Pay Or Die is the story of Police Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino and his struggle against the infamous Black Hand who has moved over from the old country in Sicily and is terrorizing the new Italian immigrants just trying to make it in a new country. The Black Hand is sad to say an unhappy reminder of what they left.During the course of the film at one point Ernest Borgnine and Zohra Lampert as Mrs. Petrosino drink a toast to President Theodore Roosevelt. It's not just an idle toast. Not told in the film is the fact that as Police Commissioner, Roosevelt recognized the talent in Petrosino and made him a personal protégé and started his climb up the NYPD promotion ladder.What attracted TR to Petrosino is the no nonsense way he dealt with criminals. Petrosino was not a guy who believed in civil liberties and rights for criminals. He'd be lost in a world of Miranda. But he was as he saw it representing the forces of law and order against a completely ruthless enemy. Just the guy you need to fight a war on terror.His life and tragic death are dealt with in a way that makes Petrosino terribly human. Zohra Lampert's character who marries Petrosino survived him by decades, dying in 1957. She and Borgnine make a perfect couple on screen. In the supporting cast Robert Ellenstein stands out as an Italian shyster lawyer who gets a really tragic comeuppance.Pay Or Die is a well constructed albeit B picture without any frills. It holds up well for today and should be in the ranks of great gangster films.

As I am writing this, it's star, Mr. Ernest Borgnine, has just received a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild, and is still an active performer in his mid-nineties. With his Oscar for MARTY, and his performances in films like FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, THE CATERED AFFAIR, THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, THE WILD BUNCH, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE, and numerous other titles (and a stint as Lt. Quinton McHale on television) it has been a long and varied and distinguished career - far worthier than the shocked dismissal he received when he got that Oscar. Congratulations Mr. Borgnine.Definitely one of his high points was this 1960 crime film/biography on the career of the detective on the New York Police force, Lt. Joseph Petrosino. Joe Petrosino is the perfect answer to bigots who only see Italian Americans as linked to crime by being criminals. In fact he was determined to eradicate those very criminals who were preying on the hard working Italian Americans in the United States. And he came damn close to doing so Petrosino made the Black Hand a personal study to the point that he was THE expert on it. He kept up pressure on the mob and undid much of their damage on the Italian-American community. But not all of it - it was too well organized for only this one man to fight. In 1909 he had a bright idea of traveling to Sicily and tracing the leadership of the mob to it's root. Brilliant in concept it was fool-hearty in actual practice. Petrosino was shot to death in Palermo.The killer was never tried and convicted, and it looks like Petrosino (in following his information) may have been set up.This version with Mr. Borgnine is pretty close to the actual story of the extortion/murder gang of the BLACK HAND and the Lieutenant's fight against them. And it does go to the tragic conclusion...which is handled so well that repeated watchings make one feel that maybe this time Borgnine will escape. Of course it does not (and sadly could not) happen.He is recalled for his bravery and struggle and his murder by New York's finest and the people he tried to protect. As for the mob boss in Sicily - he did not quite escape his deserved fate. A more evil man, Mussolini, did not like the mob because they were setting up a rival power group to his. The mob boss was arrested in the late 1920s and found guilty of some criminal charges requiring imprisonment. He was put into a dungeon like prison on an island near the mainland. During World War II Il Duce ordered the prison be abandoned and it's staff and prisoners taken to mainland prisons...except this boss. He was left abandoned and locked up, and either was killed in some Allied bombing or starved to death.

To me Pay or die was one of the greatest pictures of all time, I am very sorry it hasn't been shown much since 1969. Ernest Borgnine is one my favorite actors, and this picture really describes what really went on in the early 1900's on the Lower East Side of NYC.It's a picture that should be shown more often and available on DVD everywhere, and also one you can rent from your video store.I would like to see this picture shown more often on TV especially on the fox movie channel or Turner Classic movies or even if PBs shows it.This movie was the best movie pre-Godfather, and Ernest Borgnine gave a great performance as Lt.Joseph Petrocino

This is a fine old film about the beginnings of the mafia in America. Their nemesis was the Italian squad of the NYPD of which my grandfather was a part and whose notes and case books were used in the making of the film. The mafia at the time was called the black hand and was made up in this country of cheap hoods who mostly ran protection rackets on the small business owners of little Italy. They were backed by the dons in Sicily and the Italian squad's task was to shut the rackets down. They tried hard but the squad was pretty much broken up after the death of Lt. Petrosino in Sicily. This film shows the good and bad guys of the time and what my grandfather called, very un-pc,"one guinea killing another".