The Front (1976)

Woody Allen: Howard Prince

Photos 

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Howard Prince : [in the HUAC hearing]  Fellas... I don't recognize the right of this committee to ask me these kind of questions. And furthermore, you can all go fuck yourselves.

• Howard Prince : Swimming's not a sport, swimming's what you do so that you shouldn't drown.

• Howard's Attorney : This friend of yours, Alfred Miller...

  Howard Prince : We went to school together.

  Howard's Attorney : And you had no idea that he was a Communist?

  Howard Prince : He was only twelve.

• Howard Prince : Where are you from?

  Florence Barrett : Connecticut.

  Howard Prince : That's - that's very ritzy.

  Florence Barrett : It's very proper anyway. I was very well bred - the kind of family where the biggest sin was to raise your voice.

  Howard Prince : Oh yeah? In my family the biggest sin was to buy retail.

• Howard Prince : Are you some kind of romantic? You know, that's the trouble with you leftos, you got a thing about money.

• Florence Barrett : A writer looks for trouble.

  Howard Prince : No, wrong. A lunatic looks for trouble.

• Florence Barrett : Do you want a drink?

  Howard Prince : [distracted and worried]  Yeah, but just a drink.

• Florence Barrett : Howard Prince, I'd like you to meet Steve Parks, who plays the lead in the show.

  Steve Parks : It's a marvelous script.

  Howard Prince : Thank you very much.

  Florence Barrett : And Hecky Brown...

  Hecky Brown : Who plays with himself.

  Florence Barrett : ...who plays the narrator.

• Howard Prince : [to his attorney]  I - I still don't see why we can't fix it. You know what I me...? Pay somebody off 'cau - 'cause how much cou-could it cost, you know, 'cause they're just Congressmen?

• Bookseller : You call yourself a writer? Modern American writing started with Huckleberry Finn, dummy.

  Howard Prince : It did?

  Bookseller : Hemingway said that. How about Hemingway? You're low on the moderns - Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson, Fitzgerald.

  Howard Prince : All right, give me - give me two Hemingways and a Faulkner.

  Bookseller : Faulkner. Hemingway, There we are. The Russians - "Brothers Karamazov". No more Dostoyevsky?

  Howard Prince : What else you got?

  Bookseller : "Diary of a Writer".

  Howard Prince : Oh, yeah? I can use that.

• Myer Prince : Howard, Howard, what's it going to be with you? Mama and Papa would turn in their graves.

  Howard Prince : I - I - I haven't found myself yet, you know, but it's all going to change, Myer.

  Myer Prince : You were always the smart one. Did I get the lessons? You could've gone to college. Instead, you're a bum.

• Howard Prince : You want to put my name on your scripts.

  Alfred Miller : It's not that simple. I write the scripts. I send them in under your name. They buy the scripts, right?

  Howard Prince : It's perfect.

  Alfred Miller : Then they're going to want to meet the writer.

  Howard Prince : So?

  Alfred Miller : So you're going to have to go in there, really be the writer.

  Howard Prince : So I'll be the writer. What's the big deal? I can do it. I want to do it! I'm your friend. You're in trouble. What's a friend for?

  Alfred Miller : Well, these days, you can get in trouble being friends.

  Howard Prince : Life is risk.

• Howard Prince : I got hit very hard last week. Long shots come in like relatives.

• Florence Barrett : Howard, I really ought to tell you. I'm involved.

  Howard Prince : I don't understand. What is that, are you married?

  Florence Barrett : No, but involved.

  Howard Prince : So what? I mean, you telling me that you're one of those "one guy at a time" people?

  [Florence nods affirmatively] 

  Howard Prince : Yeah? Okay. Here's what I say to you - we go out, don't bring him along. Right?

• Howard Prince : You come bursting in here, you're ready to start a revolution. For God's sake, Florence, what are you trying to do?

  Florence Barrett : I want us to fight them, not get bought off.

  Howard Prince : I'm not mad at anybody.

  Florence Barrett : We live in the world, Howard.

  Howard Prince : No, you live in the world, I live right here.

• Howard Prince : Oh, Jesus, you know, we got such a terrific relationship going. So why do you want to spoil it?

  Florence Barrett : A relationship isn't only sex, you know. There are more important aspects.

  Howard Prince : I know there are. Like what?

  Florence Barrett : Human rights.

  Howard Prince : What about my rights? I'm a human. What happened to my rights all of a sudden?

• Howard Prince : All right, who can you sue?

  Alfred Miller : Nobody. Nobody admits there's a blacklist. I mean, they just say, "Your script's not good enough." "You're not right for the assignment." You know, that kind of thing.

• Howard Prince : What are you blacklisted for?

  Alfred Miller : I'm a communist sympathizer.

  Howard Prince : Well, you always were.

  Alfred Miller : Well, it's not so popular anymore.

• Howard Prince : I was thinking, there must be a lot of writers who are blacklisted. So how do they get along?

  Alfred Miller : Why?

  Howard Prince : I don't know. You know, it must be hard.

  Alfred Miller : Yeah, it's hard.

  Howard Prince : You know, it's funny. I got them so snowed. I mean, two writers wouldn't be any harder than one.

  Alfred Miller : Oh, yeah? You think not?

  Howard Prince : What do you have to know? It's a cinch.

  Alfred Miller : Why not three?

• Howard Prince : Relax, will you? You're going off the deep end. Jesus, let me give you some champagne.

• Howard Prince : I'm not a writer, Florence. I'm a front. I front for blacklisted writers.

• Howard Prince : Hey, I tried to get us tickets to the Paul Robeson concert, you know, but it happened to come on the same night as the basketball game, so, we'll go to a basketball game, right?

• Committee Counselor : Do you know Alfred Miller, the writer?

  Howard Prince : Uh, when you say "know," uh, you know, can you ever really know a person? I think, you know I grew up with an Alfred Miller, but do I know him? Would you say, do I know him? Can you know - In a biblical sense, know him? Am I right?

• Hecky Brown : Watch your step around this place. The broads up here, take a look at them, and you say to yourself, "Where's this been all my life?" They come at you from all directions. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Later on, you find out you're the fish.

  Howard Prince : Yeah, well, don't worry about me.

  Hecky Brown : Don't make any promises. These broads come up here with their lawyers.