Richie-67-485852 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!

lindarae1948 I am the great half niece of Lt. Petrosino. I have seen the movie many years ago and have been trying to purchase it on either video or DVD for many years now. Ernest Borgnine did a great job playing the part of Lt. Petrosino. If anyone knows how to purchase this movie, could you please email me? I have tried to contact the Petrosino Lodge (Sons of Italy) without success and have been searching many websites. It is something I would love my children and grandchildren to see and to have. I can remember my Uncle Joe Petrosino, who looks much like Lt. Guiseppe Petrosino, who now all go by Petrosine. Thank you for any input... Please email me at [email protected]

barhand2002 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".

telegonus This 1960 crime drama was directed by Richard Wilson, who had just made a highly successful film on the life of Al Capone the previous year, and does another fine job with this one, set in New York's Little Italy in the early twentieth century. Ernest Borgnine is the hero, a policeman who takes on the dreaded "Black Hand" that was terrorizing shopkeepers and various other innocent, law-abiding people by forcing them to pay "protection money" (or else). It's the usual cops and robbers story, but with more heart than most, and with an unusual setting, stunningly realized by set designer Darrell Silvera. That the story happens to be based on fact gives the movie gravitas. Although it's filmed as melodrama the film is in many respects a semi-documentary of tenement life, much of it sadly true. There's nothing romantic about the Mafia depicted in this movie. They're presented as the brutal thugs they really are, without a trace of sentimentality. The sympathy here is all for the poor people of the streets, and for the man who was their champion.