NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for
Gentleman's Agreement (11-Nov-1947)

Director: Elia Kazan

Writer: Moss Hart

From novel: Gentlemen's Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson

Keywords: Drama, Jewish

A publisher hires journalist Philip Green to masquerade as an affluent Jew, and report on the discrimination he receives. In postwar America, "gentleman's agreements" restricted Jewish access to clubs, education, and employment either outright or by use of a quota system. Surprising success at the box office, and influential in the removal of these historic discriminations. Won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress; received nominations for Best Actor and Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

[watch trailer]

NameOccupationBirthDeathKnown for
Albert Dekker
Actor
20-Dec-1905 5-May-1968 The Wild Bunch
John Garfield
Actor
4-Mar-1913 21-May-1952 Gentleman's Agreement
June Havoc
Actor
8-Nov-1912 28-Mar-2010 Gentleman's Agreement
Celeste Holm
Actor
29-Apr-1917 15-Jul-2012 Gentleman's Agreement
Sam Jaffe
Actor
10-Mar-1891 24-Mar-1984 Gunga Din
Dorothy McGuire
Actor
14-Jun-1916 13-Sep-2001 A Summer Place
Gregory Peck
Actor
5-Apr-1916 12-Jun-2003 To Kill A Mockingbird
Anne Revere
Actor
25-Jun-1903 18-Dec-1990 National Velvet
Dean Stockwell
Actor
5-Mar-1936   Blue Velvet
Harold Vermilyea
Actor
10-Oct-1889 8-Jan-1958 Sorry, Wrong Number
Jane Wyatt
Actor
12-Aug-1910 20-Oct-2006 Father Knows Best

CAST

Gregory Peck   ...   Philip Schuyler Green
Dorothy McGuire   ...   Kathy Lacey
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   ...   Prof. Fred Lieberman
Harold Vermilyea   ...   Lou Jordan
Ransom M. Sherman   ...   Bill Payson

REVIEWS

Review by John Levin (posted on 24-Sep-2007)

It took Daryll Zanuck, a man who was not jewish, to get this sensitive but hard-hitting film produced in Hollywood. We can only be glad that he did. There are so many exceptional segments: Gregory Peck pretending to be jewish, attempts to register at a "restricted" hotel. The manager, played by Roy Roberts, is letter-perfect as the somewhat polite manager who eventually loses all patience with the persistent Peck. The exceptionally talented child actor Dean Stockwell renders all the pain a boy would feel from the pressure of anti-semitism. Nobody in the cast is let off the hook. Bigotry is depicted in the most innocuous attitudes. Finally, there is John Garfield, a jewish actor, to calmly show how one gets thru the day in a Christian world. An exceptional effort in a brief progressive period before the iron curtain of HUAC rang down on all of it.


Have you seen this film? We would love to see your review.
Submit your review for this film


Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications