I’ve been a Woody Allen fan for quite a while, probably since I sat down and actually watched Annie Hall instead of griping about how it won the Oscar for Best Picture over Star Wars. (For what it’s worth, and as may be evident, it’s an opinion I no longer hold.) I don’t like everything he’s done–I couldn’t get through Interiors, though I thought the idea was interesting, and Stardust Memories and Bananas don’t do much for me either–but they’re the rare exceptions.
There’s one Allen film, though, that I’ve wanted to get my hands on since I found out it existed a year ago. It’s not in local video rental stores, and according to the IMDb it’s not available on DVD. Interestingly, he made it the same year that Annie Hall (and that other movie) came out. (Oops. Annie Hall and Star Wars were released in 1977; The Front was released in 1976.) The movie is The Front, and thanks to MoviePix I’m finally going to get to see it on Wednesday night.
McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklist are things I’ve had an interest in for some time–thanks in large part to Joe Straczynski and Babylon 5, in fact–though I’ve never investigated them in much depth. I know a little more than the basics thanks to JMS’ Usenet posts and the similar issues at the core of Tim Robbins’ Cradle Will Rock, but that’s about it. So when I heard that Allen had made a picture scripted by blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein (who, I just discovered, wrote the script for another favourite, the recent live broadcast of Fail Safe) I immediately put it on my must-see list.
Now I just have to find Wild Man Blues (also not available on DVD) and I’ll be happy… for a while, anyway.
Thanks for the tip about The Front and MoviePix, Peter. I’ll have to check it out (as long as it doesn’t interfere with one of the airings of The West Wing.
Yes, I know. Someone’s got to be the dweeb so it might as well be me.
P.S. You thought I’d stopped reading, didn’t you? 😉