The Italian

Reginald Barker's The Italian, produced by Thomas Ince from a scenario he wrote with C. Gardner Sullivan, is among the first American features to treat immigrant life as tragedy rather than vaudeville. George Beban, a Broadway specialist in ethnic roles making his screen debut, plays Pietro Beppo Donnetti, a Venetian gondolier who emigrates to New York, works as a bootblack, and sends for his bride. When their infant falls ill, a doctor prescribes pasteurized milk. Robbed on the way to buy it, Beppo is jailed; the ward boss who once bought his vote refuses help, and the child dies. Ince had wanted the slur title Dago until Beban forced a change. Shot largely in San Francisco's Italian neighborhoods, the film entered the National Film Registry in 1991.