The Front

In 1950s Hollywood, television screenwriter Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) is blacklisted due to his past activities, and he asks friend Howard Prince (Woody Allen), a restaurant cashier and small-time bookie, to sign his name to Miller's scripts in exchange for ten percent of the money. As a "front" writer, Howard becomes successful, but when investigations expose Communists in the entertainment industry, including Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel), a fellow blacklisted actor who is fired from his show after being accused of past communist sympathies. When Hecky's mental state deteriorates due to the blacklist, he kills himself, and Howard decides to take a stand against the House Un-American Activities Committee by evading their questions and ultimately refusing to cooperate, leading to his own arrest and humiliating experience.