Gentleman`s Agreement Cast
The bestseller Gentleman`s Agreement was published in Cosmopolitan (November 1946-February 1947) before being published as a book. In an interview with Cosmopolitan in July 1947, author Laura Z. Hobson explained, „What did I try to do with the book? I think a woman who wrote to me summed it up in two wonderful sentences. She says, „The bad guys aren`t really scary. It`s the millions of nice people who do and allow dishonest things. I think that`s the heart of what I wanted to say. Hobson noted that Darryl Zanuck, fox`s production manager, who made the film his only personal production of 1947, told him that if the film failed at the box office, it would „set Hollywood back twenty years to honestly address the problem of prejudice.“ It was the first time that the famous playwright Moss Hart wrote directly for the screen. Director Elia Kazan explains in his autobiography that Jewish leaders from other major film studios held a meeting in which they urged Hart to convince Zanuck not to make the film because they did not want to stir up anti-Semitism. A March 1947 New York Times article noted, „Some objections [to the film] came from Jews who think the image can increase rather than reduce intolerance, but a much larger proportion of Jewish opinion approves of the venture, according to Zanuck.“ In a November 1947 New York Times column, critic Bosley Crowther mentioned a rumor that a „well-known Hollywood producer“ was trying to convince Hart that the film should not be made, a situation reflected in the film itself, when a Jewish industrialist, quoting Crowther, said, „You can`t write it from existence. The less we talk about it, the better.
Leave him alone! According to twentieth century-Fox`s legal records, scenes were filmed at various locations in New York City, including Rockefeller Plaza and the NBC Building, as well as in Darien, CT. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that John Garfield accepted his limited role in the film after Zanuck promised that the film would remain true to Hart`s script. The film`s promotion indicates that Zanuck Garfield paid „his full star salary“ for the role. Daily Variety praised Garfield and Celeste Holm`s acting in the film`s review, stating, „It`s an image in which the performances of the supporting actors equal or exceed those of the two main actors.“ Fox Legal Records reports that Morris Carnovsky was initially hired to play „Professor Lieberman,“ but his contract was terminated by mutual agreement. Modern sources claim that the film was Fox`s highest-grossing image from 1948, that it cost $2,000,000, and that it was the second largest box office in the South until then. The film received the Oscar for Best Picture and Celeste Holm won the award for Best Supporting Actress. Gentleman`s Agreement was also nominated for An Academy Award for Best Actor (Gregory Peck), Best Actress (Dorothy McGuire), Best Supporting Actress (Anne Revere), Screenplay (Moss Hart) and Editing (Harmon Jones). According to an advertisement in the Motion Picture Herald in April 1948, the film won fifty-one film-related awards, including the New York Critics` Circle Award. In a modern interview, Kazan said of the film: „For the first time, someone said that America is full of anti-Semitism, both consciously and unconsciously, and among the best and most liberal people.
It was a much bolder statement then than it is today. It was about telling the audience, „You`re an average American and you`re anti-Semitic.“ In his autobiography, Kazan relativizes his enthusiasm for the film by stating that it „does not have what would have made it last in its effect: the intimate experience of someone who had lived the bitter and humiliating experience.“ Critics have praised the film a lot. The Los Angeles Daily News hailed it as „both bold and adult, a film that is not afraid to name names or depict a love story whose conflicts are exceptionally over ideas.“ Hollywood Reporter called the film „the most fascinating story ever put on celluloid.“ The Protestant Motion Picture Council urged viewers to „have courage to see it. It really means seeing him, dealing with his personal implications, and then „doing something about it.“ The film`s dialogues refer to a number of then prominent demagogic characters known for their bigotry, including the United States. Senator Theodore Gilmore Bilbo of Mississippi, who campaigned for the deportation of all African Americans to Africa; Rep. John E. Rankin, also of Mississippi, who, in a House of Representatives statement, called broadcaster and columnist Walter Winchell small; and Gerald L. K. Smith, a Christian nationalist crusader. In May 1947, Zanuck asked Fox`s legal counsel, George Wasson, if they were in violation of the law with the references. After Wasson responded that no court would consider the referrals a violation of the „right to privacy“ and that there was little risk of defamation, Zanuck wrote, „Let`s pursue them.
They won`t dare, and if they don`t do anything, it would make me happier than appearing in person as a witness or accused in the trial. In April 1948, Smith sued Twentieth Century-Fox in a Tulsa court to ban the film from Tulsa, his home for six months. After a district judge refused to issue an injunction, Smith took his complaint to the court system and sued the company for $1,000,000, but in February 1951, the case was dismissed. In September 1948, the film was rejected for screening in Spain. The New York Times reported that the ban was initiated „by order of the church member of the Film Censorship Board for moral reasons.“ According to a source close to the council, the prohibition order stated that while it is a Christian duty to „promote love among individuals, societies, nations and peoples,“ this should not be extended to Jews. The report lists six points or „theological errors“ of the film that justify the ban, including the fact that the film states „that a Christian is not superior to a Jew“ and that the film states that „for many Jews, it is a matter of pride to be called Jews. Proud of what? Pride in being the people who killed God? To be treacherous, as they are called in scripture? On the 3rd. In October 1948, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the president of the film censors in Madrid, Gabriel Garcia Espina, called the statement reported in the New York Times a „slander“ and that the film was actually banned because anti-Semitism was not a problem in Spain. Espina explained: „There is no racial problem in Spain. We do not know here the conflict of anti-Semitism or anti-Semitism.
And precisely because of the beautiful and traditional Spanish idea of human freedom, these tormented racial differences, which have so disturbed and seem to disturb so much the lives of peoples, are foreign to us and we want them to continue to be foreign to us. However, the film was approved for screening in Spain on January 12, 1949 under the title La Barrera Invisible. Lux Radio Theatre broadcasts two radio versions of the story. The first show starring Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter and Jeff Chandler was released on September 20. It aired in September 1948, and the second version, starring Ray Milland, Dorothy McGuire and Shep Menken, was heard on March 15, 1955. It`s a very deep look at how bigotry hides in a seemingly polite society, exposing hatred every day in a thought-provoking way. Kazan won an Oscar for his work here and gets nuanced performances from the cast, with Garfield being particularly moving as in a supporting role as a Jewish friend of Peck`s character. Philip Schuyler Green, a widowed journalist, comes from California to New York with his son Tommy and his mother to work for Smith`s Weekly, a leading national magazine. John Minify, the publisher, wants Phil to write a series about anti-Semitism, but Phil is lukewarm about the mission. At a party, Phil meets Minify`s niece, Kathy Lacy, a divorced phil who is attracted, and Kathy reminds her uncle that she suggested the series some time ago. Tommy asks his father about anti-Semitism, and when Phil struggles to explain it, he decides to accept the mission. However, he is frustrated by his inability to find a satisfactory approach, as he and Minify want the series to go further than simply exposing the „crackpot“ mentality.
After trying to imagine how his Jewish childhood friend Dave Goldman, who is now in the military abroad, must feel when he experiences bigotry, Phil decides to write from a Jewish perspective. However, he continues to struggle to write until he realizes that certain things can never be recognized until you experience them first-hand, and that the only way to gain the necessary experience is to appear Jewish in the eyes of others. When Minify announces the series to a lunch group, Phil casually mentions that he is Jewish. Later, Phil learns from his new secretary that he was told there was no job at the magazine when she applied under her real name Estelle Walofsky, but when she applied again with „Ethel Wales,“ she got the job. On the first day as a Jew, Phil becomes the target of slander and learns of discriminatory rules at home. When he tells his story to Kathy, whom he fell in love with, she is at first confused that he could really be Jewish. The next day, Minify magazine`s human resources director was reprimanded for his policy of not hiring Jewish secretaries, and was told that any future advertising should include the line: „Religion is a matter of indifference.“ However, when Miss Wales learns of the policy change, her fear that a „Kikey“ Jew will ruin things for her leads Phil to say that he hates anti-Semitism towards her as much as he hates non-Jewish anti-Semitism. Later, Kathy, to whom Phil is now engaged, tells Phil that her sister Jane in Darien, Connecticut, has scheduled a party for her next Saturday, and Phil reluctantly agrees to allow Kathy to talk to Jane about the ruse. .
