Gentleman's Agreement

Philip Schuyler Green, a widowed journalist, is assigned a series on antisemitism in New York. Unable to find a way in, he makes a decision: for six weeks he will tell everyone he is Jewish. The results come fast. A hotel reservation is cancelled, neighbourhoods close, colleagues change their manner, and even the people closest to him wave it away by saying it has always been like this. Elia Kazan directed, from Laura Z. Hobson's 1947 novel. Gregory Peck plays Green, with Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield and Celeste Holm in the cast. The producer Darryl Zanuck drove the project; by his account being refused a country club membership over an assumption about his religion pushed him into it. Jewish studio executives urged that it not be made, fearing it would stir up trouble. The lead was offered to Cary Grant first and he declined. It won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Celeste Holm. It had eight nominations in all and took several Golden Globes. Its politics carried a price: Kazan, Garfield and Anne Revere became targets of the House Un-American Activities Committee and some of those involved were blacklisted. Who it is for: viewers who like the socially engaged Hollywood films of the forties, and Gregory Peck. Who it is not for: anyone who wants the subject spoken from inside. The film shows antisemitism through a journalist pretending to be Jewish rather than through a Jew, and that choice is argued over today.