As I watch Gentleman’s Agreement today, I feel a twinge of sadness and disappointment in the glimmer of hope at the end. It sounds crazy, but when the magnificent Anne Revere as Gregory Peck’s mother Mrs. Green says she hopes to live to a ripe old age to see where the twentieth century brings us, I can’t help thinking what she would have learned. She’d find attitudes toward religious prejudice did change, and for the better, but not enough or as much as she anticipated. Mrs. Green would have witnessed the equal-rights movements of the 1960s, for racial equality, sexual orientation, and gender equality, as they cracked wide open and made monumental strides toward a more just world. And if she’d lived long enough, she might have seen them slide backward in the second decade of our new century, watching her own son’s work become more revelatory today than it has been in years.

Some people assert that Gentleman’s Agreement falls short in scope and compromises its premise or exposes hypocrisies of the era. To a degree, this would be true of any politically motivated work of art. It can’t be all things to all people from all walks of life while they are starving for advancement themselves. Whenever mainstream movies tackle a controversial subject like antisemitism, one that is as topical today as it was in 1947, personal experiences and agendas poison the perspective. Deep-rooted desires to fill all voids and voice all truths can never be satisfied. I disagree with the naysayers, including the director, Elia Kazan, a complex, compromised man himself, who was soon to reveal his own duplicity during the McCarthy Era. He was unhappy with this film, despite his award as Best Director and its top honor as the Best Picture of the year.

For me, Gentleman’s Agreement accomplishes its goal by confronting the issue with mainstream audiences, and it hits home with great success. My late father was Jewish, my late mother Episcopalian, and I was raised Episcopalian—but I was also given a choice. As a child, I had the rare opportunity to decide for myself what I did or didn’t believe and whether or not I would accompany my mother to church on Sunday. That said, antisemitism isn’t about practicing a religion. As Professor Lieberman (Sam Jaffe) points out in this movie, he has no religion. His character is a scientist and an atheist by his own implication, but he calls himself Jewish because, in our imperfect world, at face value, he is perceived as such—and he was born a Jew. That’s his race, not just his religious upbringing. My dad never had a bar mitzvah and didn’t go to temple, yet when he was a freshman attending one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in America, he decided to run for class officer. He was elected vice president, but then he chose to go through rush, and not a single fraternity extended a bid. Why? My father learned through a friend that his student records indicated his mother’s maiden name was Siegelbaum. Schneider (my last name as well) is somewhat ambiguous and fairly common, particularly in Germany. It may or may not be a Jewish name, so he was given the benefit of the doubt. But Siegelbaum? No question there, bub. During the course of the school year, my father went from being a straight-A student to almost flunking out. He had a meltdown. Their discovery exposed the one thing about him that he couldn’t change: his history, his identity. He couldn’t change who he was.

This happened to my dad in 1948, one year after Gentleman’s Agreement was released, but this movie isn’t about the monsters and cross-burners and blatant bigots, the ones who get all up in your face. It’s about the “good people,” the nice folks, the decent and compassionate citizens who can’t stand the idea of prejudice but do nothing themselves to stop it.

A “gentleman’s agreement” by definition is an unspoken understanding that Jews are not admitted in certain establishments—like hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, entire neighborhoods … or, in my father’s case, fraternity houses. In other words, without a written law stating as much, which would be unconstitutional, they are “restricted” to gentiles only.

The film’s premise is simple: Philip Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck) is a west-coast widower who moves to New York with his mother (Anne Revere) and son Tommy (Dean Stockwell) to accept a job at a successful magazine where the publisher John Minify (Albert Dekker) wants him to write an article on antisemitism. Phil accepts the job but can’t figure out a fresh angle. What would make this story new and different? He is invited to Minify’s cocktail party that evening where he meets Minify’s niece Kathy (Dorothy McGuire). It turns out she’s the one who suggested this piece, which surprises Phil. The sparks fly, and a romance is born.

June Havoc and Gregory Peck.

Eventually, Phil hits on an original concept: he’ll pretend to be Jewish for eight weeks in order to see firsthand what it’s like to live and work and interact as a minority in post-war America. For me, the best early scenes are between Phil and his new secretary Elaine Wales, played brilliantly by June Havoc (yes, the real-life “Baby June” and “Dainty June” for fans of the musical Gypsy). Elaine confesses that she’s Jewish herself but changed her name to something less obvious when no one would hire her, including the magazine that employs her now. When Phil reports this information to Minify, the boss is outraged. He guarantees that every new job ad placed for the magazine will include a phrase stating that religious affiliation is of no consequence or relevance to the magazine. Elaine further raises eyebrows with Phil when she voices her private concern over this new ad. She’s worried “the wrong sort of Jews” might slip in. You know, those crude stereotypes who wear too much makeup, talk too loud, and say inappropriate things. We learn that prejudice isn’t confined to other religions and races. People within the minority itself have been conditioned from decades of behavior modification to believe that only the “right sort of Jew” is acceptable. Anyone perpetuating common, negative stereotypes should be shut out, for fear of ruining opportunities and advancements for the rest.

Phil’s son, his mother, Minify, and Kathy, who suggested the story, are the only people in on the truth. At first Kathy is stunned when Phil tells her the plan. She adds in haste that it doesn’t matter if he’s Jewish or not, but she wonders what the ramifications might be when he tells others. Kathy’s fumble is important, because, ultimately, her journey is the heart of the film. She evolves from a liberal-minded conversationalist with noble intentions into someone with a far better understanding of the countless, subtle ways prejudice thrives and spreads in our society. It’s the fine people of the world who talk the talk but never take action.

Dorothy McGuire delivers an intelligent and poignant performance as Kathy. Her moment of quiet realization with Phil’s childhood buddy Dave Goldman (the memorable John Garfield) impresses me the most. She struggles to understand what has happened to her crumbling relationship with Phil, and she sees what she and others like her have been doing all along, or rather haven’t been doing, that enables the problem to get worse.

Celeste Holm and Gregory Peck.

In the end, love wins—not just Phil and Kathy’s, but a love for all people, a love for equality, and a fight to stop intolerance, not by turning away from it, but by facing it head on. Another actress deserves note here. Celeste Holm gives a smart, witty, biting, and touching performance as Anne Dettrey, the fashion editor of the magazine. She’s “the other woman” in Phil’s life, and after making a clever pitch for him, she loses out. In many ways, she understands Phil better than Kathy does. She’s the victim of bad timing more than anything else, but Holm didn’t walk away empty-handed on Oscar night. Her fine work earned her the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Gentlemen’s Agreement holds up well today—perhaps a little too well, due to shifting tides in religious and racial tolerance. For that reason above many others, it’s a great choice for the Best Picture of the year.

Gentleman’s Agreement