After a few weeks of the fantastical in various classic sci-fi movies (and a couple of horror films I tried to sell you were really science fiction), today Cinema Sunday turns to social relevance.
Today's Cinema Sunday post turns to the year 1947 and an Oscar winner for Best Picture about antisemitism: Gentleman's Agreement.
Gregory Peck is Philip Schuyler Green, a widowed magazine journalist who has just moved to New York City with his son Tommy and his mother. Phil's publisher asks him to write an article on antisemitism.
Phil is not exactly on board with this. I mean, he gets that antisemitism is bad with Jews unfairly targeted for humiliation and abuse, frequently restricted in their choice of jobs, schools, hospitals and more. Phil could write an article detailing these abuses but others have written similar articles and so what? Antisemitism is still a problem.
Then Phil hits upon his angle, his unique take on the problem. He will adopt the identity of a Jewish person and see what changes when he does.
Phil starts dating Kathy Lacey, the publisher's niece and the one who put forth the antisemitism story idea to her uncle. But despite her espoused liberal views, Kathy is put off somewhat by Phil's plan to be Jewish.
Becoming Jewish busts open the door on the cruel and insidious ways antisemitism presents itself to Phil.
- When his mother becomes ill with a heart condition, the doctor discourages him from consulting a specialist with an obviously Jewish name.
- After hearing Phil is Jewish, the doctor becomes uncomfortable and leaves.
- The janitor is shocked to see that a Jewish name is listed on the mail box and suggests the building's board may have a problem with that.
- Checking into a swanky hotel, the manager refuses to register Phil and tells him to go to a different hotel instead.
- When Phil and Kathy become engaged, a party to celebrate their engagement in Darien CT suddenly becomes less crowded when the word gets out that Phil is Jewish.
- Phil's son Tommy also becomes the target of bullies, beaten and called a "dirty Jew".
The latter incident puts a dent in Phil's relationship with Kathy who seeks to console Tommy about being called a "dirty Jew" but says it shouldn't hurt him because he's not Jewish instead of asserting the bullies' behavior is just plain wrong.
Meanwhile, Phil's childhood friend Dave Goldman moves to New York for a job and lives with the Greens while looking for a home for his family. Dave is just out of the Navy after serving his country so thank you for your service and what? You're Jewish? Sorry, a lot of landlords will not rent to a Jewish family.
Kathy owns a vacant cottage in Darien and Phil sees it as the obvious solution to Dave's problem. Kathy, however, is unwilling to offend her neighbors by renting it to a Jewish family. Phil breaks his engagement to her.
Kathy meets with Dave, sharing an anecdote about a party guest who told a bigoted joke and how sick it made her feel. But when Dave asks her what she did about it, she has no answer . Ashamed, Kathy realizes remaining silent condones the prejudice.
Phil publishes his article and it's a bombshell, exposing the ugliness of antisemitism in a detailed and personal account. Phil was just trying to lead the life he always led and when he changed one detail in his biography, that he was Jewish, leading that life became more difficult and hurtful.
Later, Dave tells Phil that he and his family will be moving into the cottage in Darien and Kathy will be moving in with her sister next door to make sure they are treated well.
The movie ends with Phil reconciling with Kathy.
OK, that last bit sucks. Over the course of the film, Phil develops a strong working relationship and friendship fashion with editor Anne Dettrey (Celeste Holm) who sparks with Phil way more than he ever did with Kathy. Phil and Kathy are so generic a white bread couple, I was genuinely surprised when they became engaged. I had no clue from their interactions their relationship had gone that far.
I guess independent career woman Anne who loves to drink and party like one of the boys was too much for the arbiters of 1940s decency to stand.
Anyway, Phil's relationships with women are a side issue. The real meat of this story is Phil's exposure of the ugliness of antisemitism and how it's rot seeps into what we otherwise call "polite society". Even those who see antisemitism as wrong are prepared to stay silent, to look the other way, a "gentleman's agreement" to not acknowledge it's ugly existence. As long as it's not my problem, right?
What Phil does is make it his problem and the results are disturbing, exposing hidden prejudices in a cruel and personal way.
The movie seems to me to struggle to get started. Phil's assignment to write about antisemitism seems dry. He might as well have been told to write about international trade agreements or the city tax code. It's only when Phil has the epiphany to put himself in harm's way to investigate this subject of prejudice against Jews does this story come alive.
The role of Phillip Green was first offered to Cary Grant, but he turned it down. Gregory Peck decided to accept the role, although his agent advised him to refuse, believing Peck would be endangering his career. Peck would revisit the role of the social crusader seeking justice against the headwinds of prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird.
John Garfield who is Jewish agreed to take the supporting role of David Goldman just to be a part of this movie.
I wish I could say that the message of Gentleman's Agreement solved the problem of antisemitism forever but we can sadly see 75 years later that hatred and distrust of Jews persists. But the movie did go a long way to expose that polite society cannot and should not silently tolerate just profound abuse, that the gentleman's agreement to just look the other way should not be sustained. The movie replaced with silence of complicity with a conversation.
Next week, the poor treatment of mental health patients is exposed when Cinema Sunday descends into The Snake Pit.
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