Gentleman’s Agreement

Elia Kazan: Gentleman's Agreement (US 1947) with Dorothy McGuire, Gregory Peck and John Garfield.

028979 / G / US / 1947 / Kazan, Elia / / drama
Gentleman’s Agreement / Hiljainen sopimus.
PC: 20th Century-Fox. P: Darryl F. Zanuck.
D: Elia Kazan. SC: Moss Hart – based on the novel by Laura Z. Hobson (1946).
CAST: Gregory Peck, Dean Stockwell, Anne Revere, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Sam Jaffe, June Havoc.
118’.
B&w.
MPAA Production Code Seal of Approval 12488.
A worn 16 mm print from Rosebud (Spain).
Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Tuesday 4 November 1997.

*** Intelligent, dialogue-based thesis film with a great cast of a dozen interesting characters. No visual flair and no cinematic dynamism (further injustice in this department due to the flat 16 mm print). Gregory Peck is the crusading, investigative reporter who takes a special project called ”I Was Jewish For Six Months”. The experience is surprising. He gets to experience discrimination immediately, his fiancée becomes estranged, and even his little son gets beaten as ”a dirty kike”. And this is New York.