Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Dean Stockwell: Tommy Green

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tommy Green : What's anti-Semitism?

  Phil Green : Well, uh, that's when some people don't like other people just because they're Jews.

  Tommy Green : Why not? Are Jews bad?

  Phil Green : Well, some are and some aren't, just like with everyone else.

  Tommy Green : What are Jews, anyway?

  Phil Green : Well, uh, it's like this. Remember last week when you asked me about that big church, and I told you there are all different kinds of churches? Well, the people who go to that particular church are called Catholics, and there are people who go to different churches and they're called Protestants, and there are people who go to different churches and they're called Jews, only they call their churches temples or synagogues.

  Tommy Green : Why don't some people like them?

  Phil Green : Well, I can't really explain it, Tommy.

• Tommy Green : They were playing hop, and I asked if I could play too, and the one from school said no dirty little Jew could play with them. And they all yelled those other things. I started to speak, and they all yelled that my father has a long curly beard, and they turned and ran. Why did they, Pop? Why?

  Phil Green : Come on , drink some of this.

  [offering a glass of water] 

  Phil Green : Did you want to tell them that you weren't really Jewish?

  Tommy Green : No.

  Phil Green : That's good. See, there's are a lot of kids just like you Tommy, who are Jewish, and if you said it, it would sort of be admitting there was something bad in being Jewish; and something swell in not.

  Tommy Green : They wouldn't fight. They just ran.

  Phil Green : Yeah, I know. There's a lot of grown-ups just like that too, Tom, only they do it with wisecracks instead of with yelling.

• Phil Green : Some people hate Catholics, some people hate Jews.

  Tommy Green : And no one hates us because we're Americans.

• Tommy Green : Pop, what's that?

  Phil Green : That's a statue of Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders.

  Tommy Green : No kidding? That's what Grandma says you're doing. She says she wishes you'd leave the world alone once in a while.

• Phil Green : You still think of your mom, Tommy?

  Tommy Green : Sometimes. Not all the time. Just sometimes. How old was I when she died, Pop?

  Phil Green : You were four years old. It's been a long time.

  Tommy Green : You ever gonna get married again?

  Phil Green : Maybe. You want me to?

  Tommy Green : I don't care. I like it fine this way.

• Tommy Green : They called me a dirty Jew and a stinking kike, and they all ran away.

  Kathy Lacey : Oh, darling, it's not true. You're no more Jewish than I am. It's just some horrible mistake.

  Phil Green : Kathy!

• Tommy Green : Don't you ever think of what to write yourself?

• Tommy Green : Pop, are we Jewish? Jimmy Kelley said we were. Our janitor told his janitor.

  Phil Green : Well, what did you tell Jimmy Kelley?

  Tommy Green : I said I'd ask you.

  Phil Green : Well, it's like this. Remember that movie Kathy and I took you to, and you asked if things like that really happened?

  Tommy Green : Kathy said they were pretending.

  Phil Green : Well, I'm pretending I'm Jewish for something I'm writing.

  Tommy Green : You mean like a game?

  Phil Green : Yes, but I'd appreciate it if you promised not to tell anybody it's a game.

  Tommy Green : Okay, Pop, sure.

• Tommy Green : Grandma said to wake you.

  Phil Green : It's late, isn't it?

  Tommy Green : Yeah. Here's your bathrobe.

  Phil Green : I don't want it.

  Tommy Green : Put it on, I said!