Production Company: 20th Century Fox
"I've come to see lots of nice people who hate it and deplore it and protest their own innocence, then help it along and wonder why it grows." - Phil Green
Setting
New York City, United States
The Plot
Widowed journalist Phil Green [Peck] arrives in New York with his young son and mother. His first task is to write a series on anti-Semitism, of which he knows the facts but lacks the experience; he decides to tell everyone he's Jewish and research anti-Semitism first-hand, finding it alive and well and from some surprising sources.
The Review
We interrupt this review for a short history lesson; at the time of writing this review, anti-Semitism is an apt topic given the current situation in the Middle East. To put things in perspective, in the post-war 1940s anti-Semitism in the USA had declined after the Holocaust became public knowledge; that said, Jews were still seen as 'godless' people who controlled the money and stayed wealthy. Some pre-war attitudes still remained and there was concern about the millions of refugee Jews in Europe trying to get into the United States. Got it? Great!
A film showing any form of racism tends to get my blood boiling, so reading the plot didn't thrill me entirely; that's the point of this thing though, to see these award-winning films and I'm glad I did. Anti-Semitism, for me, brings to mind such things as racial slurs, Holocaust etc but it goes much deeper than that. It's the change in demeanour when someone knows you're a Jew, it's feigned acceptance "Oh I have friends who are Jewish"; actually Anne Dettrey [Celeste Holm] nails that one with "I know dear, and some of your other best friends are Methodist but you never bother to say it". These are attitudes that are much harder to see from the outside looking in, this film gave a unique angle from the perspective of someone experiencing the receiving end of this treatment for the first time but unlike a Jew he hadn't had a lifetime to get used to it.
Phil Green gains valuable insight, and brings us on the journey with him as he encounters anti-Semitism from his family, friends and even ironically from some Jews; also witnessing his young son dealing with it which provided us with yet another angle. Unfortunately Peck's performance is not particularly as warm as one would expect from an empathetic character; it also seemed a little on the fast side to get engaged within days of meeting his fiancée Kathy [McGuire]!
Although the movie doesn't solve the issue, it does make the audience think about it and perhaps even consider their own behaviour towards others. I liked the way it dealt mainly with the much more subtle forms in anti-Semitism, which would no doubt have caused the audiences of the day to look inside themselves like Kathy and wonder if they may have some of those attitudes. A great and thought-provoking film!
The Slap
The hotel manager at the Flume Inn, blatantly running a 'restricted' (non-Jew) hotel and turning Phil away despite having a reservation.
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