Making an American Citizen

Making an American Citizen is a 1912 silent comedy short film by the pioneering French woman filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché, produced at Solax Studios. Originally advertised as "educational drama" or "educational subject," it grapples with the theme of immigration, assimilation, and of becoming a "good American." The film carries an explicit feminist message: the lopsided power dynamics in an immigrant couple becomes increasingly equalized, as the couple spends more time in America. The wife learns to stand up to her husband's abuses, while the husband is repeatedly coerced by other American citizens into treating his wife as his equal, until he is able to internalize the ethos of the Progressive Era. The film works to allay anxieties over Eastern European immigrant men bringing "Old World" patriarchal values and practices to the "New World." Plot Ivan Orloff (Lee Beggs) and his unnamed wife (Blanche Cornwall) are poor peasants, presumably living in the Russian Empire. Ivan is shown sitting on a cart while his wife walks alongside their horse, helping to pull the cart. The husband whips both the horse and his wife indiscriminately. The wife is represented as completely subordinated, as just another beast. On their way, they meet a group of emigrants who invite Ivan to join them. When Ivan, together with his wife, arrives in America, "the land of freedom," he learns four "lesson[s] in Americanism" that turn him into a respectful husband with regard to his wife. The first lesson takes place upon landing. Ivan has his wife carry a huge bundle on her back. When she succumbs under the weight of the bundle, Ivan starts prodding her with a stick, threatening to beat her. A gentleman approaches them, picks up the bundle and puts it on Ivan's back. The gentleman takes the stick from Ivan, hands it to the wife and shows her how to prod Ivan.