The Front (1976), written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt and featuring Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, is a film about the blacklist during the age of live television. Because of the blacklist, a number of artists, writers, directors and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of actually being Communists themselves.
The filmmakers — screenwriter Bernstein, di...
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The Front (1976), written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt and featuring Woody Allen and Zero Mostel, is a film about the blacklist during the age of live television. Because of the blacklist, a number of artists, writers, directors and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of actually being Communists themselves.
The filmmakers — screenwriter Bernstein, director Ritt, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough — were all blacklisted (the name of each in the closing credits is followed by "Blacklisted 19--" - providing the relevant year); Bernstein was listed after being named in the FBI-published “Red Channels” journal that identified alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers.
The Front occurs in the early 1950s, in New York City, telling the story of a small-time bookie who signs his name to the television scripts of a blacklisted friend. Using a front was a tactic of several of the...
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