Gentlemen’s Agreement
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Moss Hart from the novel by Laura Hobson
1947/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Anne Dettrey: I know dear, and some of your other best friends are Methodist, but you never bother to say it.[/box]
If you like message movies, this is a good one.
Widower Philip Schuyler Green has moved to New York with his mother (Anne Revere) and young son on assignment for a magazine. The editor (Albert Dekker) wants him to do a series on anti-Semiticism. The idea actually originated with the editor’s niece Kathy (Dorothy McGuire), a divorcee and schoolteacher. Philip and Kathy rapidly fall in love.
Philip is stymied for a fresh new angle to tackle his topic. Then he gets an inspiration. He will pose as a Jew. This should be easy because he is new in town, right? The only people in on the secret are his mother, son, the editor and Kathy. He introduces himself at work as a Jew.
The reaction to Philip’s announcement is an eye-opener even to him. He encounters bigotry in the most unexpected places. His own secretary opens up that she, too, is Jewish and got her job by adopting a Gentile-sounding name. Yet she resists the idea of the magazines actively pursuing diversity for fear of bringing in the “wrong” people, i.e. unassimilated Jews. Many doors are covertly closed to him and he has to put up with a lot of comments from supposedly well-meaning people. His closest ally at work is fashion reporter Anne Dettrey (Celeste Holme), a true free spirit.
Philip’s Jewish childhood friend Dave Goldman (John Garfield) is recently discharged from the service and arrives in town to start a new job. He must find a place for his family to live though and he is having no luck. Kathy has a vacant house but it is in an area that is restricted against Jews by an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement”. Though she thinks of herself as unprejudiced, Kathy refuses to do anything that will rock the boat to fight against the status quo. When Philip’s son is attacked at school for being Jewish, her reaction is to comfort him by reminding him that he is not Jewish. This infuriates Philip and they have several arguments. Can their relationship survive? With Sam Jaffe as a stand-in for Albert Einstein.
I’m not big on “important” message movies and this is one. It is undeniable that this is one of the most effective of its genre, however. The director and screenplay make the characters and story so vivid that the film moves well beyond abstraction. The speechifying is there but is kept to a minimum. Worth seeing.
I had seen this before but I couldn’t help rooting for the Gregory Peck character to dump the resolutely conventional Kathy and wind up with the tough Anne, who actually shared his own world view. I just couldn’t buy Kathy’s last minute conversion. She had a character that just hated controversy in general and Philip lived for it. Could the Academy voters have rewarded Celeste Holm’s character at Oscar time?
Gentleman’s Agreement won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Holm) and Best Director. It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Supporting Actress (Revere); Best Writing, Screenplay; and Best Film Editing.
post-Oscar trailer
I completely agree with your conclusion. I like this movie pretty well, but it loses points because Philip absolutely ends with the wrong woman at the end. Anne is all that and a bag of chips.
I liked your review too. I was kind of dreading this and was surprised how much I liked it.
I liked this movie and I agree that it didn’t get too preachy.
I’ve seen other people also question his female choice, but we’re seeing it through modern eyes. Back when this film was made a career woman was equivalent to “wants to be a man” and “not wife material”. It’s the traditional woman who’s looking for a man to support her who is the socially acceptable mate. The exception to this is the woman who’s only in the workplace, most likely as a secretary, in order to find a husband. Holm’s character is a professional like the men, so that rules her out by the standards back then.
The TV show Agent Carter recently had fun with this. It’s set just after WWII. The main character is a single woman working in a field of all men. She needs a place to stay and a friend introduces her to the woman who runs a building for all women and where men are not allowed out of the lobby in order to maintain propriety. When the woman who owns the place is interviewing Carter she finds out the cover story that Carter works for “the phone company” and that’s why she needs a place to stay. When the woman asks, “and how long will you be working and staying here?” in a better-give-me-the-answer-I-want-to-hear voice, Carter replies, “Only until I’m married, of course” and the woman nods in pleasure at hearing the “right” answer. 🙂
I predict that Philip would come to regret marrying Kathy though. People might give in on certain points but they don’t change their personalities. On the other thing once things settled down, she might be just the mother for Tommy. Poor Anne …