The Front (1976)

Zero Mostel: Hecky Brown

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hecky Brown : [parting words to Howard]  Take care of yourself. The water is full of sharks.

• Hecky Brown : It's nice when something nice happens to someone nice. it doesn't happen too often.

• Hecky Brown : [after gulping a glass of scotch]  You know, I never learned how to sip a drink. When I was very little, every evening before supper my father would pour a shot glass full of whiskey, mumble a prayer,

  [He emulates his father by mumbling in Yiddish] 

  Hecky Brown : and down it went! I thought that was the way you drank.

• 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.

• Hecky Brown : I'm an actor. What do I know about politics? My whole life has been acting.

• Francis Hennessey : The question is, Mr. Brown, what have you done?

  Hecky Brown : Nothing. I'm an actor.

  Francis Hennessey : Nothing?

  Hecky Brown : Six years ago, I marched in the May Day parade. I bought a subscription for the 'Daily Worker', but I never read it, not one word. Right from the mailbox to the garbage can. I was only trying to get laid. This girl, this communist girl, she had a big ass.

  Francis Hennessey : I am not interested in your sex life, Mr. Brown.

  Hecky Brown : Hecky. I was just telling you - that girl was the reason.

  Francis Hennessey : Was she also the reason you signed a petition for Loyalist Spain?

  Hecky Brown : Did I do that?

  Francis Hennessey : And Russian war relief?

  Hecky Brown : We were on the same side, weren't we? That girl with the big ass, she was the reason. Honestly.

• Hecky Brown : You want me to spy - on Howard Prince?

  Francis Hennessey : We are in a war, Mr. Brown, against a ruthless and tricky enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy our way of life. To be a spy on the side of freedom is an honor.

  Hecky Brown : And if I spy on Howard Prince, I can work?

  Francis Hennessey : I don't do the hiring, Mr. Brown. I only advise about Americanism. But in my opinion, as the sign of a true patriot, it would certainly help.

• Sam : Get him out of here! You fat pig. You'll never work again!

  Hecky Brown : I'm Hecky Brown! I'm Hecky Brown!

  Sam : You'll crawl in the gutter, you red bastard! You commie son of a bitch!

• Hecky Brown : [singing]  I need to be funny, Like some need cocaine, In a club, In a show, And the john in the train, When I enter, I entertain, Doing anything for a laugh, A laugh, a laugh, A laugh, Anything for a laugh!

• Hecky Brown : Open up in the name of the law! Get out your guns, men. Nobody move. This is a raid. Everybody, everybody out. We understand you have a girl in your room. If not, why not? Do you have a little tootsie for me?

• 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.