Pay or Die!

The film comes from real events. At its centre is Joseph Petrosino. Petrosino was a lieutenant in the New York police. His district was Little Italy. An organisation collecting protection money worked there. It was called the Black Hand. Letters were sent to shopkeepers. The letters demanded payment. Anyone who did not pay was harmed. Petrosino put together a squad for it. The squad came to be called the Italian Squad. The years run from 1906 to 1909. A plot to kill a man is uncovered as well. Its target is the tenor Enrico Caruso. Ernest Borgnine and Zohra Lampert take the leads in Richard Wilson’s American film of 1960.