Gregory PeckGentleman's Agreement

I love this movie with Gregory, Peck and Dorothy McGuire and John Garfield. Gentlemens Agreement. It demonstrates how one man took it upon himself to change his identity to show how he could turn things around by experiencing what some people don’t understand. It’s a masterpiece.

I really thought everything about this film was so meticulously done. The acting cast from top down was excellent. There were no weak links. Gregory Peck gave such an intelligent and emotionally charged performance without going too far. Dorothy McGuire was very good at expressing how this would have felt under those circumstances. I loved the actresses' portrayal of Phil Green's mother, played by Anne Revere. She was nuanced as the wise kind of mom who raises a journalist of Skylar Green's (Phil Green's professional name for print) caliber. She 100% trusts her sons choices and process without meddling! No wonder she is able to live under his roof and help raise Phil Green's 12 year old son. There is a healthy support and ease in how the 3 of them relate to one another and how they handle welcoming an addition to their nuclear family. The part that actor John Garfield plays as Green's best friend for most of their lives is also pitch perfect and a stand out in this fine film.

This is a great movie. Beyond the wonderful performances of Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, and June Havoc among others, this movie says something important. Dean Stockwell who many of us know in more recent years from both films and television got his start as a child actor and turns in a fine performance. The 20th Century Fox Blu Ray sports an exceptional transfer, crisp detail far beyond the Fox Studio Classics DVD. The commentary was ok, but Richard Schickel just does not seem to really appreciate the movie for what it is. For example, he does not understand how Dorothy McGuire's character could pour her hopes and dreams into a house that she doesn't want to live in alone. The remembraces of June Havoc and Celeste Holm are better and appreciated. As talky as this dialogue driven movie is, there is also great subtlety that you will pick up on with a few repeat viewings. Notice how none of the staff at the magazine lucheon sit near Mr. Weissman, except Celeste Holm's character. There are hints of peoples attitudes beyond the dialogue. This movie is important for the window on anti-semitism and prejudice in America and attitudes about people we don't even take the time to know and appreciate. My only quibble with the movie, it actually comes up several times, is when Schuyler Green, Gregory Peck's, son ask's at the breskfast table what anti-semitism is, and about religion. Peck explains that the people that go to St. Patrick's are Catholics, others are called Protestants and still others are called Jews. We are never told what Church they belong to. It comes up again when he tells Kathy he is "Jewish" for the story, and, still later, when Peck's son is asked if he is Jewish and he asks his father. It just begs the question, what are they? They would not have been portrayed as atheists, only the scientist is allowed this. Peck's background, education, Stanford, and crowd indicates they are WASP's with privledge. While it may have been a deliberate choice on the part of the filmaker, it comes across as kind of odd. Otherwise, the plot is clever and the story is excellent. We have come a long way since 1947, yet you could easily remake this movie today. All you would need to change is the topic of the series Gregory Peck's character is writing. Take your pick.

20th Century Fox Studios released on Blu-ray this multi-Academy Award winning 1947 Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan, and Best Supporting Actress for Celeste Holm in this drama examining prejudice against Jews as star Gregory Peck plays a Christian magazine journalist who pretends to be Jewish to find out about it personally. Looking just fine in HD, an upgrade over the Fox Studios 2002 DVD, porting over those extras, though nothing new was added, and the restoration comparison was left off presumably because it was now outmoded.

To those who claim that GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT exaggerates the degree of antisemitism in 1940's America, I would point out that the script is an indictment not so much of blatant antisemitism (there is little of that shown), but of decent people, common to every era, who are passive, who fail to work for a more just society; and that any ethnic group could stand in for the Jewish one depicted in the film. With those who complain that some of the acting is stilted or wooden I partly agree and would add that the style of acting prevalent in the 1940's cinema was rather at odds with the daring, realistic themes it was starting to explore (think also of 1949's gritty CALL NORTHSIDE 777). This aside, Gregory Peck's performance as Schuyler "Phil" Green, a writer who poses as a Jewish man in order to expose "everyday" antisemitism, is extraordinary. (This device, the personalizing of antisemitic experience for Green, itself prevents the film from becoming a mere tract.) From a somewhat apathetic bystander he changes into an individual of strong convictions. His speeches denouncing antisemitism or passivity are right-on, and he plays the kind of compassionate father any child would want. When he is all but forced to leave a "restricted" hotel in one of the film's climactic scenes, the viewer feels he is finally and truly in the very shoes of those who experience such treatment regularly. One who should be used to vulgar antisemitic remarks is Green's Jewish best friend, Dave Goldman. But in that role John Garfield conveys movingly the restrained yet profound sadness of a man for whom each new antisemitic incident is as painful as the first one was. Celeste Holm fully deserved the Oscar she won for her portrayal of Anne, Green's outspoken colleague. As a previous reviewer said, one almost wishes Green had married her in the end rather than the morally weaker Kathy. Yet Dorothy McGuire has her own kind of strength in this role; one believes Kathy will only become stronger in the future and thus a "fit wife" for Green. While some may dismiss GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT as flawed or dated, I find it powerful and relevant to any era.

Why did I buy this film? For several reasons. I love film. It is an industry that has been going for a long time. And we all talk abut our 'hundred favorite films'. Two of my one hundred favorite films have Gregory Peck in a leading role. They are A Big Country and To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck was an extremely competent actor and did his fair share of westerns but for me in these two films everything went right, the stories beautifully told and the characters Gregory Peck played had just that little bit extra and were also very nice people. So as he is a favorite much respected actor who had a very long career I thought I would see what else he had done. Looked up Amazon's listing and found Gentleman's Agreement which I did not know. Made in 1947 Gregory Peck was a very young actor the film was a good price so I thought I would have a look at it. This brings me to another reason why I bought this film. A film is an absolute timewarp. It reflects technical styles and tastes of its time also the furnishings, clothes and ideas that were of that time. So Gentleman' Agreement was a big budget movie the story was of affluent people the sets large and sumptuously furnished and decorated and the costumes - the tailored suits of the men beautifully made in the style of the day - the women's dresses and hats also - looking a little strange to us. But the story.....the story sits very strangely for me. It is about antisemitism - and I remember there was a witchhunt in America at that time. Jews for some reason became unacceptable in society which is strange as so many exceptionally talented Jewish people worked - and still do - in the film industry. The interesting twist to this film which lifts it out of the ordinary is that Gregory Peck plays a journalist who is commissioned to write a story on antisemitism and to find an unusual angle decides to put out that he is Jewish - and this creates some really lovely scenes. So I have discovered here how exceptionally talented this actor was at the very beginning of his career and an idea which is strange. I have always known Jewish people. There were little Jewish girls in school when I was very little and were just the same as everyone else. So I feel this film is excellent entertainment in its own right, has big personal significence and is yet another example of the superb talent of it exceptionally good looking star.

I read, from also pro reviewers, that this movie is not felt as it did back when it was released, as the problem of antisemitism is not as strong as it was before. Or maybe it isn't considered existing anymore. Hmmm, okay. Well, I must say, I really felt this movie very, very hard. Racial prejudice is still around, whether is against Jews or blacks or any other kind of people that are considered "different". So, whether I felt the pain of the Jews, or the pain of racial situation as a whole, I don't know. But it really hit me hard. I remember that I even started to cry so very hard after finishing the movie. Living in Italy, you can say that all the people are like Dorothy McGuire's character - and I didn't realize it until I saw this movie. It was a real eye opener. For me at least. It's a real masterpiece and I'd suggest it to anyone. The performances are all great, so maybe you'll understand the characters and the movie even just by the strong performances made by these great actors. Not just by the story and the theme itself.

Gentleman's AgreementBased on the novel of the same name by Laura Z Hobson (1900 -1986), and built on a similar plan to "To Kill a Mocking Bird" (also starring Peck in the title role), Gentleman's Agreement is not in the same class as the latter film in this reviewer's opinion.Both films take up the theme of prejudice and bigotry in human relationships, the latter between blacks and whites, the former between Jew and non-Jew. Quite apart from the obvious difference between the two types of behaviour, the subjects are themselves some distance apart. However, in both cases one has to be the "victim" to understand the ramifications. This is where Gentleman's Agreement falls short of a solution (not that there is a solution, human nature being what it is).Peck (a widower with a son of around nine years) is assigned by a well established publisher to write a substantial series of articles on anti-Semitism. Initially he finds the task irksome until he stumbles upon the idea of portraying himself as a Jew to all but a select few. This "false" persona was to last eight weeks, after which he would come "clean" as it were.Despite throwing up some interesting tensions at a personal level (his newly acquired lady friend and his child mostly) the plot is thwart with difficulties. This, on the face of it, is encouraging, but unfortunately one cannot avoid the sense that it is all too contrived to hold credibility. The ending might have been different too, for example if Peck were to have found out (from his widowed mother who features prominently throughout) that in fact he had a Jewish ancestry. Instead, he eventually falls into the safe arms of his temporarily estranged lassie and all ends happily after all.This reviewer has some experience of prejudice at this level going back as far as World War Two. Being of German descent on one side of the family, and with Jewish ancestry on the other, has meant that one falls outside both camps with plenty of room for misunderstanding all round! To Kill A Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary editionTo Kill A Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary edition

Critics have disparaged this screen portrayal of anti-Semitism in America (adapted from Laura Z. Hobson's novel) as "simplistic" and "now dated", but it had a tremendous impact in its time and some of its lessons remain valid today. For one thing, none of Hollywood's Jewish movie moguls wanted any part in such a film and the man who had the courage to produce it was Darryl F. Zanuck, a non-Jew. Times have changed, of course, and so have the movie makers. I thoroughly recommend Gentleman's Agreement to unprejudiced viewers of any and every religion.

This is the story of a Gentile who posed as a Jew in order to uncover the wide-spread anti-Semitism of the wealthy and comfortable in post-war America.Well worth watching.