Yeah, this was not a fun watch. And made more depressing by how little things have changed in seventy years.
Phil Green (Gregory Peck) has been assigned to write a magazine article on anti-Semitism but finds it slow going until he hits on the idea of going undercover. Capitalizing on his newness in New York, he lets a rumor begin that he is Jewish. Only his editor (Albert Dekker) and his editor's niece, Kathy (Dorothy McGuire), know the truth. Phil soon discovers that bigotry is everywhere and even most insidiously in the people who hate anti-Semitism but allow it to go unchallenged.
Gregory Peck and Jimmy Stewart pretty much had morals locked down in the 40s and 50s. They loved those idealized crusader for justice characters, the kind of men Superman would aspire to be.
You can't really say this movie is ahead of its time, because it's still happening. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, as well as racism and homophobia. It has something to say about the way good, upright citizens are complicit in allowing bigotry to flourish because it makes them uncomfortable to confront it, internalized anti-Semitism and self-hatred, and even the concept of White Lady Tears, though they don't call it that. As a morality play, top notch, no notes. I have a strong quibble about the love interest at the end of the movie because it feels like pandering, but I get why.
As a bonus, Gentleman's Agreement features an 11-year-old Dean Stockwell, who just recently died. He won a Golden Globe for his performance here and by God he earned it. It's currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.
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