The Front

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The Front is a 1976 comedy-drama film about the Hollywood blacklist during the age of live television. It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt and stars Woody Allen and Zero Mostel....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 being Communists themselves.
Several people involved in the making of the film – screenwriter Bernstein, director Ritt, and actors Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough – had themselves been blacklisted. (The name of each in the closing credits is followed by "Blacklisted 19--" and the relevant year.) Bernstein was listed after being named in the Red Channels journal that identified alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers. (Read more at Wikipedia)
== Links to Peel ==
Among the cast of The Front was Woody Allen, who had become popular with younger cinemagoers after his comedy films of the early 1970s had been well reviewed in journals such as Time Out and Rolling Stone, and with a wider public due to the success of his film Annie Hall. Peel was not known to have been a big Woody Allen fan, but he saw The Front in early 1977 and was impressed by the film and its subject matter of conspiracies and blacklists, which seemed to have some relevance to late 1970s Britain. The DJ told his listeners on the show of 12 January 1977 From diary notes of User:Grang354. to "watch it, and then go home and read your morning paper. I'm afraid it doesn't matter which morning paper...." 
He also praised it in his Sounds column of 22 January 1977, saying that he had attended the premiere with producer John Walters but missed the celebrities ("famous folk") who were there - "I only saw the film". He recommends it to his readers, saying that it stars "the admirable Woody Allen" and "is amusing in parts, but the undercurrents are chilling indeed" 
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
* Official site
* Other
== References ==
Category:Films