The Front

Director: Martin Ritt

Overview

Martin Ritt's The Front is a black-comedy about the McCarthy hearings of the '50s and the subsequent Hollywood blacklisting. Woody Allen plays a bookmaker who become "a front" for a group of blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters who aren't able to get a job, because of their alleged communist ties. The Front was written by blacklisted Walter Bernstein and features performances from several blacklisted entertainers, including Herschel Bernardi, Joshua Shelley, Lloyd Gough, and Zero Mostel.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/04/2015
UPC:	0043396464902
Original Release:	0000
Language:	English
Sales rank:	43,969

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Woody Allen	Howard Prince
Zero Mostel	Hecky Brown
Herschel Bernardi	Phil Sussman
Andrea Marcovicci	Florence Barrett
Remak Ramsay	Hennessey
Marvin Lichterman	Myer Prince
Lloyd Gough	Delaney
David Margulies	Phelps
Joshua Shelley	Sam
Norman Rose	Howard's Attorney
Danny Aiello	Danny La Gattuta
Scott McKay	Hampton
Julie Garfield	Margo
Charles Kimbrough	Committee Counselor
Georgann Johnson	TV Interviewer
Josef Sommer	Committee Chairman
Burt Britton	Bookseller
Polly Holliday	Actor
Albert M. Ottenheimer	School Principal
William Bogert	Parks
Joey Faye	Waiter
David Clarke	Hubert Jackson
Marilyn Sokol	Sandy
John Bentley	Bartender
John J. Slater	T.V. Director,TV Director
Renee Paris	Girl In Hotel Lobby
Gino Gennaro	Stage Hand
Murray Moston	Boss
Joan Porter	Myer's Wife
MacIntyre Dixon	Harry Stone
Andrew Bernstein	Alfred's Child,Alfred's Child
Rudolph Willrich	Tallman
Matthew Tobin	Man At Party
Marilyn Persky	His Date
Sam McMurray	Young Man At Party
Joe Ramrog	F B I Man
Donald Symington	Congressman
Pat McNamara	Federal Marshal,Federal Marshall
Joe Jamrog	FBI Man
Michael Miller	FBI Man
Lucy Flippin	Nurse
Jack Davidson	Congressman
Michael Murphy	Actor

Technical Credits

Walter Bernstein

Charles H. Joffe	Executive Producer
Martin Ritt	Producer
Jack Rollins	Executive Producer
Walter Bernstein	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The Front is not about politics. It is about survival. Director Martin Ritt, star Zero Mostel, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and many other talents involved with The Front were victims of the Hollywood blacklist. With this film, they take their collective pain and fashion a comedy born out of desperation, history, and personal pride. They, along with lead actor Woody Allen, manage to find honest laughs in a most painful period from these men's lives. When filmmakers explain a particular injustice, the audience is enlightened; when they display that injustice happening to someone the audience cares about, viewers respond with sympathy; having that character see the mordant humor in the injustice, comment on it, and still refuse to buckle to it (even though the temptation to do so is huge) makes a hero. That is what these filmmakers achieve. Very few films are this adept at finding humor in characters whose lives are so seriously compromised. Coming from people who survived such a painful time -- people tempted by that compromise -- The Front is more than a history lesson, a comedy, or a successful group therapy session. Its existence is a validation of both art and life.