American Girl, An - the Problems of Prejudice (Part III) (1958)
1958 · Ephemeral film · 10 min
Synopsis
An adolescent girl in a small town tests her democratic heritage when she pretends to be Jewish and encounters prejudice. She explores the problem of anti-Semitism by reading her diary at a PTA meeting.
Synopsis, reviewed
Details
- Running time
- 10 minutes
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
- Internet Archive item
- american_girl_3
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · Jewish Ideals as Fashion Statement · Spuzz · 2003-10-13
When I first started watching this film and came across it's bombastic beginning dedicating this film t teens with bombastic decency (note the underlining) I thought for sure it was going to be this social guidance melodrama. What I DIDN'T know was that it was going to be of all things, anti-semitism! A teenage girl gets a bracelet for her birthday by her otherwise bothersome (but great) younger sister. She goes back to the jeweler with her friends when she finds out there is a second part to it. That second part is a star of David pendant! Her friends, and soon, pretty much the whole town…
★★★★★ · American Girl...comes across · ERD · 2010-02-15
"An American Girl ... " was well written,acted and directed. This excellent short film has an important moral message by showing the ugliness of prejudisim. While I feel the problem is less noticable now,(I remember there was a lot of such attitudes in the suburbs back in the 1950's)),it's unfortuantely still here today.
★★★★ · ? · anthology_of · 2009-08-27
It's a wonderful three-part short, but when the father mentions the War, it's not explained to the girl in context. He brushes over it, leaving her with, "The War is over,.." . With this being produced and released in 1958, it seems odd that it wasn't expanded upon in dialogue. Given that the shorts main goal was prejudice, but I think it would have helped Norma if his statement had been expanded upon. GREAT SHORT, REGARDLESS.