The film of the week this time is THE FRONT.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074554/

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I have been fascinated by the Blacklisting era in Hollywood. I can't imagine what it was like at that time for all those writers, directors and other artists to not be able to work because of the possible political affiliations. The Front is a very interesting film that was actually directed by Martin Ritt, who was blacklisted in the 50's. It was also written by Walter Bernstein, who was blacklisted around the same time as Ritt. So as you can see this film comes from the personal experiences of these people. It stars Woody Allen as a cashier who poses as a writer so blacklisted writers can submit their work through him and his name. This came out around the time Allen was fairly busy writing and directing, so it's surprising to see him in a film he didn't write or direct himself. He does a fairly good job too.

You will notice some of his usual mannerisms, but they don't detract from the film, unless you really don't like him on screen in general.Zero Mostel has a very good supporting role as a blacklisted actor. Sadly he a died a couple of years after this came out. This was a pretty big flop when it came out in the 70's unfortunately. I can understand why though since many people were sensitive about the blacklisting considering it wasn't that long ago when this film came out. If you find that time in hollywood interesting where politics get in the way of art, then I highly recommend this. It's written in fairly broad strokes to make you feel bad for the blacklisted people, but considering it was written by a man who was blacklisted I can understand why he didn't paint those who condemned him in a positive light.