Gentleman's Agreement
Short description
Philip Schuyler Green, a widowed magazine writer, moves to New York with his young son and his mother. A national magazine assigns him a series of articles on anti-Semitism in American life. Unsure how to approach the subject from the outside, he decides to present himself as Jewish, using the name Greenberg, so that he can experience prejudice directly rather than merely report on it. What he encounters among colleagues, neighbors and acquaintances goes beyond casual slights and affects his son and his relationship with Kathy Lacy, a woman he meets through the magazine's circle. The film pairs this social drama with their romance.
Elia Kazan directed the film, his second feature after A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, working from a screenplay by Moss Hart; Darryl F. Zanuck produced it for 20th Century Fox. Gregory Peck plays Green, with Dorothy McGuire as Kathy, John Garfield as Dave Goldman, Celeste Holm as Anne Dettrey, Anne Revere as Mrs. Green and June Havoc as Elaine Wales. Released in November 1947, it runs 118 minutes and cost about 2 million dollars, returning roughly 8 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from 83 critics' reviews, while on TMDB users give it 7 out of 10 across 286 votes, a narrower gap than such comparisons often show.
What's left behind the scenes
- When other film studios with predominantly Jewish leadership learned about the filming of “Gentleman’s Agreement,” requests began to come to the film's producers to shut down the project. Everyone feared that a film on the topic of antisemitism would stir up a hornet's nest of problems that were best left untouched. In response, 20th Century Fox not only continued filming the film but also included a scene in the script that openly depicted this conflict.
- Gregory Peck (1916-2003) did not get along with director Elia Kazan (1909-2003). Kazan later stated in the press that he was disappointed with Peck's performance. After that, Peck and Kazan never worked together again.
- The role played by Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was initially offered to Cary Grant (1904-1986), but Grant refused because he was Jewish and looked typically Jewish, and he said quite literally: “The audience won’t believe me playing a gentile who pretends to be Jewish.”
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
