It may seem tame by today’s standards, but Gentleman’s Agreement was powder keg material back in 1947.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 22, 2025

The film can be a little heavy-handed with its messages, though given the context of when this was made, so shortly after World War II and the Holocaust, it warrants its sense of urgency, education, and importance.

| Aug 27, 2024

The façade adds to a narrative that is both complex and intelligent, and it is a well-meaning film with a big heart even if it comes off a bit puffed up and self-congratulatory today.

| Jun 27, 2023

The shoulder Gentleman's Agreement talks directly from has no chip on it, but it wears an epaulet of courage and straightens up in an eloquent plea for the common decency all mankind is heir to.

| Nov 16, 2022

It states its case with such frankness, such screen grace and such persuasiveness that it will do more for man's understanding of man than the most militant haranguer. And not for an instant does it fail to be a captivating screen show.

| Nov 16, 2022

Tangy and crisp as tossed salad straight from the refrigerator, [Celeste Holm]'s the smart package of chlorophyll that rids the air of unpleasant tension and makes it one-world fresh.

| Nov 16, 2022

The film has an urgency, a sincerity and a persuasiveness which, for this reader, the book lacked. Credit for this, it seems to us, goes primarily to Moss Hart and Elia Kazan.

| Nov 16, 2022

A brave, courageous, fascinating film is Gentleman's Agreement... Here is a picture that must be seen by bigots as well as men of good will; by hypocrites as well as understanding Americans if its message is to be fully appreciated.

| Nov 16, 2022

It is genuinely fine in every respect and it, happily, is much better than the original book from which it was made.

| Nov 16, 2022

Casting is perfect, from the mightiest roles to the smallest. No detail is omitted, and the plot, a close teamwork of love and problem, is so arresting it holds the audience spellbound.

| Nov 16, 2022

We are well equipped to respond to its refinements, so that by an ironic little process of logic we can assert the proposition that only for us does this film achieve the traditional Hollywood objective of all films, namely, sheer entertainment.

| Nov 16, 2022

Gentleman's Agreement isn't the first film to tackle the subject of racial prejudice on the screen, but it carries on the fight with effective weapons.

| Nov 16, 2022

What picture-goers in this country should not miss, by any clouding or exacerbating of the sympathies, is a very lovely piece of technical work. If there is a defter film from Hollywood this year, I am eagerly awaiting it.

| Nov 16, 2022

Really in the Academy class for supporting honors is Celeste Holm, who brings joy and gayety, as well as good common sense to the screen in her thoroughly ingratiating rendition of her role of everybody's friend.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2022

In terms of stimulating and vigorous entertainment, Gentleman's Agreement merits the forecast of being the best film of the year.

| Nov 16, 2022

Gentleman's Agreement marks a great stride forward for the screen. No other photoplay that we can recall has handled a social problem with such searching candor and intelligence.

| Nov 16, 2022

As with Laura Hobson's novel, the basic idea is startling and courageous, and, with a film adaptation by Moss Hart, it has emerged on the screen in hard hitting and provocative form.

| Nov 16, 2022

Peck and McGuire handle an off-again-on-again romance with artful restraint. John Garfield, as a Jewish friend of the writer, turns in the sharpest characterization and delivers the hardest hitting blows of the theme.

| Nov 16, 2022

The film could have raved over the subject and been extremely boring about it. But in the adept hands of screenwriter Moss Hart and director Ella Kazan, it has thrust its lesson home by making its story human and alive.

| Nov 16, 2022

The story seemed repetitive and slow. It almost wholly lacks the tension and terrific impact of a recent picture on the same theme, Crossfire. Nevertheless Gentleman's Agreement, as a portent, is encouraging.

| Nov 16, 2022