Click here to copy URL

The Front

1976

Martin Ritt

Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy ...

7.0

3,147

Drama. Comedy During the years of the “witch hunt”, TV scriptwriter Alfred Miller is one of the writers condemned to ostracism for his left-wing ideals. In order to be able to continue working, he offers money to Howard Prince, an ex-fellow student, in exchange for being able to sign his name to his works. But he’s not the only writer in the same situation demanding Howard’s services as a front man.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"'The Front' has its moments. But they often seem to be moments from a Woody Allen movie -- scenes where the insecure Allen character tries to appear competent (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"It recreates the awful noise of ignorance that can still be heard."	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"[Ritt never quite gets] beyond the convenient moralizing of Walter Bernstein's screenplay to the significant ideological questions involved"	NEU
United States	David Nusair Reel Film	"'The Front', armed with Walter Bernstein’s clever screenplay, benefits substantially from its atmosphere of authenticity and raft of engaging, engrossing performances (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Scott Meek Time Out	"Woody Allen, miscast in his first straight role (...) struggles through a reenactment of the communist witch-hunting of the '50s (...) The film pulls all its political punches, settling instead for sentimental narrative"	NEG
United States	Eric Henderson Slant	"'The Front's ultimate grasp of the truth of the nature of Hollywood McCarthyism is clear and devastating (...) Mostel’s panic and heartbreak give tragic resonance to the film (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.