Evening star., 1960-07-01

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Producer Richard Wilson d
or Die" which opened yesterd
leaps backward over the Capone
of the Malta in New York
shortly after the turn of the
century.
The result, sad to say, is a
less than sensational melo-I
drama. In its own terms, it is
well enough put together with
an effective star performance
by Ernest Borgnine, but its
elements are too familiar to
lift it above the level of routine
thriller.
The chief distinction of Pay
Or Die" is that it presents an
Italian as hero instead of vil-
lain in the screenplay written
by Richard Collins and BertramI
Milhauser. This is Borgnine's
man, himself a son of Sicily
who, as a New York police
Lieutenant, undertakes to make
Gotham's Little Italy safe for
a majority of emigrees who
came here to create a new and
better life.
To protect them from an
international crime syndicate
of such cruelty and cunning
as the Mafia is an out-size job
for even a police officer as
dedicated and stubborn as
Borgnine. Nevertheless, thanks
to the sympathetic assistance
of an understanding police
commissioner, conditions are
looking up when Borgnine and
his italian Squad" have fin
ished their work in PAY Or
Die"
The authors and director
Of the Palace film seek to
freshen it by putting its heavy
stress upon the personal story
of 1t. Joseph Petrosino, played
by Borgnine. He is presented
as a sort of police department
Marty" q shy, bumbling, fear
less type with the best of in
tentionS.
When the Black Hand bru-
talities, beatings, burnings.
wreckings Of small business
houses, ETC., are not keeping
him busy, Borgnine is occupied
with two private concerns. One
of these is humbly backing
away from Zohra Lampert's
obvious love for him, his retreat
based upon the assumption that
he is not good enough for SO
educated and pretty a girl. The
other is studying for a special
police examination that will
enable him to become New
York's first Italian police
captain.
Director Wilson gives PAY
Or Die" a kind of documentary
realism, keeps it moving at a
passable pace, and achieves q
suitable balance between its
suspenseful and light-hearted
sequences. What he is unable
to do is to keep the picture al
the Palace from a too close re-
semblance to too many others
of the same genre.
MEDITATION: Next time
someone, maybe anyone, tell:
this corner he never goes tC
the movies any more because
all they deal with is sex, we're
going to ask:
did you see Conspiracy oi
Hearts at the Ontario?"
Critics everywhere, including
the local three, raved about
the English film as one of the
noblest contemplations Of hu'
man nature in months, and alsC
one of the best-made films ol
the year. But the business il
is doing is only moderate, tt
the complete bafflement of th'
trade which has listened tt
endless protests that too man!
films are over-sexed, over
violent or untrue to the decenc,
that characterizes the averag
human.
MEMOS: In addition to twC
additional matinee perform
ances weekly, the Stanley War
ner theater has scheduled fou
special youth performances
of Ben Hur" during the sum
mer. The first of these, a.
of which are set for 10 am
will be July 8; the other thre
July % and 20, and August II
incidentally, speaking O
special performances, all neigh
borhood houses will have matt
nees on July 4.
On the subject Of date'
Theater Guild America
Theater Society subscribers ar
hereby notified that they hav
only until next Tuesday to re
new and receive their sam