Gentleman's Agreement

Academy Award-winning but sentimental and muddled account of a journalist (Peck) who passes himself off as a Jew in order to research a series of articles on anti-Semitism, only to find the masquerade entailing a backlash of grief and pressure for his own family. Archetypal Hollywood social comment (from a novel by Laura Z Hobson) in that it wears its heart on its sleeve rather than offers any analysis of the problem; and the Fox studio's fondness for 'realism' looks remarkably dated in places. Good performances, however, particularly from Garfield and Holm.