Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writer:

Moss Hart (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

February 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.

Plot Keywords:

Jewish | Racism | Anti Semitism | Magazine | Jew

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Philip Schuyler Green
Dorothy McGuire	...	Kathy Lacy
John Garfield	...	Dave Goldman
Celeste Holm	...	Anne Dettrey
Anne Revere	...	Mrs. Green
June Havoc	...	Elaine Wales
Albert Dekker	...	John Minify
Jane Wyatt	...	Jane
Dean Stockwell	...	Tommy Green
Nicholas Joy	...	Dr. Craigie
Sam Jaffe	...	Professor Fred Lieberman
Harold Vermilyea	...	Lou Jordan
Ransom M. Sherman	...	Bill Payson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Monya Andre	...	(uncredited)
Louise Buckley	...	Mother (uncredited)
Patricia Cameron	...	(uncredited)
Jack Conrad	...	Bellboy (uncredited)
Curt Conway	...	Bert McAnny (uncredited)
Olive Deering	...	First Woman (uncredited)
Irene Dehn	...	(uncredited)
Jane Earle	...	Child (uncredited)
Morgan Farley	...	Resort Clerk (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Grace Field	...	Old Lady (uncredited)
Helen Gerald	...	Page Girl (uncredited)
Fred Godoy	...	(uncredited)
Wilton Graff	...	Maitre d' (uncredited)
Jane Green	...	Second Woman (uncredited)
Virginia Gregg	...	Third Woman (uncredited)
Tom Handley	...	(uncredited)
Joe Haworth	...	Bellboy (uncredited)
Hallene Hill	...	Old Lady (uncredited)
Edna Holland	...	(uncredited)
Art Howard	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Bert Howard	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Mauritz Hugo	...	Guest at Anne's Party (uncredited)
Boyd Irwin	...	(uncredited)
Robert Karnes	...	First Ex-GI in Restaurant (uncredited)
Leo Kaye	...	Porter (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Nightclub Table Extra (uncredited)
Victor Kilian	...	Olsen (uncredited)
Mike Lally	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Raymond Largay	...	(uncredited)
George Leigh	...	(uncredited)
Lewis Leverett	...	Father (uncredited)
Arthur Little Jr.	...	(uncredited)
Kathleen Lockhart	...	Mrs. Jessie Minify (uncredited)
Louise Lorimer	...	Miss Miller (uncredited)
Lee MacGregor	...	Bellboy (uncredited)
Adrienne Marden	...	(uncredited)
Marion Marshall	...	Guest (uncredited)
Noel Mills	...	Mother (uncredited)
Marlyn Monk	...	Receptionist (uncredited)
Henry Mowbray	...	(uncredited)
Howard Negley	...	Joe Tingler (uncredited)
Gene Nelson	...	Second Ex-GI in Restaurant (uncredited)
John Newland	...	Bill (uncredited)
Stella Rae	...	Old Lady (uncredited)
Herbert Ratner	...	Father (uncredited)
Pattie Robbins	...	Receptionist (uncredited)
Roy Roberts	...	Mr. Calkins (uncredited)
Wallace Scott	...	Bellboy (uncredited)
Larry Steers	...	Hotel Lobby Extra (uncredited)
Laura Treadwell	...	(uncredited)
Robert Warwick	...	Irving Weisman (uncredited)
Jesse White	...	Elevator Starter (uncredited)
Frank Wilcox	...	Harry (uncredited)
Barbara Woodell	...	(uncredited)
Mary Worth	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Elia Kazan

Writing credits
Laura Z. Hobson		(novel) uncredited
Moss Hart		(screenplay)
Elia Kazan		(screenplay revision) uncredited

Produced by
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	producer

Original Music by
Alfred Newman

Cinematography by
Arthur C. Miller		(as Arthur Miller)

Art Direction by
Mark-Lee Kirk
Lyle R. Wheeler		(as Lyle Wheeler)

Set Decoration by
Paul S. Fox
Thomas Little

Costume Design by
Kay Nelson

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Raymond A. Klune	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Saul Wurtzel	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Don B. Greenwood	....	property master (uncredited)

Sound Department
David Bell	....	sound editor (2009 restoration)
Alfred Bruzlin	....	sound
Roger Heman Sr.	....	sound (as Roger Heman)
Matt Hovland	....	foley mixer (2009 Restoration)
Tony Margulies	....	foley artist (restoration)

Special Effects by
Fred Sersen	....	special photographic effects

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Charles Le Maire	....	wardrobe director
Sam Benson	....	wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Harmon Jones	....	editorial supervisor

Music Department
Edward B. Powell	....	orchestral arrangements (as Edward Powell)

Other crew
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	presenter
Michael Audley	....	dialogue director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1947) (USA) (theatrical)
• Oy Fox Films (1948) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1953) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Centfox (1963) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1964) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1964) (Finland) (TV) (TV1)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1979) (Finland) (TV) (MTV1)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• FS Film Oy (2005) (Finland) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (Brazil) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Laura Z. Hobson's Gentleman's Agreement (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating) | Brazil:Livre | West Germany:12 (f) (w) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (tv rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1990) | Argentina:13 | Finland:S | Spain:13 | USA:Approved (PCA #12488) | Sweden:Btl | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Darien, Connecticut, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Laura Z. Hobson wrote her novel after Senator John Rankin's anti-Semitic comments were applauded in Congress. It was then serialized in Cosmopolitan from November 1946 to February 1947, immediately causing quite a stir. This prompted Darryl F. Zanuck (who was one of the few studio heads who was not Jewish) to snap up the novel's rights.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Phil is taking Tommy to meet his (Phil's) mother at Saks Fifth Avenue, they stop in front of the statue of Atlas outside Rockefeller Center. In the shot of the two of them talking, with Fifth Avenue in the background, Saks is directly behind them, diagonally across the street on the right, with St. Patrick's Cathedral on the left. But when Phil looks at his watch and tells Tommy they'd better leave to meet grandma, the two hurry off back north along Fifth Avenue - in the completely opposite direction of the plainly visible Saks.

Quotes:

Mrs. Green: You know something, Phil? I suddenly want to live to be very old. Very. I want to be around to see what happens. The world is stirring in very strange ways. Maybe this is the century for it. Maybe that's why it's so troubled. Other centuries had their driving forces. What will ours have been when men look back? Maybe it won't be the American century after all...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in First Daughter (2004)

Important message, poor execution

Although one certainly cannot say Gentleman's Agreement is not passionate in its aim to uncover the invisible cloak of anti-Semitism in post-war America, the execution of that objective could have used slightly more dramatic tension and immediacy.

Released the same year and touching on the same subject was Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire, which dealt with anti-Semitism at its extremes: murder with anti-Semitism as the motive. Gentleman's Agreement takes a more humanistic and subtle approach--one that is too subtle at times. Where Crossfire dropped the bomb of anti-Semitism into the laps of the audience, Gentleman's Agreement gives it to you in periodic shots in the arm in the form of a sermon, and each one says the exact same thing: anti-Semitism is bad. (But we knew that.) Yes, the message is an important one, but feeding it to the audience in a manner that is literally shoving it down our throats every few minutes doesn't help the digestion any.

Also lacking in Gentleman's Agreement is a three-dimensional protagonist. Peck's crusading writer who masquerades as a Jew is simply too zealous and unswerving for his own good. He has no faults, no inner conflicts and no doubts about himself. Whether he's being shunned by bigots or Dorothy McGuire, he's such a straight-shooter you know what he's going to do before he does: the right thing right away.

There's no real dramatic arc in the story, with the entire weight of the movie resting on the torrid on-again-off-again love affair between Peck and McGuire. She symbolizes the hypocrisy and passiveness of the everyday American on anti-Semitism, and he points it out to her every chance he gets-and that's all. It pretty much rambles on the same dramatic level all throughout the picture, dividing its time between love scenes and sermons, most of which are indistinguishable from one another.

In the end, the important message and the overall entertainment value of the picture suffers from this redundancy.