Pay or Die

Pay or Die is a 1960 American biographical and crime film directed by Richard Wilson and starring Ernest Borgnine, Zohra Lampert, Howard Caine, Alan Austin, and Robert F. Simon. The film is a dramatization of the career of New York City police officer Joseph Petrosino, a pioneer in the fight against organized crime in America. The film deals primarily with Petrosino and his Italian Squad's opposition to the extortion rackets of the Black Hand in lower Manhattan's Little Italy. Plot The rookie Petrosino convinces the Police Commissioner of New York City to allow him to form a special squad to combat The Black Hand on its own grounds, as success depends on the ability to speak Italian and to convince the ordinary citizens of the tenements that gangsters are not heroes to worship. Petrosino's initial opponent is Lupo Miano, a leading extorntionist. But he soon suspects it runs deeper than Lupo's obvious rackets. Rather shy socially, Petrosino is astonished to find out that the daughter of a family he assisted, Adelina Saulino, is in love with him, and they are eventually married.