Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

A movie that was powerful in its day comes through as a bit dated and unbelievable due to an unconvincing performance by Gregory Peck. This is not to say that the film does not have its moments, just that Peck, in a role that takes some gravity, comes off as lightweight, uninteresting, and wooden.

Gregory Peck stars as "Schuyler Green," a man who is widowed and lives with his mother (Ann Revere) and young kid.

The film is set in New York City and Peck is a magazine writer who is stymied by an assignment to write an expose on anti-Semitism. He has a breakthrough when his mother gets ill and it strikes him he will have to masquerade as a Jew in order to know what anti-Semitism feels like.

This decision, of course, has repercussions in every aspect of his life. An early revelation comes as his secretary (June Havoc), a secret Jew, reveals she sent duplicate job applications to the magazine, one using her true name and another an anglicized version. The company gave different responses to the two applications, which were otherwise identical. He later learns that even she has her separate rating scale for Jewishness, frankly admitting she doesn’t like "the kikey ones." His rich socialite girlfriend (Dorothy McGuire) also reacts differently to him, wondering if the revelation is not the truth. Their relationship goes on in fits and starts until she finally ejects him.

A project of 20th Century Fox's chief Darryl F. Zanuck, it was directed by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) from a book by Laura Hobson and adapted for the screen by Moss Hart, clearly a blue ribbon pedigree. The script is heavy handed and simplistic and does not give a viewer a place to go after keying him up with the evils of racism/anti-Semitism.

With the all star casting beginning with Gregory Peck, Gentleman’s Agreement seemed to have all the elements to make it a sure-fire winner. When you watch the movie, I think you'll agree that the message was watered down enough to lose its impact. Peck was not the right guy to bear down on this unfriendly material and Dorothy McGuire and Peck had almost no credibility as a couple. A couple of the minor characters gave good performances; John Garfield played his small part much more naturally than Peck played his, perhaps it was because Garfield was a disciple of Kazan and Peck was old school. And Celeste Holm did a good job as her normal sidekick type girl. She received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance. The movie basically can’t decide whether it is a message flick or a soap opera, finally coming down on the soap opera side. But the message film part can’t resist wagging its finger in your face from time to time, “anti-Semitism Bad!” it says. It keeps looping on this theme but never quite lets go of the hand wringing and moves on to spurring the audience to action.

The DVD is from Fox, it runs 116 minutes and is presented in Black and White 1.33:1 theatrical format. As extra features it has a commentary by film critic Richard Schickel which is good, an AMC Backstory episode, a couple of Fox Movietone Newsreels, the theatrical trailer, and subtitles and language choices.

Another film about anti-Semitism: Crossfire

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups