ck. In the film, he has been named Nick Smith, but in the book, he has a long Greek name and is identified over and over as the Greek. The name Nick is the only Greek element left in the film, and Cecil Kellaway, who plays the role, is actually Irish and makes no attempt to bring any ethnic flavor to the role at all. As depicted, Nick is a less foreign element in the community than he was in the book. He is not seen as a foreign element at all.
Frank is subtly depicted as a foreign element, however, not because of any overt ethnicity but for subtle reasons. John Garfield plays the role. In real life, he was Jewish, but this element was brought to the fore only in Gentleman's Agreement a couple of years later. He played ethnic roles, though, as in Tortilla Flat. In this film, he has a flat American name--Frank Chambers--and has no ethnic identification at all. Indeed, none of the central characters has a name that identifies them as part of an ethic group--the lawyer is Arthur Keats, the
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