The Front is beautiful and passionate portrayal of one of the dark ages in American history, with distinct flavor that only Woody Allen could have added. Allen is a small time bookie and a restaurant cashier who fronts for his childhood friend, a blacklisted writer, purely because he needs the 10% out of his fee, since he's always broke, earning a petty salary and making bets which he can't pay off. When he gets started posing as a significant TV writer, and starts living high, out of his earnings as a front, and meets a girl that works on TV station he writes for (Andrea Marccovici), he gets sucked into new lifestyle and takes on two more writers to front for, enjoying himself, in the process. Along the way, Allen sees people that are getting ravaged by communist witch hunt, personally (Zero Mostel) or emotionally (Michael Murphy, Andrea Marccovici and Herschel Bernhardi), and decides to take a stand! The Front is a great film, made by several people who themselves were blacklisted in the 50's, director Martin Ritt, screenwriter Walter Bernstein and actors Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernhardi. Woody Allen is perfectly cast as movie's centerpiece, and he paints the whole picture with his unique humor and charm, even in serious situations. This is truly a movie of rare quality and they just don't make them like this anymore. The high point of the movie is at the end, and it just explodes, in beautiful colors, like fireworks in the night. 10 out of 10 and a must see for Woody Allen fans.