8 Movies / July 28
Unsurprising for an industry that was built and sustained by executives and artists from throughout the world, the immigrant experience has formed the backdrop of many of the most popular and critically lauded American films over the years, including The Godfather: Part II (1974), Moscow on the Hudson (1984) and Minari (2020). This special day of programming offers the chance to see some forgotten or overlooked gems from decades past that highlight the journeys and struggles of those who came to America in the early 20th century looking for a better life.
In the pre-Code drama As the Earth Turns (1934), Donald Woods, whose family emigrated from Canada when he was a boy, makes his feature debut as a Polish immigrant who gives up a promising future as a musician to take up farming in rural Maine.
The following year was a notable one for a broad scope of immigrant stories on screen, including a love story, a comedy and a hard-hitting historical drama. In Romance in Manhattan (1935), Prague-born Francis Lederer plays a Czech newcomer who gets a job as a taxi driver and falls for chorus girl Ginger Rogers. In the comedy His Family Tree (1935), an Irishman comes to the U.S. to visit his son and finds he has to re-instill some Irish pride in the younger man. The cast, under the direction of Hungarian Charles Vidor, is made up mostly of actors either born in the old country or of Irish descent.
In adapting the true story of an infamous Pennsylvania labor strike in which a miner was killed by company police, Warner Bros. cast its go-to actor for gritty social realism and historical dramas, Paul Muni, whose Jewish family came to America from Galicia (part of modern-day Poland and Ukraine) when he was seven. In Black Fury (1935), Muni plays a Slavic miner radicalized by the death of a fellow worker. Although he was not officially nominated for an Academy Award for his performance, Muni garnered the second-highest number of votes in a write-in campaign, which was allowed that year. The film was directed by one of the studio’s most prolific talents, Michael Curtiz, who was born in Budapest and came to the U.S. when he was 39.
In Man of the People (1937), Joseph Calleia, who was born on the Mediterranean island of Malta, plays an Italian immigrant who goes into the legal profession to help his community and finds he must deal with the Mob.
The American Dream becomes a reality for two immigrants in the romantic comedy Come Live with Me (1941) and the epic drama An American Romance (1944). In the first, Hedy Lamarr plays a refugee from Vienna (Lamarr’s real-life birthplace) who marries a struggling writer (James Stewart) to gain U.S. citizenship. In the second, Eastern-European immigrant Brian Donlevy arrives in the U.S. in 1890 and over the years becomes an automotive magnate who ends up manufacturing planes for World War II. The film was directed by King Vidor, American by birth and no relation to director Charles, although also of Hungarian ancestry.
The final film on the schedule is Elia Kazan’s acclaimed America America (1963). Kazan, who was born in Istanbul to Greek parents, adapted the story from his own 1962 book inspired by the life of his uncle. A cast of unknowns tells the story of a young man who flees political violence in Turkey in the 1890s. The film received an Academy Award for art direction and was nominated for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. Kazan acknowledged this highly personal film as his favorite among the 19 features he directed.
