Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Dorothy McGuire: Kathy Lacy

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Quotes 

• Kathy Lacey : You think I'm an anti-Semite.

  Phil Green : No, I don't. But 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. People who would never beat up a Jew. People who think anti-Semitism is far away in some dark place with low-class morons. That's the biggest discovery I've made. The good people. The nice people.

• Phil Green : I'm going up to Flume Inn. I'm gonna use those plane tickets we had for this afternoon. I'll be back later.

  Kathy Lacey : Phil, what for?

  Dave Goldman : You're wasting your time.

  Phil Green : Sure, but there must be a time once when you fight back, Dave. I want to make them look me in the eye and do it. I-I want the satisfaction. I can't explain it, but I want to do it for myself.

  Kathy Lacey : Phil, they're nothing more than...

  Dave Goldman : Let him do it, Kathy. You have to face them once. I did it once at Monterey.

  Phil Green : They are more than nasty little snobs, Kathy. You call them that, and you can dismiss them; it's too easy. They're persistent little traitors to everything that this country stands for, and stands on and you have to fight 'em! Not just for the 'poor, poor Jews,' as Dave says, but for everything this country stands for.

• Kathy Lacey : Oh, Dave, we couldn't get married without you. What happened?

  Dave Goldman : Nothing. That's just it. I can't abandon my family forever, and I can't find a house or an apartment. If it was just me, I'd sleep on the subway, but I've got Carol and the kids. I've got to go back. I'm licked.

  Phil Green : But that means your job, your whole future.

  Dave Goldman : I'll live. I've done it before.

  Kathy Lacey : But, Dave, that's terrible.

• Phil Green : You aren't going to fit it at all, Kathy! You're just going to give in and let their idiotic rules stand!

  Kathy Lacey : What can one person do?

  Phil Green : What can they do?

  Kathy Lacey : Plenty! Ostracize him!

  Phil Green : And you expect me to live there now that I know all this?

  Kathy Lacey : Oh, you can't change the whole world!

• John Minify : I've asked Phil to do a piece on anti-Semitism.

  Kathy Lacey : Am I going to get a credit line?

  John Minify : You? Why?

  Kathy Lacey : Well, don't you remember last winter when that Jewish schoolteacher resigned, and I...

  John Minify : Oh, yes. Well, I knew somebody would be asking me for a credit line. I'm always stealing ideas without realizing it.

  Kathy Lacey : That's what makes your magazine so original.

• 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!

• Kathy Lacey : I love this house, deeply... and I started to build it when things first began to go wrong between Bill and me. And somehow it became a symbol to me of many things. Sometimes, when you're troubled and hurt, you pour yourself into things that can't hurt back.

• Kathy Lacey : I called up my sister Jane and blurted it out, and she squealed, "Kathy!" as if she had given up any hope of anyone ever asking me. She's aching to meet you. She and her husband are giving a big party for us on Sunday. By the way, won't we have to let Jane in on it?

  Phil Green : I hadn't thought so.

  Kathy Lacey : But we will, won't we? Your mother knows.

  Phil Green : She had to. Jane and her husband don't. If you want to keep a secret...

  Kathy Lacey : But wouldn't it be sort of exaggerated with my own sister? Your sister-in-law, almost. I do think it would be inflexible of you.

  Phil Green : I suppose it would be, inside the family. But they won't let anybody know, will they?

  Kathy Lacey : They won't breathe it. They want to fight this awful thing just as much as you and I do.

• Phil Green : I'm going to let everybody know I'm Jewish.

  Kathy Lacey : Jewish? But you're not! Are you? Not that it would make any difference to me. But you said, "Let everybody know," as if you hadn't before and would now. So I just wondered. Not that it would make any difference to me. Phil, you're annoyed.

  Phil Green : No, I'm just thinking.

  Kathy Lacey : Well, don't look serious about it. Surely you must know where I stand.

  Phil Green : Oh, I do.

  Kathy Lacey : You just caught me off-guard.

• Kathy Lacey : You can't help that you were born Christian instead of Jewish. It doesn't mean you're glad you were. But I am glad. There, I said it.

• Kathy Lacey : I was right not to settle. I was right to keep dreaming, because it's all come true. Darling, we're going to be so happy here. This house and I were waiting for you. I was always waiting for you, I think.

• Kathy Lacey : You can't make over the whole world. You know I'm on Dave's side.

  Phil Green : Well, I'm not on Dave's side or any side, except against their side.