Search - The Front on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1976 DVD Release: 02/17/2004 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English Subtitles: English, French, Japanese, Korean SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 34 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 14 Genres: Comedy Drama, Tragi-comedy, Political Satire, Message Movie, Showbiz Comedy

The McCarthy-era "witch hunts" in the entertainment industry set the stage for this comedy drama set in the 1950s. Howard Prince (Woody Allen) is a cashier at a corner bar who works as a small-time bookie on the side, with little success. One day, Howard's old friend Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy), a successful television writer, makes a business proposal to him; Alfred's leftist political views have resulted in him being blacklisted from the major television networks, and he can no longer get work. Alfred asks Howard to act as a "front" -- Howard puts his name on Alfred's scripts, sells them, and takes a cut of the payment for his trouble. Howard's new career as a "writer" is an instant success, and soon Howard is fronting for a handful of blacklisted scribes while earning a healthy income and becoming the toast of the television industry; another fringe benefit is a romance with beautiful network employee Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci). However, comic Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel), who had a brief fling with socialism years before, now finds his past catching up with him, and he's told in order to save his job as host of a weekly television show, he has to get the goods on some suspicious figures, among them Howard Prince, whose background looks a little too clean for comfort. The Front was written by Walter Bernstein, who was himself blacklisted during the 1950s, as were co-stars Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Woody Allen - Howard Prince
Zero Mostel - Hecky Brown
Herschel Bernardi - Phil Sussman
Michael Murphy - Alfred Miller
Andrea Marcovicci - Florence Barrett

Woody Allen stars in this serio-comic look at a man faced with a moral dilemma when he "fronts" for blacklisted writers during the McCarthy Era, which has been given a sturdy presentation on DVD. The Front appears on this disc in two transfers: one letterboxed in the film's original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (which is enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors) and another pan-and-scanned to the full-frame format of 1.33:1. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo. The dialogue is in English with optional subtitles in English, French, Japanese, and Korean. The film's original trailer appears as a bonus. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide