The straw man

Movie
German title	The straw man
Original title	The front
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1976
length	95 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Martin Ritt
script	Walter Bernstein
production	Martin Ritt
music	Dave Grusin
camera	Michael Chapman
cut	Sidney Levin
occupation
Woody Allen as Howard Prince Zero Mostel as Hecky Brown Herschel Bernardi as Phil Sussman Michael Murphy as Alfred Miller Andrea Marcovicci as Florence Barrett Lloyd Gough as Delaney Charles Kimbrough as adviser to the committee David Margulies as Phelps Josef Sommer as chairman of the committee Danny Aiello as Danny LaGattuta Donald Symington as Congressman

The Straw Man is an American film from 1976.

action

The film is set in the USA in the early 1950s. It is the McCarthy era . Howard Prince is a small cashier in a restaurant. He earns extra income with sports betting. When he loses his money in a horse bet, the screenwriter Alfred Miller, with whom he has been friends since school, bailed him out. Miller was banned from the profession by the Un-American Activities Committee , as were some of his colleagues. The now unemployed writers persuade Howard to work as a straw man for them. They write scripts for television series, and Howard passes them off as his. The idea is successful. Television is robbed of its most talented writers and kissed Howard.

Now his fabulous rise begins. Howard becomes television's most popular screenwriter and falls in love with television dramaturge Florence Barrett. He enjoys the fame, the new apartment and the money. Relations with Florence are clouded when comedian Hecky Brown is fired for allegedly participating in a communist demonstration. Hecky is desperate for work, needs money and agrees to work with the committee. He's supposed to be spying on Howard. Florence, on the other hand, quits her television job in protest against how Hecky is treated. She wants to take action against the committee and tries to convince Howard to help her with it. But Howard refuses to help. The relationship falls apart when Florence realizes that Howard doesn't have the same values ​​as her. Because of Hecky's espionage, Howard is also summoned to appear before the committee. When Hecky takes his own life, the time comes for Howard to say goodbye to the sweet life of a celebrated screenwriter and to show his political colors. He cancels the committee and is jailed for his illegal sports betting bookings.

background

The film was based on a script by Walter Bernstein, who, like Martin Ritt, was on the Hollywood blacklist . Ritt hired some actors for the film who were also blacklisted in the early 1950s and had been banned from working, including Zero Mostel, who plays comedian Hecky. Herschel Bernardi plays the role of television producer Sussman and Lloyd Gough the role of screenwriter Delaney. Both were also on the blacklist. The film was shot in New York City . The suicide portrayed therein was an allusion to the actor Philip Loeb, a friend of Mostel's, who had committed suicide because he was on the blacklist.

Reviews

"Varying a little indecisively between tragic comedy, satire and entertainment, Ritt's film (on which a whole group of McCarthy-Indexed collaborators) is nevertheless an unmasking reckoning with opportunism and a sniffing of opinions."

- Lexicon of international film

"The tragic is deepened by the contrast of the comedy: one should only react to this mass hysterical ghost with absurd laughter."

- Hellmut Haffner, German General Sunday Gazette

Cinema magazine wrote that the film was "an illuminating tragic comedy about a dark time". The director "cleverly balances comedy and dismay".

Awards

Walter Bernstein received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay in 1977 . Andrea Marcovicci was nominated in 1977 for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Young Actress. Zero Mostel received a 1978 British Academy Film Award nomination for his portrayal .

Web links

• The straw man in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The straw man at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
• DDR poster

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Filming locations for The Front, accessed February 24, 2008
2. ↑ The straw man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 29, 2017 .  
3. ↑ Hellmut Haffner: Hollywood is getting aggressive. Entertainment films that make people think . In: German General Sunday Gazette . No. 13/1977 , March 21, 1977, Kulturmagazin, p. 18 .
4. ↑ Cinema, accessed February 24, 2008