First of all this movie has Ernie Borgnine in it so enjoy the movie for that reason. Then, we get to experience little Italy in its start stage which offers no end of things to take in and enjoy. Cars, clothing, life-style and how to make a living is all visited with and educational too. That's what is so good about these old black & whites. They end up being slices of history and entertaining too. Al Capone used to do the same thing they do in this movie i.e. extort money from people who have little choice but to pay. Police protection only worked well for police and not 100% of the time either. Anyone else was basically on their own and the movie captures this quite well. There is also a little bit of the Elliot Ness of the famous Untouchables in this movie. A special squad is put together to fight back Italian to Italian which ups the ante considerably. Entertaining and amusing story of one man's life to stand-up and make a difference even at the cost of his life? That's a good value lesson. Good movie to eat a sandwich and have a tasty drink with. Put up or shut up? NO! It's more serious than that! Pay or Die!

Smoothly done crime drama based on an actual New York crime fighter. Police Lt. Petrosino (Borgnine) is proud of his Italian heritage, but rues presence of Mafia elements in New York's Little Italy. Thus he dedicates himself to cracking open the secret web that extracts money from honest shopkeepers. There is, of course, some violence but it's not spread on thickly, which keeps the story in central focus. Petrosino's personal life is somewhat complicated by an Italian girl (Lampert) whom he's attracted to. (At least that gets a pretty girl into what's otherwise an all male cast!) Trouble is he's middle-aged while she's attracted to a younger guy. So, all in all, will he be able to get beyond crime's chokehold on the neighborhood and maybe help his private life at the same time. Borgnine delivers in robust fashion appearing in most every scene. His cop is likable, maybe too much so for the toughness he must display—but that's debatable. Lampert's a pleasant surprise as the neighborhood girl. I can see why the cop was stuck on her. Too bad actress Lampert didn't have an A-list career; she certainly had the talent. It's also a strong supporting cast of ordinary looking guys that fit their part, including familiar stalwarts like Simon and Marley. There's also a general and well-placed refusal to glamorize anybody or anything. Little Italy thus comes across as a struggling ethnic neighborhood looking for a chance to enter the American mainstream, but held back by criminal elements carried over from the old country. All in all, it's an engaging movie with a few surprises that holds interest despite a lengthy runtime. Just as importantly, it shows that a lead actor doesn't have to be handsome in order to win an audience.(In passing— It was about this time (1960) that the similarly themed The Untouchables with Robert Stack started its popular run on TV (1959-63).)

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.

This movie stars Ernest Borgnine in a straight dramatic role, and he pulls it off quite well. Set in New York City in 1906, newly arrived Italian immigrants are preyed upon by the Black Hand (La Mana Nera), which eventually became the Mafia. Borgnine plays lieutenant Petrosino, an immigrant himself, who realizes that the new immigrants will not cooperate with the police because the police in Italy were corrupt, and they expect the same in their new country. Petrosino realizes that he needs a squad of men - immigrants themselves - who speak the language, and can convince the people that things are different here. The Police Comissioner - who happens to be Teddy Roosevelt - agrees with him, and he gets his Italian Squad. Some violence ensues, as the Squad goes about breaking the power of the Black Hand, including a plot to kill Enrico Caruso, the greatest tenor of his time. Zhora Lampert plays the role of Petrosino's girlfriend, and later wife with excellent restraint, and the final scenes (this is a true story) are wrenching.