The film stars stage actor George Beban in the title role as the Italian immigrant, Pietro "Beppo" Donnetti.

In the prologue, a stage curtain rises and shows the lead actor, George Beban, in an upper class apartment wearing a smoking jacket.

Some critics have suggested the prologue and epilogue were intended to demonstrate the care with which Beban, a noted stage actor, had selected a story worthy of his talents.

[3] The Italian marked the first motion picture role for Beban, who had gained acclaim as a Broadway actor and vaudevillian specializing in ethnic caricatures.

[5] Though set on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the New York scenes for The Italian were shot in the immigrant quarter of San Francisco.

"[8] In a story on the production of The Italian, a newspaper reported that a hundred pounds of rice were bought for the film's wedding scene.

The pathos of the child's death because of the lack of necessities and the imprisonment of the poor Italian furnish the real lesson of the Ghetto.

The upward glance when the heart was bitten again by the fangs of emotion, the hysterical joy of the Latin nature when in high spirits, all these phrases were delineated by this artist in a way that moved and thrilled.

"[14]A newspaper in San Antonio, Texas praised the "vein of innocent humor" that runs through the film at the expense of Beppo and concluded: "'The Italian' is regarded as Thomas H. Ince's masterpiece and is said to be greater than his 'Wrath of the Gods,' 'The Typhoon' and 'The Bargain.

In 2008, The Italian was released on DVD as part of a two-disc compilation titled, "Perils of the New Land: Films of the Immigrant Experience (1910-1915)."

[6] The Times also praised Beban's "powerful lead performance" which it described as follows:"The audience is drawn to identify with Beppo, even though he remains in many respects an appalling ethnic caricature: dark, brooding, vengeful.

That Barker and Beban are able to create so much sympathy for Beppo, despite their own, occasionally quite obvious condescension to the character, is a mark of emerging maturity in the movie business; no longer are films dealing in one-dimensional 'types.

'"[6]The Los Angeles Times in 2008 described The Italian as "a shameless melodrama that, despite unfortunate stereotypes, musters considerable sympathy for its titular immigrant.

The film publication Cineaste published a review of The Italian in March 2009, focusing on the film's depiction of the Italian-American immigrant experience as a Darwinian jungle rather than a promised land paved with gold:"Against Horatio Alger expectations, The Italian is a story of failure suffused with a soft-focused, dappled nostalgia for the old country ... 'From sunny Italy to the New York ghetto,' read the taglines on Paramount's original one-sheet, contrasting scenes of 'carefree Beppo at home' in the serene canals of Old Italy with the mean streets of New York where 'to live your baby must have Pasteurized milk.'

Even here, in its infancy, feature film was eager to pick up the call for social reform that sounded out in urban America before the First World War.

A review in DVD Talk concluded that Beban's performance was able to overcome the film's melodramatic premise:"Beppo is a delightful character ... His rage after being robbed was another standout moment.