Phil Green(Gregory Peck) is a recently widowed father and a writer who is hired by a large urban magazine to write a series on anti-Semitism. The magazine publisher John Minify (Albert Dekker) wants Green to immerse himself in the subject and not rely on what the research department at the magazine can deliver. After many nights pounding away on the typewriter keys and plenty of soulful searching with his live-in mother (Anne Revere) Green hits on the notion that he will tell everyone that he is Jewish in order to get an unbiased response from those he comes in contact with. Immediately Green becomes aware of the "Gentleman's Agreement" that is shared in polite society, that the biased attitudes between Christians and Jews is a conspiracy of silence allowing prejudice to thrive. This is problematic for the new girl he has just met, Kathy Lacey (Dorothy McGuire) who loves Green but is dismayed by the pretense in order to get at the truth of hypocritical treatment that Jews suffer. Kathy is from a Christian Connecticut family and when she introduces Phil to her family the pretense of his Jewish-ness causes the relationship to strain. When Phil's long-time friend Dave Goldman (John Garfield) comes to visit from the Army and learns of his friend's posing as a Jew to get insider information he alerts him to the fact that he has let himself and his son Tommy (Dean Stockwell) in for a quiet onslaught of prejudice. As Phil continues in his truth-searching quest he becomes more sensitive to the treatment he receives from others when they think he is not Christian and the learning experience proves valuable to his personal growth and to those around him.
What is the writer hired to write about?
anti-Semitism