Summary
In the teeming, polyglot labyrinth of early 20th-century New York, Luigi Riccardo stands as a bastion of Old World artistry, his hands breathing life into the wooden marionettes that entertain the denizens of Little Italy. Yet, while he manipulates the strings of his puppets, he finds himself ensnared in the far more sinister threads of Tammany-style political machinations. Having endured a five-year separation from his beloved Maria and daughter Tessa, Luigi’s anticipation of their arrival is curdled by the predatory ward boss Regan. When Luigi refuses to grease the palms of the local political machine, his path to naturalization is deliberately obstructed. The cruelty reaches a crescendo when Regan coerces a physician at Ellis Island to fabricate medical disqualifications for Luigi's family, threatening to shatter his American dream. It is only through the intervention of Sam Potts, a cynical yet ultimately principled journalist, and the muscle of a local prizefighter, that a trap is set to expose Regan’s venality. The film serves as a poignant, often harrowing exploration of the immigrant’s struggle against systemic calcification and the search for a genuine civic identity.
Synopsis
Luigi Riccardo, the proprietor of a marionette theater in New York's Little Italy, eagerly anticipates the arrival of his wife Maria and daughter Tessa, whom he has not seen in five years. Luigi dreams of becoming an American citizen, but because he refuses to make graft payments to Regan, the ward boss, he is informed that he will not receive his naturalization papers. When Regan orders Dr. Ross, an Ellis Island physician, to classify Maria and Tessa as unfit to enter the country, Luigi becomes wild with grief. Newspaper reporter Sam Potts learns of the Italian's misfortune and, through local prizefighter Bump Rundle, offers Regan a phony bribe in exchange for Luigi's papers. Regan accepts and Sam exposes him publicly, enabling Luigi to welcome his wife and daughter as American citizens.
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