The Front (1976)

Review:

Martin Ritt’s The Front is a movie with a good heart suffering from indigestion. Fluttering between light comedy and slight drama, it never reaches the consistent tone one would hope from a film about Hollywood blacklisting. It weaves through funny one-liners but never can laugh at its main subject.

Set in the early 1950s, The Front stars Woody Allen in a rare appearance when he did not also write or direct the film. Allen plays Howard Prince, a lowly cashier who is always getting into financial troubles because of his bad gambling habits. Howard’s close friend, Alfred Miller (the name Miller, perhaps a nod to blacklisted author Arthur Miller), is a television writer recently blacklisted for his ties to the communist party. In order to keep working as a writer, Arthur, portrayed by Michael Murphy, asks Howard to be ‘the front’ for his scripts. After agreeing, Howard takes Arthur’s scripts to the network and passes them off as his own, taking a ten percent cut from the paycheck.

Soon the wily Howard, always looking for an extra buck, becomes the front for more blacklisted writers. He is soon haled as the greatest writer on television. But his fame has a cost. Blacklisted actor Hecky Brown, played by the legendary Zero Mostel, is enlisted by the network to spy on Howard, searching for any connection the mysterious writer may have to the communist party.

With the likes of identity swapping, entertainment spy games, and Woody Allen, one would expect this film to be an uproarious comedy. But the laughs never come to fruition. This film feels like a volcano of hilarity ready to burst, but instead we get only tremors from the great comedy that lay below.

For instance, when Howard is inevitably subpoenaed to appear in front of the House of Un-American Activities Commitee, he claims to his writer friends that he will not name names; that he has a plan figured out. Now, Woody Allen in front of the House of Un-American Activities Committee is a situation brimming with possibilities – especially if he has some screwball scheme to out the Committee as the xenophobic, art-hating bureaucrats they must be. But Howard’s plan simply proves a muddled attempt at dodging a bullet. There are no boisterous attacks, he does not cleverly outwit the system, and he does not attempt anything comically absurd. When Allen finally delivers the punch line of the scene, I laughed, but I did not stand up and applaud Howard’s supposed ‘sticking it to the man.’ At the climax of the film, I felt unfulfilled.

There are two problems with The Front. One is Woody Allen. Howard Prince has all the narcissism and self-interest of a typical Woody Allen character but he lacks the self-doubting, neuroses that make a usual Allen character so likeable. Howard transforms into the role of famed writer so easily that it feels like we’re missing out on the fun of a big identity crisis. The second problem involves director Martin Ritt and writer Walter Bernstein. We find out during the credits that Ritt and Bernstein were both blacklisted in the 1950s. It seems with The Front, these two men tried to find humor in the predicament of McCarthyism but could not fully commit to a farce about blacklisting. Perhaps it was too personal a subject or perhaps they made this film with too much of a moral poise. Regardless, the script and directing seem restrained. Zero Mostel is emblematic of this. He plays the troubled, alcoholic actor who becomes a martyr for the blacklisted. This is a mistake. If you have the volatile and loveable Zero Mostel in your project, you should make your audience laugh hard and then afterward make them think. The Front is a movie that tries to make you think before you laugh and it suffers for it.

Rating: On a scale of one to Casablanca, this film is a "Hollywood Ending"

Rationalization:

Its Woody Allen. Its pretty funny. Its not all it could be. I love Woody Allen and he really can do no wrong in my opinion, and yet he certainly can do mediocre. This film, in the grand scheme of all movies, is pretty good, and worth a second viewing if you happen upon it. Otherwise, there may be better things to explore. Go watch "On the Waterfront."