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Gentleman's Agreement | Year: 1948 Classification: Drama Actors/Actresses: - Dean Stockwell - Gregory Peck - Dorothy McGuire - John Garfield Stuffy Oscar Winner gets same transfer second time around! In "Gentleman's Agreement" Gregory Peck stars as Philip Green/Greenberg, a reporter impersonating a Jew in order to gain first hand knowledge into anti-Semitism. At first, snubs seem quite subtle and harmless. But as the film progresses the seething underbelly of dissension against the Jewish faith begins to rear its ugly head. Dorothy McGuire costars as Kathy, his waspish girlfriend who struggles with her own built-in anti-Semitism. John Garfield offers a startling and poignant cameo as Dave Goldberg, while Celeste Holm turns in another fine performance as Anne Dettrey, the only cast member seemingly untouched by prejudice. The film also costars Anne Revere, as Philip's mother, and Dean Stockwell as his son. Despite excellent source material from the novel by Laura Z. Hobson, and the directorial reigns handed over to one of Hollywood's best, Eli Kazan, the resulting film is heavy-handed and tiresome in spots. The plot never quite surpasses its very theatrical staging and the performances, particularly McGuire's are stiff and uninspiring. Fox already released this title as a movie only disc, without the making-of featurette. Now, as part of its Studio Series "Gentlemen's Agreement" continues to suffer from digital anomalies which plagued the original transfer. However, whereas the old transfer seemed to falter during the latter half with excessive film grain and shimmering of fine details, it is the first hour or so of this re-release that is riddled with edge effects, aliasing, pixelization and digital grit. As far as extras are concerned, this DVD offers little more than a brief back story featurette, audio commentary and theatrical trailer. A self-conscious examination of Anti-Seminitism "Gentleman's Agreement," the 1947 film dealing with Anti-Semitism, is a mixed bag. On the one hand Elia Kazan's film deals with an important subject, has superb cinematography by Arthur Miller, and stars Gregory Peck. Then again, there is something just inherently phony about the film. Peck plays Phil Green, a magazine writer who pretends for six months that he is Jewish so he can write a series of exposes on anti-Semitism. The script by Moss Hart, based on Laura Z. Hobson's novel, is supposed to examine the effects of this impersonation on Green's life, specifically in terms of his fiance Kathy Lacey (Dorothy McGuire), his mother (Anne Revere), and one of his co-workers, Anne Dettrey (Celeste Holm). But the whole thing is just so self-conscious that as much as you want to applaud the attempt, it is hard to get past the execution. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Green is just acting; after all, he is not really Jewish. It is only when John Garfield shows up as Dave Goldman, a Jewish serviceman, that "Gentleman's Agreement" begins to honestly deal with the problem it wants to indict. Superb DVD presentation of classic film Kudos to Fox Home Entertainment for a very satisfying DVD presentation of "Gentleman's Agreement," the 1947 Best Picture Academy Award winner. The film itself is deserving of all of the accolades it received, both upon its initial release, and in all the years since. I'm assuming that most of the people considering a purchase of the DVD have already seen the movie, so I'd like to focus here on the incisive commentary by Richard Schickel, long-time film critic for Time magazine. Stars June Havoc and Celeste Holm are also heard on the track, recorded separately, and while their remarks are interesting, this is Schickel's showcase, and he runs with it. The critic is no sycophantic fan of "Gentleman's Agreement." While he admires its aims, and much of its execution (primarily the achievements of director Elia Kazan), he has some reservations about the script, and some of the acting. He demonstrates a complete understanding of the conventions of 1940s studio filmmaking, but doesn't always accept the necessity that "Gentleman's Agreement" had to adhere to those norms. I didn't always agree with Schickel's criticisms of the film, but they certainly made me think, and I never found them off-putting. Schickel wisely underscores the contribution of John Garfield, whose training in The Group Theater gave him a more realistic acting style than anyone else in the film. "Garfield seems to be acting in an entirely different movie," Schickel says, and it is not a criticism. The Garfield performance leads on a direct path to Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire," also directed by Kazan, and Schickel makes this clear. It is at this point that he makes the single most fascinating statement in the entire commentary, which I won't spoil for you here. Suffice it to say that it's something that may strike you as intuitive, but put into this context, becomes something of a revelation. I've seen Web-based reviews of this DVD that criticize Schickel for doing too much plot summary. I disagree; he doesn't merely give a blow-by-blow account of what's hapening. He mentions plot points, but goes on to offer an opinion about how well the moment is conveyed, or about what real-life parallels the film is touching upon, or something else that is valuable to the viewer. DVD commentaries just don't get much better than this. The other extras on the disc, among them an AMC backstory presentation and a selection of 1947 newsreels, are nice additions. Buy Gentleman's Agreement at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  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