Word: mostel
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...cheapens and detracts from its political message. Complicating the problems embedded in the script are two extremely talented comedians who find themselves cast in straight dramatic roles which cannot suppress their seemingly irrepressible knack for "getting a laugh." Because it's impossible to watch either Woody Allen or Zero Mostel without expecting a humorous line sooner or later, and because the film's script occasionally obliges them with quips that serve only to destroy the actors' commendable efforts to render their roles serious and believable, The Front fails to fulfill its potential as a film of consequence. Instead, The Front...
Alongside the Prince storyline the film develops the tale of Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel), the leading actor in the show Prince "writes." Brown is under investigation by an ominous character named Hennesey who works in an agency called Freedom Information. (The blatantly fascist-trappings of Hennesey's character and office are an effective touch.) The eventual blacklisting of Brown, because he once marched in a May Day parade, which Hennesey recommends to the networks, provides the catalyst for the remaining events of the film...
...Mostel, whose Dudley House dinner appearance was sponsored by the Ford Foundation, said he was accused of entertaining at communist parties and signing a petition to allow blacks into major league baseball. "Now I'm signing one to allow whites in," he said...
...Mostel attacked the reasoning behind the blacklist, asking "What could actors be guilty of? Of passing secrets to Russian actors...
...Mostel also said his motivation for doing the current New York revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" was "primarily greed...