Gentleman's Agreement

The storyThe lore 📖

A magazine writer poses as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism.

Journalist Phil Green gets assigned to write about antisemitism, and he decides the only way to really understand it is to tell everyone he's Jewish for eight weeks 📰. What he finds is ugly: quiet prejudice from neighbors, hotels, and even people close to him who swear they're 'not like that.' The movie's whole point is that staying silent is part of the problem. Calling it out? Understood the assignment.

What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾

Tomatometer 82% Fresh #84 of 98 winners

IMDb 7.2 19K votes #83 of 98 winners

TMDB 7.0 / 10

Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍

• Darien

  Connecticut

  Portions were shot on location in the town whose quiet exclusion of Jews is a key thread of the story.

  Map ↗About this place ↗Source: Wikipedia · Production

Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓

1. Darryl F. Zanuck decided to film the novel after being refused membership in the Los Angeles Country Club because it was incorrectly assumed he was Jewish.Wikipedia · Production
2. Before filming, Samuel Goldwyn and other Jewish film executives asked Zanuck not to make the movie, fearing it would "stir up trouble."Wikipedia · Production
3. The lead role was first offered to Cary Grant, who turned it down. Gregory Peck took it even though his agent advised him to refuse, believing it would endanger his career.Wikipedia · Production
4. The film's politics upset the House Un-American Activities Committee: Elia Kazan, John Garfield and Anne Revere were called to testify, and Garfield and Revere were blacklisted. Garfield died at 39 before his second hearing date.Wikipedia · Reception and box-office
5. Jewish actor John Garfield agreed to play a smaller role just so he could be part of the film.Wikipedia · Production
6. There were fears that censor Joseph Breen might block the film, and concern that Dorothy McGuire's character being divorced would offend the National Legion of Decency.Wikipedia · Production
7. Gentleman's Agreement wasn't alone: the same year saw Crossfire, another film on antisemitism, whose story had originally been about homophobia.Wikipedia · Introduction
8. At a 1948 gala honoring Zanuck as B'nai B'rith's "Man of the Year" for the film, the entertainment included the debut before the Hollywood film world of the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.Wikipedia · Reception and box-office
9. The film was an unexpected hit, earning $3.9 million in U.S. rentals according to Variety and becoming one of Fox's highest-grossing movies of 1947.Wikipedia · Reception and box-office
10. Portions of the film were shot on location in Darien, Connecticut, one of the affluent communities whose antisemitism the story exposes.Wikipedia · Production