This 1976 comedy stars Woody Allen as the title character. Set in the early 1950's during the height of McCarthyism, Allen plays a diner cashier who agrees to help out a writer friend who's been blacklisted. The friend will still submit scripts to television networks, They'll just have Woody's name on them. The networks like the scripts and Allen finds himself in the spotlight.
Success starts going to his head and he realizes that he can pay off his debts faster if he fronts for more than one person.He eventually ends up fronting for three people but the F.B.I. starts becoming curious about his activities when his girlfriend starts a radical newsletter.
One of the interesting things about this movie is that director Martin Ritt, screenwriter Walter Bernstein, and actors Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Lloyd Gough and Joshua Shelley were all blacklisted during the '50's. It's a light movie about a dark time in American history.
No comments:
Post a Comment