Gregory Peck is typically excellent in Gentleman’s Agreement, Elia Kazan’s Oscar-winning 1947 entry about one journalist’s exploration of anti-Semitism in America (recently released on DVD).

Peck’s role as an earnest stand-up-for-what’s-right journalist feels a wee bit dated, but the film stands as a fascinating time capsule. Perhaps most intriguing are the themes that are spelled out in crystal-clear magic marker for the audience: don’t just jump on a bandwagon, it’s not good enough to be silent in the face of injustice, and so on. It is sort of odd to witness these themes so resolutely mapped out in a film by Kazan, now so notorious for breaking ranks with many in Hollywood’s progressive community and ratting on suspected commies to the HUAC. Watching today, the question hangs over the film: was Kazan a rat or was he simply doing what he thought was right at the time?

On an entirely different note, even I confess to being a bit disappointed in The Corpse Grinders, a legendary no-budget bit of silliness about some evil types who grind up corpses and then sell the mulch as cat food. Don’t get me wrong: the idea of killer felines fed by human bits and pieces appeals to me, but this movie was simply too idiotic, even by my standards. :

» Matthew Hays