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Rating: With irreplaceable desolation, we must acknowledge how much History has been hidden, how much has been manipulated and then inserted into our beautiful school textbooks, how much has been forgotten. Thus, while in Europe we remember the sad events that took place within the walls of the infamous camps (but we largely ignore the secret victims of the Soviet regime), America, which meanwhile judges - oh, indeed it does! - casts a veil over the darkest period of its history: McCarthyism. It's the era in which anti-communists combat the creeping danger of the red doctrine through forced dismissals and censorship, ending up confusing it with themselves ("The Master and Margarita" with its mutilated chapters, one example above all). It is precisely during the time of the committee against un-American activities that the nineteenth work of Martin Ritt, namely "The Front," takes place.
We are in the early '50s, and Howard Price (Woody Allen) is a humble New York cashier who secretly engages in the illicit activity of bookmaking. His life has the opportunity for a radical change following a proposal made by his friend Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy): Howard is to propose scripts written by Alfred, registered on the McCarthyite "Black List" that prevents him from seeing his works staged, to a television broadcaster with his signature. Howard accepts with enthusiasm, and through his name, not yet linked to anti-communist blacklists, he manages to get Miller’s works accepted. The expedient seems to work, and the protagonist, in agreement with Alfred, decides to expand their "company": they are joined by other writers boycotted for their personal political choices. Meanwhile, Howard gains esteem and respect from his collaborators and even the love of an aspiring producer. But the investigations become increasingly intense, and a ruthless investigator attempts to trap Howard with the help of actor Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel), who is also accused of being a communist and thus fired. Hecky collaborates with the investigation in anticipation of a sentence pardon but senses his political and individual failure, leading him to commit suicide. Howard ends up being scrutinized by the dreaded House Committee on Un-American Activities but refuses the interrogation and, now sure of being close to imprisonment, closes the movie with a resounding "Up yours."
The film, dated 1978, is the first to tackle the delicate topic of McCarthyite persecutions that devastated the American artistic-intellectual scene. The historical character of the film is suggested by some prologue-based shots attempting to summarize the basic milestones of 20th-century American history. As Sinatra's notes play, footage of prominent figures in the American artistic and political scene (from Marilyn Monroe to the Rosenbergs) rapidly scrolls by. After all, it is enough to consider that director Ritt, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actors Motel and Herschel Bernardi were all involved in the Hollywood Blacklists that operated between 1947 and 1951 and the intent to subject the anti-communist commission's work to condemnation. In a certain sense, the opening in black and white serves to frame the work from the beginning along lines of solemn seriousness and to suggest the theme of historical revisitation.
The features that allow the film to shine are essentially concentrated in the characters. Woody Allen, then still a beginner, succeeds in conveying the idea of a man with modest economic and intellectual resources: an individual shaped by life experiences who has learned to survive through cunning tricks (the scenes where he tries to flirt with the young television collaborator, already engaged, are illustrative in this regard). Comparing this with later Allen would be predictable as well as counterproductive: in his works, the director manages to define and tailor a character for himself that, in some way, has imbued many of them with significant meaning, to the point of remaining in the common imagination. This process is missing in "The Front"; it would be almost appropriate to say it contrasts with Allen's later intellectual interpretations, given the evident cultural distance between Howard and the artistic world surrounding him. Zero Mostel is perhaps the character that best manages to synthesize the spirit of the film. He is a highly successful actor who sees his life meet ruin due to imprudence in poorly concealing adherence to communism. The suicide scene is one of the most intense in the film: Brown throws himself out of a window in a moment of extreme drama, laughing and sipping a beer.
At this point, the problem of identification arises: "The Front" is a drama, a comedy, or does it even anticipate "dramedy"? Perhaps the most reasonable solution is a fair mix between comedy and drama. Yet the insistent and inevitable satire, the intimate look at the characters, does not allow the film to settle comfortably into a rigid definition. The danger of hybridity is just around the corner, and this contributes to making "The Front" appear as a colorless, superficially insipid film.
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