The Front is a 1976 American drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s, when artists, writers, directors, and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of being Communists themselves.

It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Michael Murphy.

Several people involved in the making of the film—including screenwriter Bernstein, director Ritt, and actors Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough—had been blacklisted.

[1] In New York City, 1953, at the height of the anti-Communist investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), television screenwriter Alfred Miller is blacklisted and cannot get work.

The professional humiliation and the inability to provide for his wife and children take their toll on Hecky and he kills himself by jumping out of a hotel window.

After briefly enduring the HUAC questioning – including being asked to speak ill of the dead Hecky Brown, and being threatened with legal consequences for his admission of having placed bets in his capacity as a bookie (which is illegal), Howard takes a stand, telling the Committee that he does not recognize their authority to ask him such questions, and telling them to "go fuck yourselves" before leaving the interrogation room.

In 1976, reviewing it for The New York Times, Vincent Canby acknowledged the film's lack of direct political commentary: "The Front is not the whole story of an especially unpleasant piece of American history.

[1] Hecky Brown, and his suicide, was based on blacklisted actor Philip Loeb, a friend of Mostel who was investigated by HUAC and fired from his leading role in the television series The Goldbergs in 1951.

As he pointed out in his biography by Jared Brown, "It's part of this country, and a lot of kids don't even realize that blacklisting ever existed.

The musical, also titled The Front (or, alternatively, Lucky Break[12]) had music and lyrics by Paul Gordon and Jay Gruska, with a book and additional lyrics by Seth Friedman, and its workshop was co-directed by John Caird and Nell Balaban, starring Brian d'Arcy James as Howard Prince, Richard Kind as Hecky Brown, and Jayne Paterson as Florence Barrett.