Alice Guy's Solax one-reeler "A Man's a Man" is somewhat interesting because the poor man in its class division is explicitly stated to be Jewish--not that one would know if the title cards, in the old-fashioned mode of describing proceeding actions, didn't tell us he was. Hence, the film's title, of Jew and Gentile both being men. Albeit, the Gentile in this one is a rich criminal who gets away with knocking over the Jewish vendor's apples intentionally and, then, running over and killing his daughter with his car. The poor man shows mercy, however, in hiding the rich guy from a mob and, a year later, while they're both putting flowers on the late daughter's grave.
Except for the ethnic part, the scenario seemed very familiar, and as it turns out I rather recently saw another film about class and the rich guy running over the poor family's child, Thanhouser's "The Two Roses" (1910). And, these are hardly the only films I'm sure to run kiddies over with those then-newfangled automobiles. So, no points for originality to Guy here in what is an otherwise relatively bland social-problem drama executed in a dated tableau fashion. Its redeeming value being in its historical interest for the representation of Jewish characters, although on that account, too, her fellow French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès tackled anti-Semitism more head-on and more than a decade prior in "The Dreyfus Affair" (1899).
Plus, according to Guy-expert Allison McMahan (author of "Alice Guy-Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema"), "Guy herself depicted Jews as stereotypical pawnbrokers and loansharks in other films." Not surprising given she also made the relatively-commendable early race film "A Fool and His Money" (1912), but resorted to racist gags in other films. McMahan also situates "A Man's a Man" with Guy's "Making an American Citizen" (1912), commenting on how it's surprising, as having immigrated to the U. S. from France, that she didn't make more movies about those identified as foreigners and their Americanization. On the other hand, at least Guy didn't do what fellow female filmmaker Lois Weber did in making a film supposedly against anti-Semitism for which its problems are rather self-explanatory from its title, "The Jew's Christmas" (1913).