Gentleman's Agreement

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

It would be easy to dismiss this winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1947 as being dated and preachy. Even its director, Elia Kazan, who won the Best Director Oscar for his work, said that it lacked passion, according to IMDb, probably because there are several times that the characters seem to be delivering morality speeches. But, because at the time of its making anti-Semitism was openly widespread, this film is courageous in taking on the subject of discrimination against Jewish people.

Phil Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck) is a journalist and a widower. He has gone by his middle name, which sounds like “Skyler.” The name sounds as if his head is in the clouds, not wanting to be grounded by earthly pragmatism. His last name allows for the possibility that it was changed by shortening it to avoid being labeled a Jew. But, it can also imply that he lacks knowledge about the extent of anti-Semitism at the beginning of his investigation. At the beginning of the story he is walking with his young son, Tommy, (a pre-teen Dean Stockwell) in New York City. They had moved with his mother from California. In a way Phil is on a journey, forced out of his West Coast comfort zone due to the death of his wife, and is in a mental zone where he is open to new discoveries. Tommy sees a statue of Atlas, and after Phil tells him about the myth, the boy says that is what his dad is doing, according to his grandmother, trying to shoulder the world’s problems. So, we immediately learn that Phil looks beyond the problems of his immediate life, and is concerned about the conditions of others.

Mrs. Green (Anne Revere) wishes Phil luck since he is applying for a writing job at a publication entitled Smith’s Weekly. He meets its publisher, John Minify (Albert Dekker), who says he is going to talk a while about an idea he has, which turns out to be a piece about anti-Semitism. Phil goes to a dinner party at Minify’s house. Phil meets a woman named Kathy Lacy (Dorothy McGuire), who is Minify’s divorced niece, and who suggested the article on anti-Semitism. Phil is surprised she was interested in such a controversial topic. She calls him on making his mind up too quickly about people, generalizing about who she is, “too well-bred, self-confident, artificial.” So, what she is accusing him of in a gentle way is being prejudicial himself by stereotyping the kind of woman she is.  However, he admits to his prejudice, which shows he is open to criticism and the views of others, and that objectivity can lead to change.

Phil admits at breakfast with his family that he isn’t thrilled about his assignment at first because he isn’t sure how he can add to what has already been written about the topic. Tommy asks about anti-Semitism. Phil describes the basics, but, finds it difficult to explain why there is discrimination, and he feels uncomfortable describing such ugliness in the world to an innocent child. By focusing on Tommy here and elsewhere, the film shows how absurd bigotry is from the perspective of someone who hasn’t been corrupted by it. Phil says that religious beliefs transcend national boundaries. Unfortunately, that fact trumps nationality when it comes to hate. So, if one is an American Jew, what bigoted people see is not a countryman, but that aspect of the person they have been told to despise. What the individual is in all his or her complexity is ignored.

After Tommy goes to school, Mrs. Green says it was difficult to explain these issues to Phil when he was young, which points to how bigotry has persisted for so long even in America. She says that it would be beneficial if the problems with prejudice against Jews could be explained “well enough” so future generations wouldn’t have to continue to have this kind of “talk.” Phil appears to want to contemplate what she has said and takes a walk during his lunch break to consider his assignment.

Phil goes to Minify and says he decided to do the story because of how difficult it was to explain anti-Semitism to his son. He wants research, “facts and figures,” but Minify wants a personal angle on the story that will draw people in instead of cold statistics. Here is the important thrust of the movie. Minify doesn’t want to focus on the extremists, which are not a large section of the country, and can be dismissed. He wants to show how the problem of anti-Semitism has a “wider spread.” He wants to reach many people to show they can’t dismiss bigotry as an isolated problem.

Phil’s dinner with Kathy shows his own prejudice again about women. He seems pleased when she says she wanted to have “a nice home” with children, but when she talked about her uncle and his wanting to send her to Vassar, he “looked bleak.” She tells him that his “face takes sides, as if you were voting for and against.” So, the thrust here is that all of us discriminate unfairly, and we have to be called on it.

Phil has been working for a week to get a slant on how he wants to approach his story. He has a Jewish friend, Dave Goldman (John Garfield), who he feels would be a good person to talk the story over with. But he is in the military and deployed overseas. Phil gets the idea of writing the story about feelings, instead of statistics. Phil says he and Dave grew up together and had similar backgrounds, the only difference is that Dave is Jewish. Phil feels that Dave’s response about bigotry toward himself as an American citizen would be valuable. Phil starts to write a letter to his friend, but is not comfortable including the slurs and slights, and also he says it’s difficult getting second-hand feelings from another person. A symbolic image is inserted as the scene ends with Phil breaking some walnuts, showing how his situation is like a hard nut to crack.

Mrs. Green wakes up with chest pain. The doctor says that she can, even with a heart condition, live long if she maintains a healthy life. (It is funny to see the doctor prescribing lifestyle advice while smoking a cigarette). Phil says he feels defeated about the story and will tell his boss that he is quitting the assignment. He tells his mom that when he wanted to write about people from Oklahoma, he became one of them, or when he wrote about coal miners, he went into the mines as a worker, and didn’t just interview coal miners. While talking, he realizes he has to use the same strategy, that is, become Jewish for a period. His name, Phil Green, doesn’t designate him as coming from any particular origin. His appearance is average like his pal Dave, so he won’t be signaled out by bigots as belonging to a specific racial type. He sees Kathy and they start to kiss. He starts talking about marriage, but she hesitates because she was divorced and is not sure about another commitment. But she has fallen in love with him. And she accepts Tommy. He doesn’t tell Kathy yet about his plan.

When he tells Minify, they decide that they will be the only two, outside of his family, who should know Phil’s plan. They even decide to make it seem that he is Jewish in dealing with Phil’s secretary and others at the publication so that there will be no leaks undermining the investigative reporting. Here is where it can get complicated, because he will be subjecting himself to anti-Semitism without the safety net of saying it was a cover. They go before the editorial staff of the periodical. One man says Phil’s story will only stir things up, making the discriminatory situation worse. Minify says that if they don’t do the story it would be like adding “to the conspiracy of silence,” pretending anti-Semitism doesn’t exist. Phil, already establishing his cover, says to the staff that it’s a good idea, and has nothing to do with Phil being Jewish.

Phil tells his secretary to write letters of application to clubs, resorts, employers, apartment houses, and medical schools. He says to make duplicates, half with Schuyler Green on them, and the others from Phil Greenberg. But his secretary (June Havoc) is Jewish and says the Greenbergs will be rejected and the Greens accepted. She says if his first name was really Saul, he would already have experienced rejection, and wouldn’t have to go through this process. She changed her name from Estelle Walovsky. She applied for a job as Elaine Wales after she was rejected employment under her real name. Under the changed name she was hired. And this happened at Smith’s Weekly (a very non-diverse name), where they both work. So, Phil doesn’t have to go far to see where anti-Semitism is practiced. This scene shows how anti-Semitism exists even at a place that aims to expose it. She asks if he had changed his name like her, because she already heard that he was Jewish after the meeting with the editorial staff. Bigotry spreads its venom quickly, even at a so-called liberal establishment.

Phil talks to the physician who is treating his mother. Phil was given the name of a Dr. Abrahams at Mt. Sinai Hospital, but the doctor wants to refer him to other specialists. He says that Abrahams is a good man, not prone to charging too much or setting up too many office visits, “the way some of them do.” Phil asks by “them” does he mean doctors in general, or because Abrahams is Jewish. The doctor says he guesses that some non-Jewish doctors also charge too much, but he made it sound like it was a pervasive trait among Jewish doctors. When Phil says that he is Jewish, the doctor seems taken aback, caught in his narrow-minded assumption that because Phil isn’t Jewish because he doesn’t “look” like a Jew, that Phil will share in the physician’s prejudicial views. So, the doctor feels safe in exposing his own bigotry. He then covers up and says that he doesn’t believe in prejudice, even after exhibiting it.

Phil writes “Greenberg” under “Green” on his apartment mailbox. The superintendent sees him do it, says he has to change the name at the post office, and starts to scratch out “Greenberg.” He probably doesn’t want it known that a Jewish person lives in his building. Phil basically says that he was accepted as a resident there already, but because of a name change that may indicate he is Jewish, he is now viewed differently. He tells the man to leave the name alone.

He meets Kathy and tells him the angle of how he will write his story, but at first says that he will let it be known that he is Jewish. Because he doesn’t use the word “pretend,” she reacts by being surprised that he is Jewish, He reveals that he will be maintaining a cover story, but he is now sensitive to the problem and suspects prejudice on her part. She reassures him of her feelings against anti-Semitism, but points out the practical problem that even if he comes out after the article saying he is not really Jewish, people will doubt it. She does seem upset that even the employees at the magazine will think he is Jewish. She appears concerned about the fallout of the deception. The movie argues that it seems okay to protest injustice as long as one is insulated from being attacked personally. Their dinner together is quiet. He says that he has to go, and she responds in short sentences. He leaves without a goodnight kiss. He then reconsiders and goes back, and they kiss. She apologizes for being skittish, and he for being oversensitive, which can happen to someone who experiences being a target of bias.

Phil tells Minify about his secretary and the publisher voices his anger at the personnel department head, Lou Jordan (Harold Vermilyea), about the fact that his place of business has no Jews employed. Miss Wales finds out that there will be an ad in the newspaper for hiring people without discrimination as to religious background. She says if one “bad’ Jew gets in then it spoils it for all the “good” Jews. She uses the slur “kikey,” when referring to what she considers to be undesirable Jews. She says suppose the new worker is a woman who uses too much rouge or is loud and happens to be Jewish. Then, she feels, it will spoil it for what she considers to be upstanding Jews. Phil makes it clear that he won’t tolerate anti-Semitism from anyone, even if it comes from somebody who is Jewish. The scene illustrates how some people of a victimized group, who have been able to dodge personal bias, become paranoid and discriminate against members of their own ethnic background to protect themselves instead of fighting against bigotry in general.

Anne Dettrey (Celeste Holm, winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this role) is the fashion editor at the publication. She goes out for a drink with Phil and they meet a fellow worker, Bert McAnny (Curt Conway). He asks if Phil was in public relations in the military because he’s clever. The implication is that by being a smart Jew he evaded combat. Phil picks up on the hint and asks why wouldn’t he be a just another G. I. Bert uses the usual fake liberal response by starting to say that some of his best friends are Jewish. Anne cuts him off and has Phil ask for the check to get rid of Bert. After he leaves she points out his phony liberalism.

Anne invites Phil to a dinner party and she seems disappointed when he asks if he can bring his girlfriend. When Phil picks up Kathy to go to Anne’s place, Kathy says her family wants to meet him. But she wants to be able to tell her sister and mother that he is pretending to be Jewish. Since his mother knows about his going under cover, Kathy makes the argument that it’s all in the family, stating that her sister and mother will be part of the family soon when they get married. He hesitates, worrying about the secret getting out, but seems to agree. The bigger red flag here is why does Kathy seem to be in a rush to tell her family? Is she upset about anyone thinking she is dating a Jew?

At Anne’s party they meet a renowned scientist, Professor Lieberman (Sam Jaffe). He makes the argument that he is not religious and so are many people who still say they are Jewish. He goes on to say that there are no generalized attributes that make someone Jewish. Yet, people will call themselves Jewish out of pride because “the world still makes it an advantage not to be one.” White Presbyterians don’t have to publicize their designation because they are not persecuted.

Back at Kathy’s place, Phil, after thinking about it, tells Kathy not to tell her sister about his pretending to be Jewish. But Kathy already has, and now her sister’s husband knows, too. Kathy wants Phil not to pretend to be Jewish at a party in Connecticut with the “suburban” types who would make it a messy situation for her sister. Her attitude reeks of phony liberalism, which promotes fighting bigotry, but only at a distance. She says that if he really was Jewish she would be able to “manage,” and he sarcastically says, “Thanks.” They fight and he leaves.

Phil gets a call from his friend Dave who is back in the states. He was offered a job and hopes to move his family to New York. Dave sees that Phil is upset, and he tells him about the fight with Kathy. Phil tells him about pretending to be Jewish for the story. Dave calls him a crazy fool. He says that Phil hasn’t been insulated from prejudicial treatment, so Phil has been feeling the sting acutely. Phil wants to know if in time one gets indifferent to the bigotry. Dave says no, but Phil is going out of his way to confront it, “telescopes” the problem, and gets the onslaught of prejudice all at once. That is why, Dave says, Phil is feeling it in a concentrated way.

At a restaurant, Phil and Dave, who is still in uniform, meet up with Anne. A drunk says he doesn’t like officers and when he finds out that Dave’s last name is Goldman, the man says he especially doesn’t like an officer if he’s a “yid.” Dave pushes the guy, and is ready to hit him, but holds off as an employee gets the man out of there. Dave still gets angry at being victimized, but he also has learned restraint, knowing how to pick his battles. Phil gets a phone call from Kathy. She says that she had it out with her sister and brother-in-law and feels good about telling them not to reveal Phil’s pretending to be Jewish. Throughout the film, Kathy seems to be waging an internal war about how she feels and how she should act.

At the party thrown by Kathy’s sister, Jane (Jane Wyatt), Kathy notes that several couples failed to show. Kathy tells her sister that they stayed away because they were avoiding being with someone who is Jewish. But, as Phil points out to Kathy as they take a walk alone, many people at the gathering were very pleasant to him and asked about the article he was writing. So, not everyone is anti-Semitic, even in an upscale Connecticut suburb. They go to the house Kathy had built where she hoped her husband and children would live. She never moved in there with her ex-spouse because by the time the cottage was finished, the marriage was done. She says she knew it while it was being built, but used the project to evade her marital problems. She says that she couldn’t live there with someone she didn’t love, and can’t live there alone. She says she was waiting for Phil, but would she be able to be there with him if he was really Jewish?

Kathy, Phil, and Dave, are with Anne who tells the engaged couple that they should know that having their honeymoon at Flume Inn will be troublesome because it is “restricted.” Dave says it’s difficult to pin down the people that are restricting access based on ethnicity because they know how to stealthily evade the accusations. Dave says he’s going home to where his family lives because nobody will offer him a decent place to live in New York. Phil says he’s going to confront the management of Flume Inn not only because of the anti-Semitism, but because prejudice in general goes against what the country “stands for,” the desire for equality and democracy. Phil is able to see the big picture, that if one doesn’t stand up against racism in one instance, it allows the problem to exist on a larger scale.

At the Flume Inn hotel registration desk, Phil says he has a reservation and asks if the hotel is restricted. The clerk calls the manager and he asks if Phil wants to make sure that there are no Jews staying there, or does Phil follow “the Hebrew religion.” The manager then looking for a way out of the situation says there are no vacancies, trying to evade the accusation that the resort is restricted. Then Phil states that he is Jewish and that the hotel doesn’t let Jews stay there. The manager just walks away, avoiding any more interaction, not providing any more evidence of the accusation, just as Dave said.

Back at his place, Kathy tells Phil that letting Dave stay at the cottage in Connecticut would only make him feel uncomfortable being around all the anti-Semites. She says there is another suburb that doesn’t sell or rent places to Jews. She says there seems to be a “gentleman’s agreement” to restrict access to Jewish people. Phil is outraged at the term “gentleman,” which is supposed to be a positive term, coupled with the “agreement” part which allows people to lead lives of covert prejudice. Kathy wants Phil to see that she is being practical, about how badly Dave will be treated in a restricted area, but Phil says he couldn’t live in the cottage now with Kathy knowing that bigotry exists in the area. They are interrupted by Tommy who is in tears because other children called him a “dirty Jew and a stinking kike.” Kathy tries to reassure the boy by saying that he isn’t Jewish and it’s just a “horrible mistake,” which sends the wrong message by making it sound better not to be included with the Jewish race. Phil immediately shuts Kathy up and consoles Tommy.

Afterward Phil is angry with Kathy because she tried to console Tommy by saying it was better to be a white Christian. What he sees now is that the so-called decent people act like anti-Semitism is just reserved for the lunatic fringe, “far away in some dark place with low-class morons.” But by avoiding to fight against prejudice, the “nice” people help bigotry to continue, “and wonder why it grows.” She says she is angry that she is forced to take sides on the problem and implicitly blames the Jews for making people have to force a confrontation. She is tired of feeling judged, and admits that she is glad that she is not Jewish, just like people would rather be healthy than sick, young instead of old, pretty instead of ugly. But her argument is flawed, since it is wrong to discriminate against any group of people by marginalizing their lives based on who they are. She says she hates Phil for taking away the hope of their future happiness. But what is a person if not his or her principles?

Phil tells Dave what happened to his son. Dave says it hurts the most when kids are targeted. His own children couldn't go to a restricted camp. A pal of his in the Army was hit by enemy fire and the last words he heard contained a racial slur.

Phil goes to the office and gives Miss Wales the first installments of the article. Since it’s entitled “I was a Jew for eight weeks,” she now knows that he is a “Christian,” (which sounds rather limiting as to the choice of religions one has in America) and is surprised. He says that he is the same person as before, only the labels have changed. Yet, she can’t understand why someone would give up the advantages of a Christian lifestyle. He tells her that she, although being Jewish, is acting like an anti-Semite by going along with the system that perceives Christians as being superior to Jews.

Phil sees Minify. He tells the publisher he is leaving and going back to California, since he feels there’s no need to stay if he’s not going to be with Kathy. Anne, just now finding out that Phil wasn’t Jewish, says that the piece is “dynamite,” and if everyone had to endure the prejudice he did, then it would end the discrimination overnight. She guessed that he broke up with Kathy since she wasn’t there when Anne and Dave came over to Phil’s place. She asks Phil over for dinner. Even though Phil doesn’t want to talk about Kathy, Anne persists, saying she can’t tolerate hypocrites, and puts Kathy in that category. Anne says that Kathy would rather not have Dave take the job than have him causing a fuss living in her old neighborhood. She says, “She’s afraid. The Kathys everywhere are afraid of getting the gate from their little groups of nice people.” They don’t fight, just do a little “griping,” while letting others do the tough work to end discrimination. She insists it has to be done with action. She says that she would want to bring up a child with someone who shared her own basic beliefs, and that if two people are made for each other, time will reveal their connection. This last part comes true here, although not as Anne had hoped. He asks if she is proposing, and she says maybe she is.

Kathy asks Dave to meet her at a restaurant. She asks Dave if he thinks she is an anti-Semite. He says no, and she informs him that it was her idea that she passed onto her uncle to have Phil write a story about anti-Semitism. She called Dave after she heard a man tell a racist joke about Jews. She says she felt ill afterwards and wanted to yell that what he said goes against what she and her friends stand for. But he gets her to confess that she didn’t do anything about her outrage. He says fighting prejudice is a different kind of war, but one derives satisfaction in fighting back against the enemy. Dave says that Phil understands that now. Dave asks if one lets bigoted remarks pass, when does one take a stand? Dave says that the guy telling the joke is out in the open, easy to bring down, but those that let the racist joke go are the hidden enemy. Kathy finally realizes that she became mad at Phil when she should have been angry at the bigots. Dave says a husband wants his wife, beyond being a mother and romantic companion, to be a “sidekick” who will “go through the rough spots” with him. (This of course accepts the sexist premise that a man should lead the way, but that is another battle).

Back at his place, Phil finds his mother reading his article. He says that “time is getting short. Not enough people, and the time’s running out.” The film is saying that there must always be vigilance against hatred based on prejudice. Otherwise, we surrender our freedoms and beliefs to those who seek an upper hand by exploiting fear and placing blame on those who represent social diversity. Mrs. Green gives the film’s optimistic message when she says she would like to live to be very old so that maybe she’ll see a day when everyone will live peacefully together. Dave comes in and says that he’ll be taking that job because Kathy is letting him live in the cottage, and she promised to fight back at anyone who gives him trouble. The film concludes on a hopeful note as Phil goes to Kathy’s place, and they embrace and kiss, at least providing a happy romantic ending. Although anti-Semitism isn’t practiced as openly now as when the movie was made, it still exists, like a beast always looking to be fed by unscrupulous people.

The next film is In a Lonely Place.