MAGGI PICAYUNE

This one was recorded/watched because I remembered my Uncle Skip watching it in the Eighties and it has an eerie parallel with today’s media landscape with its “either you’re with us or you’re against us” attitude. It was also  one of Zero Mostel’s last performances before his death. I think The Muppet Show was his other.

The Front begins with Howard Prince (Allen) being approached by his old school buddy Al for a difficult favor. Thanks to McCarthyism, Al has been blacklisted by the TV networks so he can no longer (openly) be a scriptwriter. If Howard puts his name on the work then Al can continue writing for a livelihood. In return Howard gets ten percent which is enough money to pay off his gambling debts, move out of his lousy apartment and quit his job as a cashier. Actually, when Howard sees how “easy” this is, he convinces Al to sign up two other writers on this operation: even in the early Fifties, writing didn’t pay that well so taking 10 percent from three guys works for his modest needs. Despite Howard being a rather apolitical person, the vindictive mood and paranoia around him can’t be avoided. FBI agents still shadow the three writers, the network has a slimy private detective to investigate any alleged ties to the Communist Party and lives are still ruined by spineless executives. Sounds familiar. (cough! Fox. cough! ABC) Even as he strikes up a relationship with the show’s script editor Florence, he discovers that he can’t find a way to dance around in the middle with the McCarthyist bullies. Howard realizes this too late when he notices how a national network is cowed by a grocery store “chain” on Long Island which only has four stores at most. But when the show’s former MC Hecky Brown (Mostel) is blacklisted, something will have to give.

I think the people behind The Front (no pun intended) made a casting error going with Allen. The subject matter was rather heavy for his style of comedy. No matter which decade it is, Woody is going to do his Woody Thing. When he’s putting the moves on Florence, it felt like every other movie I’ve seen him in: Bananas, Take the Money & Run and Sleeper as examples. He had the underachieving slacker who-makes-bad-sports-bets down pat, otherwise the movie gets distorted into being like all his other flicks through his one-liners. My other complaint was his character being a borderline illiterate getting away with the work of three separate writers, each with his own obvious style. Even today, not everyone who works in TV is an idiot. The producers and editors’ BS detectors would’ve been screaming “fraud” after talking to Howard for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Zero Mostel keeps the film on track as an aging actor willing to do anything to keep working. He has a family, an ex-wife and his pride to maintain. Zero’s performance is convincing because he was blacklisted in the Fifties (alongside the movie’s director, screenwriter and two other cast members). He knew the pain, the betrayal and the lies producers tell you when one is blacklisted.

The Front isn’t as preachy nor as obvious as The Crucible yet it is still a great, cautionary tale of how the majority can be intimidated by a bunch of dumb, hypocritical creeps (like now) but there’s no A Bug’s Life ending to get everyone to realize this. Woody did put a smile on my face when he tells the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, “Fellas…I don’t recognize the right of this committee to ask me these kind of questions. And furthermore, you can all go f*** yourselves.”

Here’s a little comedy gem I found in the discount bin at Fry’s. I remember the movie coming and going very quickly at theaters but it was pretty popular at school when it made the rounds on HBO. The wife and I watched it during our Snow Day from work earlier this year. I decided to review it now because of my site’s Movie section being divided up into its three categories and the DVD part could use some padding. 
 
Dom stars as Dominick DiNapoli. All his life he has been overweight and a compulsive eater. This is established in the opening credits with his parents stuffing food in his face as appeasement and the snacking antics of him and his obese cousin Sal. The story then begins with Sal’s funeral. Dominick’s older sister Antoinette [Bancroft] pushes him to see a doctor about losing weight so he doesn’t share Sal’s fate. Changing his unhealthy lifestyle proves to be very difficult after 40 years until Lyida [Candice Azzara, most remember her as the wife in Easy Money with Rodney Dangerfield] moves into the neighborhood to open an antique store. He is completely smiten with her. He thinks she likes him too but he isn’t sure. Eventually doubt sets in and the eating problems return with a vengeance. 
 
It doesn’t sound very much like a comedy and if you’re expecting the usual low-brow, totally obvious jokes in the majority of today’s comedies, then you’ll be bored. This is more subtle, dark and observational material. A definite departure for Dom DeLuise whose resume includes Silent Movie, Blazing Saddles, The End and Cannonball Run. I also found it entertaining in the details of Italian-American-Catholic culture which I’m sure Bancroft and DeLuise were quite familiar with. My father’s family is nothing close to that but it must run in our DNA if I understood most of the humor. As Dr. Scibila always said about being Italian, “Let’s carry that statue around the block one more time!” Anyone who has struggled with weight loss, self-esteem and self-doubt will relate to the story, especially if you didn’t get married until you were over 30.

This old treasure was shown on TCM as part of their 31 Days of Oscar but unlike the other movies I saved on the ol’ DVR, this one actually won an award: Best Actor 1934 to Clark Cable. It’s also a personal favorite of mine because Bugs Bunny is allegedly derived from Clark’s performance during the hitchhiking incident. If you ever see the movie, pay attention to him eating and cleaning the raw carrots he steals. Definitely Frank Capra’s best, not the worn-out Christmas movie everyone still shows to death.

The story begins in Miami. Ellie (Colbert) is a spoiled heiress on the run from her millionaire father. Peter (Gable) is a reporter, recently fired from his NYC paper. They meet on the bus for NYC after arguing over the last available seat. Peter eventually recognizes who Ellie is and bullies her into a deal—it does take place in the Thirties. He will make sure she gets to NYC and reunited with her husband, the source of the family dispute. In return, Peter will have the scoop every paper on the East Coast will want. The trip north takes some interesting twists, turns and obviously Ellie and Peter fall in love while avoiding thieves (Alan Hale, Sr., the Skipper’s dad!), a blabbermouth that speaks entirely in Thirties slang, unfriendly hotel owners who don’t rent to unmarried couples and private detectives hired by Ellie’s father.

At first, the movie and its dialog feel very dated (words and expressions only used by my grandparents). Not really, it’s a timeless story and personally I think it’s the road-buddy-romantic comedy that all others have followed. Look at Planes, Trains & Automobiles, My Fellow Americans or The Sure Thing to see the elements borrowed from this. Gable and Colbert’s have real chemistry too, something so many other films lack. However I don’t think people spoke in such complete sentences in the past but they were pretty snappy dressers.

The movie is also a cool cultural observation on what America was like then. The media’s current obsession over celebrities instead of hard news is still an element which hasn’t changed in 73 years. Despite the Depression being in full swing, it didn’t seem to be on people’s minds constantly in any conversations. Imagine how hard it would be for Ellie to travel unnoticed: cell phones can give away locations, the trail of credit card purchases and alerts on TV shows. Peter would only have it easier through the shift in social mores, unmarried couples in hotels don’t faze anybody now.