Italians, and by that I mean both Italians from Italy and Italian Americans from the United States, are stock characters in American film and TV. They are easy to recognize and gaining a familiarity with them is both edifying and entertaining. Let’s take a look at how they have developed over the years.

1940s
In the film It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr and Mrs Martini (William Edmunds and Argentina Brunetti) are immigrants who run a bar in Bedford Falls, a quaint town in upstate New York where George Bailey (James Stewart) reluctantly heads a small bank that he has inherited from his father.