Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Gentleman's Agreement, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture of 1947, is a pretty bold attack on anti-Semitism. I think it's still a powerful movie even if some of the situations that it depicts have changed since the 1940s. What stands out most for me is just how relevant the arguments are that it makes against the silent forms of discrimination, the ways that people feel even if they do not publicly express those feelings. I just wish there were a better movie to deliver that message.

Gregory Peck plays a reporter who goes undercover as a Jew to find out how prevalent anti-Semitism is. Peck's Phil Green has moved to New York City to work at a top magazine and has to find a new "angle" on the subject he is given by his new boss. He simultaneously falls in love with his boss's niece, played by Dorothy McGuire, who soon becomes the brunt of many of his complaints about the ways that Jews are treated in America. McGuire's Kathy Lacy is one of those people who doesn't want to do or say anything that will upset the ways that others live their lives. For example, she wants to tell her sister and brother-in-law that Phil is undercover so that they can select which people not to invite to a party being hosted on his behalf. Kathy doesn't want to make waves, but Phil does. It's the central conflict of their relationship.

If the movie gets anything "wrong," it's perhaps the attention that the romance gets. Instead of going deeper into the kinds of discrimination that Phil encounters, the film instead allows Green and Kathy to talk about the future of their relationship too often. I'd rather have seen more scenes between Phil and his Army buddy, Dave Goldman, played by John Garfield. Dave could have given Phil more of a chance to see what day-to-day life is like for Jewish men. That Dave keeps having difficulties finding a home--no doubt because of anti-Semitism--is only casually integrated into the plot. That should have been a key part of Phil's investigation for his story.

However, what the movie does well is show that even among a specific group of people, there can be feelings of resentment. For example, Phil's new secretary, Elaine Wales (played by June Havoc), is Jewish herself but has chosen to "pass" so as to avoid mistreatment in the workplace. She too has to be chastised by Peck's character about her internalized dislike of her own people. It's pretty powerful stuff, to be sure but it's also a bit condescending to have the gentile tell the Jew how life should really be. As noble as the film tries to be, I just can't quite overcome a feeling of disappointment at times that it could have been stronger or better. I realize that this is delicate material; it was in 1947, and it still would be today. Yet in choosing to focus on the relationship between Phil and Kathy and by putting the arguments against anti-Semitism almost exclusively in the hands (and mouth, I suppose) of one man who spends just a few weeks living as a Jew, Gentleman's Agreement waters down its message just a bit too much to make it one of the best films of the decade.