickly, is well written (by a former blacklisted writer), well-directed (by another blacklisted man) and stars two blacklisted actors! Basically these people know what happened so that actually helps. Allen is surprisingly good in a dramatic role--who knew he had it in him? He tones down all his mannerisms and delivers a very controlled, nicely done job. Andrea Marcovicci (whatever happened to her?) is also good playing his girlfriend. And Michael Murphy is excellent as one of the blacklisted writers. And Zero Mostel is just superb as a blacklisted actor. The pain and confusion shows plainly on his face. This was also one of his last films---he died 2 years later of a heart attack. Also look for Danny Aiello in a small role. The 1950s era is captured beautifully, the film looks great and they have Frank Sinatra singing (ironically) "Young at Heart" at the beginning and end of the film. Great final line too.

But I'm only giving this a 9. The script is good but a little too simplistic and painted in very broad strokes. The bad guys are evil to the core and all the blacklisted people are shown as being victims. That's NOT how it was. They were probably writing down to appeal to a mainstream audience but went too far.

This bombed badly back in 1976--it's easy to see why. The subject matter is too strong for most audiences and the movie company (I heard) was completely at a loss on how to deal with this. Just a year before an entire blacklisting sequence was cut from "The Way We Were". Sadly Hollywood was STILL touchy about this subject in the 1970s.

This should be seen by more people--it really deserves to be discovered. A lot of people don't even KNOW about the blacklist. Well worth seeing.

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.