Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) - film review

Shortly after moving to New York City with his ten-year-old son and mother, journalist Phil Green accepts a commission from magazine proprietor John Minify to write a series of articles on anti-Semitism in the United States.  The idea for this came from Minify’s neice, Kathy, a divorcee, to whom Phil, a widower, is instantly attracted.  Phil initially struggles to come up with an angle for his articles but then has a brainwave – he will pass himself off as a Jew for six months and see firsthand how Jewish people are treated.  He is appalled by what he discovers...

Viewed today, Gentleman’s Agreement has something of the overbearing and didactic tone of an over-earnest student pamphlet, but when it was released in 1947 it had a huge impact.  It brought the issue of anti-Semitism, previously a largely taboo subject, out into the open and helped to change public attitudes in America on the issue of discrimination against Jews.   The film was the pet project of Twentieth Century Fox boss Darryl F. Zanuck, one of the few Hollywood executives not to be Jewish.  He was driven to make the film after he had read Laura Z. Hobson’s groundbreaking novel Gentleman’s Agreement.  

Directed by one of Hollwood’s finest directors, Elia Kazan, and featuring a young Gregory Peck at his near-best, the film has much to commend it.  It was a great commercial and critical success, and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three – in the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm) categories.  The film was released in the same year as another notable (and far more interesting) film on anti-Semitism: Crossfire, directed by Edward Dmytryk.

Gentleman’s Agreement may lack subtlety and restraint but it still manages to get across its key messages very effectively.  There’s a nice irony in the fact that, in retaliating against anti-Semite attitudes, the central character - played with great conviction by Gregory Peck – ends up as a kind of monster himself, forcefully condemning anyone who does not share his noble feelings.  Today, the issue of anti-Semitism has virtually gone away in the West, but the film’s wider concerns – the insidious nature of intolerance and the necessity for individuals to strive to overcome their prejudices to make a better society – are still just as relevant, perhaps even more so, in a world that seems to be getting increasingly fragmented and hostile.

© James Travers 2008

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