Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

John Garfield: Dave Goldman

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Quotes 

• Dave Goldman : There was a boy in our outfit... Abe Schlussman. Good soldier. Good engineer. One night, we got bombed, and he caught it. I was ten yards off. Somebody said... ''Give me a hand with this sheeny.'' Those were the last words he ever heard.

• Phil Green : I've been saying I'm Jewish, and it works.

  Dave Goldman : Why, you crazy fool! It's working?

  Phil Green : It works too well. I've been having my nose rubbed in it, and I don't like the smell.

  Dave Goldman : You're not insulated yet, Phil. The impact must be quite a business on you.

  Phil Green : You mean you get indifferent to it in time?

  Dave Goldman : No, but you're concentrating a lifetime into a few weeks. You're not changing the facts, you're just making them hurt more.

• 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.