PAY OR DIE! was the ‘offer they couldn’t refuse’ made to honest, struggling families in New York City’s immigrant neighborhood Little Italy in the early 1900s. The threat came from thugs of ‘The Black Hand’, a Mafia spawned extortion society that found fertile new ground in the United States. Richard Wilson (Al Capone, Raw Wind In Eden) directed the vivid 1960 crime biodrama with a script by Richard Collins (Riot In Cell Block 11) and Bertram Millhauser (The Suspect). The story focuses on the efforts of Italian-American police lieutenant Joseph Petrosino (1860-1909), who formed a squad to combat the gangsters terrorizing the inhabitants.

Front and center in the lead, Ernest Borgnine, 42, is superb as hearty yet humble, determined and fearless Petrocino, a rich, full-bodied characterization of an authentic up-from-the-streets hero. This plum part is not one of his many colorful dependable secondary or supporting roles in more famous pictures but is right up there with Marty as one of his best, and easily the best of a brief slate of leading man jobs he drew for a few years after Marty scooped him an Oscar. *

Tense, with some fairly nasty passages depicting the ruthless tactics of the hoods. Lucien Ballard’s camerawork is a plus. The only drawback is a strident, atonal score from David Raksin which too frequently makes enough racket to be heard in Sicily. A gross of $4,300,000 seized spot #63 in ’60, doing more business than a good number of higher profile pictures including Pollyanna, Sons And Lovers, Wild River and Inherit The Wind. **

With Zohra Lampert, Renata Vanni, Robert F. Simon, Robert Ellenstein, Howard Caine (as Enrico Caruso), Vito Scotti, John Marley, Barry Russo, Paul Birch. 111 minutes.

* Ernest Borgnine, leading man? You betcha: The Catered Affair, The Rabbit Trap, Season Of Passion, Man On A String.

** 1957’s Baby Face Nelson and then the television hit of The Untouchables (1959-63) ushered in a slate of period crime flicks like Al Capone, Portrait Of A Mobster, Murder Inc., The Rise And Fall Of Legs Diamond, King Of The Roaring 20s, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, Mad Dog Coll…

Theodore Roosevelt: “Petrosino was a great man and a good man. I knew him for years, and he did not know the name of fear.” Two hundred thousand people attended his funeral.

Joe Petrosino