PAY OR DIE
US, 1960, 111 minutes, Black and white dot
Ernest Borgnine, Zohra Lampert, Alan Austin, Robert F. Simon, Vito Scotti.
Directed by Richard Wilson.
Pay or Die is a tribute to New York policeman Joe Petrosino, who fought against the Mafia, the Black Hand, in New York City in the first decade of the 20th century. He died in the service of the police in confronting the Mafia in Sicily.
This is a small budget film written and directed by Richard Wilson who worked for many years with Orson Welles and made only a few films as director. The film re-creates the period, New York City, the crowded streets, the Italian section of Brooklyn, the shopkeepers, the religious processions, the Italian loyalties.
Ernest Borgnine has a strong role as Petrosino, a man of integrity, having difficulty with writing and spelling and so failing his captain’s exams, yet trusted by the Commissioner to establish a squad of Italian police who could go undercover to confront crime, especially the extortion demands and exercises of violence, pay or die, to those who did not conform.
Zohra Lampert is a young woman training to be a teacher, assaulted by Mafia types, in love with Petrosino and eventually marrying in.
The film recreates the period and the atmosphere of fear, the influence of Sicilian criminals getting into the United States with forged documents, keeping up their Sicilian links and exercising extortion with ruthlessness.
In 1950, MGM made The Black Hand with Gene Kelly, highlighting the New York Mafia. This film came out 12 years before The Godfather and is interesting to look at now in the light of so many bigger budget films about the period and the Mafia.
1. A 1950’s perspective on the Mafia, 1906 – 1909? A half-century after the situations? Seen in the light of subsequent Mafia classics like The Godfather?
2. Recreation of the period, New York City, Brooklyn, the streets, the shops, the religious processions, the police precincts, the New York Commissioner? Costumes and decor? The visit to Sicily, atmosphere of Palermo? The musical score?
3. The title, the Mafia and the demands? Payment by shopkeepers? Fear? The organisation, controlled from Sicily, The capo? Omerta and silence? Strict code? Killings within the organisation?
4. The film is a tribute to Joe Petrosino? His work in New York City? With the Italian community? Investigations in Sicily? His murder?
5. Ernest Borgnine as Joe? His role as a policeman, an Italian in the New York force? His wanting a special squad, the selection of the men, the briefing, their taking on ordinary jobs and being seen as part of the community? Joe and the girl falling from the rope, the rope cut? His pursuit of the criminals? The further killings? His investigations, discussions with the Commissioner? His personal life, finding it difficult to read and write? The exam and his continued failing? His friendship with Adelina, going to the shop? His thinking she was interested in Johnny? Her proposal to him? The acceptance, the wedding, the dynamite with the gifts? The continued threats to his life? The explosion outside the jewellers, the death of the children, his suspicions of the lawyer, the businessman? Infiltrating the owner of the rag depot, the confrontation with the killer, the killer hanging himself? Persuading the Commissioner that he should go to Sicily, the letters home, the documents? His returning home and the birth of the child – but his death? The funeral?
6. The collaboration of the authorities in Sicily? The arrangement of the meal, the bag with the documents? The question about the capo and his dining with him – the pursuit in the streets, the shooting?
7. Adelina, the Italian family, the bakery, the studies, the work? Tutoring Joe? The attentions of Johnny? Her proposing to Joe, the wedding, the pregnancy, hopes, fears? Her grief at his death?
8. Johnny, in the district, becoming a policeman? Joining the Italian squad? Working with Joe? Delivering the rags, tossing the baton like a policeman, the letters from Sicily, his waiting with the body lying in state, capturing the capo?
9. The various members of the squad, their enthusiasm, taking up jobs, the barber and the criminal in the chair, the arrests?
10. The criminals, ordinary Italians, then migrating from Sicily, the previous records and their crimes? The disguises, the attack on Adelina, the cripple and his rising up, the false nose…?
11. A small budget film from 1960, yet its perceptions on these aspects of Italian migration, Italian neighbourhoods in New York City, the Mafia, the influence from Sicily, the police confrontation?
