Review – The Front

McCarthyism as screwball comedy? Sure, why not. Woody Allen stars as a cashier and half-assed bookie who takes a step up in the world when he agrees to put his name on scripts by three blacklisted screenwriters. It almost goes without saying that he becomes a tremendous success, resulting in no end of “comedy of errors” hilarity culminating in a crisis of conscience when he’s called to testify before the HUAC. Though the script itself stays fairly light, its grim underpinnings unavoidably assume a certain “whistling past the graveyard” quality, made all the more poignant by the end credits spelling out which members of the ensemble were actual victims of the Red Scare. Worth seeing