Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Based on Laura Z. Hobson's best selling novel, Phillip Green (Gregory Peck) poses as a jew to get a behind-the-scenes look at anti-Semitism in America for a series in a newspaper.  As he loses the respect of his believing colleagues, he realizes how even the kindest of people won't stand up against the deep-rooted bigotry and hatred. 

This movie is a pretty good testament to racism/anti-Semitism in New York City after WWII ended.  I guess I wasn't aware how heavily the prejudice had been prevalent in America.  His quest to revealing truth showcases Gregory Peck sending in applications for all sorts of different jobs, colleges, country clubs, apartments, etc.  And even though Peck is just posing as a jew, he gets real mad about it.  Especially when his girl, Kathy, gets pissed about him posing as a jew, then she gets over it, then pissed again, she gets over it...pretty much the whole movie.  "Oh Phil, why can't you give this silly thing up?"  "Oh Phil, I don't care what you are or what you pretend to be!" "Oh Phil, my friends hate jews!" "Phil, I LOVE YOU!"  It's all a little silly.  And while we're at it, I know it's the theme of the movie, but Phil just runs around calling everyone an anti-Semite, even the jews... his Jewish assistant was using the "k" word to describe people who were "more" Jewish than she but still.  After she finds out he's a gentile, he still scolds her for her anti-Semitic views... when he's only dealt with the repercussions of being Jewish for a few weeks and she's dealt with the prejudice, ya know, her whole life... no big.  I really did appreciate this movie and Peck's performance was very good, I had some issues with it.

Like Lost Weekend before it, Gentleman’s Agreement is not necessarily a postwar recovery film but certainly a message film that deals with the fallout effects of such an event. It tackles a subject I wish was no longer relevant, but discrimination and implicit racism are still very much alive and well in the United States and the world over. Featuring the dependable Gregory Peck (I’ve always thought of him as kind of like the American response to Cary Grant and this role clearly makes the blueprint for an even better turn in To Kill a Mockingbird) in an Oscar-nominated performance, Gentleman’s Agreement is always interesting; while not truly revelatory or groundbreaking in the 21^st century, it’s easy to see how this film would have made some ripples in 1947. The film occasionally wanders into melodrama (the first time Peck and female lead Dorothy McGuire make up seems lifted right from daytime soap TV) or preachy territory but without resorting to the constant dramatic speeches that were prevalent in The Life of Emile Zola, an earlier Best Picture winner cut from the same cloth. It was neat to see an early childhood performance from Dean Stockwell, a now-cult actor that would go on to roles in personal favorites like Blue Velvet and the Quantum Leap and Battlestar Galactica (2004) TV series. Director Elia Kazan would make superior films such as the coming-soon-to-this-blog On the Waterfront but Gentleman’s Agreement remains a mostly successful film about a perennial message that I can confidently recommend.

Laura Z. Hobson wrote her novel after Senator John Rankin's anti-Semitic comments were applauded in Congress. It was then serialized in Cosmopolitan from November 1946 to February 1947, immediately causing quite a stir. This prompted Darryl F. Zanuck (who was one of the few studio heads who was not Jewish) to snap up the novel's rights. 

Phil Green: Some people hate Catholics, some people hate Jews.
Tommy Green: And no one hates us because we're Americans.