Gentleman’s Agreement

Antisemitism, like racism, is a difficult subject to address effectively because there are so many more facets to it than outright persecution. A person can walk down the street and verbally or physically assault any Jewish person they see and you can say with confidence that that person is antisemitic. Addressing that kind of intolerance is easy because most people can look at a situation like that and know it’s wrong. But what about the more subtle instances? What about the person who believes they have no prejudice in their heart but cracks a joke about Jewish people being greedy money horders or thinks of themselves as better because they’re Christian? This is something known more recently as unconscious bias and many jobs now have specific training to help identify that bias. Many people who have these biases don’t even realize it, thinking they have no prejudices against other races, religions, or sexual orientations yet would be taken aback should one of their kids start dating someone outside of their own personal identities. This is nothing new. Lauren Z. Hobson wrote about it in her 1947 book, Gentleman’s Agreement. That book became the basis for the Gregory Peck film of the same name. 

It’s interesting that so soon after the second world war there was enough antisemitism in the US that it needed to be addressed headlong like this. Many European Jews would have recently fled persecution from the Nazi’s, seeking shelter from the death camps. American soldiers had just liberated their people and seen or heard first hand what had been done to them in the ghettos and concentration camps. Yet many were unwelcome here and segregation, in some cases, was extended to include them, too. Intolerant adults spread this to their children and good people, ashamed but unwilling to speak up, allowed things to continue as if there was nothing wrong with it. This was the environment that Gentleman’s Agreement released in the fall of 1947.

Widowed journalist Philip Schuyler Green has accepted a position in New York City writing for a magazine and has moved his mother (Anne Revere) and his young son Tommy (Dean Stockwell) to the city with him. His first assignment: write an article on antisemitism, but not just any article on the subject. Any writer can quote figures and spout platitudes on the subject. John Minify, the editor (Albert Dekker), wants Philip to come up with a unique angle for his piece. After debating with himself on how best to tackle the subject he initially settles on interviewing a childhood friend of his, Dave Goldman (John Garfield), a Jewish military officer. He quickly realizes this wouldn’t work as the type of questions needed to be asked are not the kind of questions you bring up to a friend and can reasonably expect to get honest answers to. Instead, he decides to get first hand information on the subject. He’s new to the city and, outside of his family and his boss, no one else knows him. If he pretends to be Jewish he’ll be able to see just how differently he will be treated. 

At a lunch party he meets Minify’s niece Kathy Lacy (Dorothy McGuire), who turns out to be the person who gave Minify the idea for the story in the first place. The two enjoy a flirtatious afternoon together and begin dating shortly afterwards. Meanwhile word has already gotten around that Philip is Jewish and his secretary confesses to him that she is Jewish, too, but shortened her name and hid her beliefs to secure her job at the magazine. He finds himself being the target of casual jabs and even downright bigotry, not only from the Christian’s but also from his Jewish secretary who has no problems using offensive Jewish slurs casually as if they have no real hurtful meaning. Later, when Dave Goldman returns to the city, moving in with Philip while he looks for a job and a place for his family to stay, a fight nearly breaks out when a drunken soldier approaches him saying he hates officers, especially “kike” officers. Tommy has also started getting bullied and comes home in tears because the kids are hurling slurs at him and won’t let him play with them. Philip has to try and explain this sort of intolerance to an innocent young boy experiencing for the first time in his life bigotry. 

Antisemitism is never okay, not then nor now. Yet it still plagues the world we live in. People are people no matter the beliefs, the skin color or where in the world they were born. Philip makes this point when addressing his secretary after she finally discovers that he is not Jewish after all. Philip’s mother laments that it’ll be nice sometime when such things will not have to be explained anymore but will just be understood by all. It’s been nearly eighty years and that still hasn’t happened. Even Kathy, whose thoughts on the subject spurred on the existence of the article in the first place, is not immune to wrongful thinking. When Tommy is crying over the bullies she at first tries to console him by telling him he’s not really Jewish. Philip cuts her off, chastising her for trying to teach Tommy that he’s better than a Jew. He tells her that these kind of thoughts are what keeps segregation going rather than ending it. Only later, when she’s with Dave and explaining how she failed to act when overhearing an offensive Jewish joke does she realize that by remaining inactive in the face of intolerance she, and everyone else that said nothing, allows it to propagate. Only then does she fully understand why Philip has gotten so passionate about not staying silent in the face of prejudice.

This movie could have easily gotten by on just the in-your-face antisemitism and it would have gotten the message across. But that would be akin to tapping in a wall tack with a sledge hammer. Instead it shows not only the outright bigotry but the subtle antisemitism, too, such as a off-hand comment about how Philip is dressed or Kathy’s initial reaction when she’s first told Philip is referring to himself as Jewish. Philip has no idea what he’s getting into and by the time he’s done and ready to write his story he’s become frustrated and angry and it almost costs him his relationship with Kathy. It’s this deft and reverent handling of a tough subject propels it to the status of the Best Picture of 1947. 

Gregory Peck is a fine actor who had a long and illustrious career in Hollywood. His performance as Philip Green is good but sometimes lacks dimensionality. He’s often playing sullen and determined, almost stone faced. When he is emoting it falls into categories. He’s either holding back anger or passionately in love with Kathy. Much like Paul Henreid in Casablanca he’s a bit too stiff. Dorothy McGuire comes off better as the woman who has fallen in love with him but has loved and been hurt by another man in the past. Now she finds that the man she wishes to marry has grown jaded and sees in her things she doesn’t see in herself. Celeste Holm, playing the fashion editor Anne Dettrey, steals the show whenever she appears on screen and is the sole actor to win an Oscar for this film. Her role is limited but memorable. She has fallen for Philip, too and is surprised, but not offended, when she finds out the truth about him. If she cares, one way or the other, it never shows.

This is a film that, unfortunately, is as relevant now as it ever was. The world we all live in is still rife with the kind of thoughts and feelings on full display here. Laws in the USA and many other countries have since been enacted to eliminate segregation and hiring practices that exclude people for these kinds of reasons but laws cannot regulate people’s feelings nor how parents teach their children to interact with people different than they are. For someone brought up sheltered this film can be a real eye opener, especially when identifying the unconscious biases in their own minds. The film inspires people to speak up when seeing or hearing antisemitism and posits that if everyone did so then this type of bigotry would become a thing of the past. In an ideal world that would be true. There is, however, no denying that if more people took a stand and spoke up against hatred the world would at the very least become a better, more peaceful place. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Motion Picture: Darryl F. Zanuck (won)

Best Director: Elia Kazan (won)

Best Actor: Gregory Peck

Best Actress: Dorothy McGuire

Best Supporting Actress: Celeste Holm (won)

Best Screenplay: Moss Hart

Best Film Editing: Harmon Jones

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Release Date: November 11, 1947

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, June Havoc, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt and Dean Stockwell

Directed By: Elia Kazan