Slightly Agreeable

I finally got around to watching all of Gentleman's Agreement. I've seen portions of it before, but never made it all the way through. The film won the Best Picture Oscar for 1947, and was a big hit, but is not highly regarded today. The plot has journalist Gregory Peck pretend he's a Jew for a piece he's writing on anti-Semitism.

Like so many message pictures, time has passed it by. Anti-Semitism in America is hardly at the level it was in 1947. But even back then plenty of people thought it was weak tea. The line at the time was the lesson of the film is you shouldn't be nasty to a Jew because he may turn out to be Gregory Peck. Director Elia Kazan, who won an Oscar for his (not particularly great) work, would later disavow the film as patronizing.

Still, if you judge it by the time it was made, it's pretty daring for a Hollywood film, taking a controversial problem head on. Darryl Zanuck, the only non-Jewish studio head, felt it was important to make this movie. Ironically, it was all the Jewish producers who said he shouldn't stir things up. (There's a scene in the film reflecting this, when Peck's publisher--played by Albert Dekker, looking a bit like Zanuck--is told to lay off.)

But even if the message were still as relevant, the film has other serious flaws. Moss Hart's script, which follows Laura Hobson's novel pretty closely, is talky, and the central romance between Peck and Dorothy McGuire is dreary.

The best stuff is in the supporting roles. John Garfield plays Peck's Jewish friend, and he does Intense a lot better than Peck. Then there's Celeste Holm, who won a Supporting Oscar. She brings life to the film (it helps that she has Hart's best lines) as the sharp-tongued fashion editor who loses Peck to McGuire. And maybe best of all is June Havoc as Peck's self-hating Jewish secretary.

Overall, though, a pretty mild experience. I can't imagine I'll ever sit through it again.