The Italian

1915
Passed
1h 12m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

An Italian immigrant and his sweetheart search for a better life in America, but the harsh realities of life in the slums of New York City lay waste to their hopes and dreams.An Italian immigrant and his sweetheart search for a better life in America, but the harsh realities of life in the slums of New York City lay waste to their hopes and dreams.An Italian immigrant and his sweetheart search for a better life in America, but the harsh realities of life in the slums of New York City lay waste to their hopes and dreams.

Director
- Reginald Barker
Writers
- Thomas H. Ince
- C. Gardner Sullivan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

476

YOUR RATING

Director
- Reginald Barker
Writers
- Thomas H. Ince
- C. Gardner Sullivan
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Photos6

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Storyline

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Trivia
This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1991.

Connections
Referenced in The Godfather (1972)

User reviews16

Review

Featured review

Flawed, but well-worth seeing.

Well made silent melodrama, of some historic import.

The acting is generally quite good and understated for the time, the cinematography has some nice lighting effects, and moving shots (and one amazing close up, where the camera shakes with a character's anger).

On the other hand, the melodramatic story feels blandly predictable, along with having a giant plot hole at its center, and some other annoying, easily avoided contradictions and logic gaps.

Certainly this story -- a struggling Italian immigrant and his bride in the slums of New York, coming to America to fulfill their dreams, but finding disillusionment and despair -- must have resonated with a lot of people at the time. I just wish the story had the subtlety of the acting and images.

A good, solid, important early film.