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The Front
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780767889155
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Extra tracks, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0767889150
Label: Sony Pictures
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Japanese (Subtitled), Georgian (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: February 17, 2004
Running Time: 94 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: September 17, 1976
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Editorial Review:
The Front is both a comic delight and perhaps the most graceful act of show business revenge in cinema history. Written by, directed by, and starring various talents blacklisted during the McCarthy-era witch hunts of the 1950s entertainment industry, the film stars Woody Allen as Howard, a cashier and bookie approached by blacklisted television-writer Alfred (Michael Murphy) to act as a "front," i.e., the alleged author of Alfred's works. The scam proves hugely successful. Soon Howard is fronting for several other banned writers, taking a cut from every sale to the networks, and basking in praise (and romantic attentions) for his prolific talent. It all unravels when congressional investigators dig into Howard's past for Communist ties and squeeze him to name others with supposed links to the Red Menace. The Front is charming, tragic, heroic, and briskly intelligent, featuring a heartbreaking performance by Zero Mostel and directed by Martin Ritt (Hud). --Tom Keogh
Woody Allen's dark comic send-up of Hollywood McCarthyism! Allen stars as a cashier posing as a writer who sells a script as his own, when it was actually written by a blacklisted pal. Stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Danny Aiello and more. Nominated for an Oscar® - Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Walter Bernstein, 1977).
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - When Hollywood went amnesiac...
I'm so glad to see all those praising reviews, and just one which tells us a little more about it...
What can we say ? Communist sympathisers in the 50s depicted in the film didn't know a thing about stalinism... they all were about helping out poor people... then why not helping Eastern Europe ? Didn't those people deserve to be helped ? But no, there was no such thing as communist Europe, all those poor dumb people were liberated by the Red Army who had the politeness to stay and help ... Read More
Rating:  - "Take care of yourself. The water is full of sharks."
The McCarthy-inspired Blacklist in the late 40s and 50s is such a shameful incident in America's history that film and TV has largely steered clear of the subject altogether: you can count the films dealing with it directly on the fingers of one hand, so it sounds like damning with faint praise to say that the rarely revived The Front is the best of them all. That it's the `Woody Allen film' that time forgot hasn't helped it's reputation, but in truth, although many regular Allen collaborators from co ... Read More
Rating: - a chilling black comedy......
THE FRONT, starring Woody Allen, Michael Murphy and Zero Mostel, is an engaging, brilliant, well-written piece that examines the plight of Blacklisted writers and other creative artists who were stifled and forbidden during the age of McCarthyism and the Witch Hunt. Many in their industry were forced and strongarmed to "name names" of people with supposed Communism and anti-American behavior (those who might pose a threat to this supposedly democratic nation of ours). There were numerous eloquent, intelligent ... Read More
Rating: - The Front
Martin Ritt's restrained but powerful film is a searing indictiment of the corrosive, cowardly effects of McCarthysim, a time the director lived through. It's a sort of bitter victory (or sweet revenge) that Mostel was cast, as he was an early victim of the same blacklist. The inimitable Zero steals the show as the tragic Hecky, but Woody is also fine in a fairly straight role. A vivid recreation of a dark moment in our history.
Rating: - A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down
On its initial release, "The Front" was criticized for pulling its punches, for the wisecracking of Woody Allen's character getting in the way of the message. That unfair image of the movie has endured, so it's great to find Amazon reviewers so skilled in distinguising between woods and trees.
For all its humor -- and at times WITH THE HELP OF ITS HUMOR -- "The Front" exposes the full horror of politicking and politicizing, American-style. To anyone who doesn't know better, the recent "Good Night ... Read More
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