The Front (1976)

The Front is a Woody Allen movie that wasn't written and directed by Woody Allen – in fact, this film predates Allen's big smashes with Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979) – but it's still Allen at the film's center, and the jokes feel very Allen throughout.

The Front is very, very good. It's funny for the first two acts, and then it turns serious. And Martin Ritt has directed it so well that the serious turn made perfect sense and didn't feel the least disruptive. The movie stays serious after that – it is a film about the blacklist, after all, but the screenplay is aces and Ritt's direction is excellent. Michael Murphy is great in a supporting role, but Zero Mostel is incredible. He's so perfect in this. And when, as the credits start to roll, each name says when he was blacklisted in the early 1950s, it brought tears to my eyes. The Front has a powerful ending, and if this romantic comedy stays lighthearted, it always takes its main topic seriously.