Black Hand (1950) User Reviews

Pay or Die

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 23 September 2005]

**SPOILERS** Not to be confused with the ultra-nationalistic and deadly Serbian Black Hand of the same period, the early 1900's, the "Mano Nera", or "Black Hand" in Italian. The hoods operated in the heavily Italian immigrant neighborhoods in New York City were made up from of gang of ruthless thugs from the old country who used intimidation kidnapping and murder to extort the local population by paying them protection money.

Roberto Columbo,Peter Brocco, had just about had it from the shake-downs he was subjected to and goes, secretly, to see a local police official to give evidence against the Black Hand. Unknown to Roberto the police, or who he thought are the police, are in together with the Black Hand and instead of being protected by them he ends up dead with a stiletto in his back. Eight years later Roberto's son Johnny, Gene Kelly,now 22 is back from Italy, after he and his mother fled for their lives to escape the Black Hand,seeking revenge for his fathers murder.

Early organized crime Hollywood movie that actually uses the word "Mafia" in it long before it became commonplace in the American public's vocabulary. In fact the far more famous and highly acclaimed Academy Award winning movie "The Godfather", which was released some 22 years later in 1972, doesn't mention the word even once.

Falling in love with his childhood sweetheart Isbellla Gomboli, Teresa Celli, Johnny realizes that he'll put her and her young eight year old brother Rudi, Jimmy Ragano, lives in jeopardy by trying to use violence against the shake-down artists and kidnappers of the Black Hand. With the help of an old family friend police inspector Louis Lorelli, J. Carrol Naish, Johnny opts to use the criminal Justice system to put the thugs behind bars.

Getting nowhere with no one willing to testify against them and even getting worked over by the Black Hand for trying to put them out of business, and behind bars, Johnny comes up with a legal technicality that's air tight. An active criminal record, or rap sheet, of the gang members dating back to their native Italy. The Italian rap sheet would have the hoods deported back home as undesirable aliens by lying about their past convictions! It would b enough to put the Black Hand members, who all have Italian criminal records, on a boat back to Italy and a long stretch in an Italian prison.

Taking a long vacation from the New York Police Department Inspector Lorelli goes to Italy to amass information on the New York based Black Hand members and mail it back, to a secret post office box, to Johhny who's now a lawyer for the NYC Justice Department but he's murdered by local mobsters. Before he was killed Lorelli did put the important envelope in a mailbox.

It's now up to Johnny to get the information that the late Inspector Lorelli sent him to the courts but the Black Hand struck first by kidnapping Isbella's young brother Rudi and holding him hostage until Johnny reveals where the post office box is and gives them the key to open it. Johnny now has to choose between Rudi's life and the end of the dreaded Black Hand who murdered his father.

Slam bang final with Johnny Columbo blasting his way out of the Black Hand hideout, that he was held prisoner in, and then having it out with the Black Hand's Mr. Big himself Caesar Xavier Serpi, Marc Lawrence, as he tries to keep Serpi from destroying Inspt. Lorelli's Italian police criminal records on him and his fellow hoods. "Black Hand" is much better then most crime movies made at that time that has to do with criminal organizations like the Mafia by not having the usual formalized Hollywood plot-line. The film doesn't have everything and everyone in it being either all good or all bad but a little, or a lot, bit of both.

Extortionists in Little Italy

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 21 January 2011]

Black Hand came about when Gene Kelly asked Louis B. Mayer for a change of pace from his musical films. According to the Citadel film series book The Films Of Gene Kelly, Mayer was inclined to give it to him because Kelly was coming off big hits like On The Town and Take Me Out To The Ballgame and Summer Stock, all of which more than returned their money. Without Kelly's name Black Hand would have been a nice, but routine gangster film set in Little Italy in the ragtime years of the last century. It came from MGM's B picture unit so a whole lot of money wasn't spent on it.

Kelly plays a young kid who saw his father stand up to the Black Hand in America and be killed for it. The father was a lawyer in the old country and Kelly had the same ambition. When he grows up he returns to America with the burning ambition to find out who is extorting the immigrants in America and take them down. Having that same ambition is police lieutenant J. Carrol Naish who Kelly joins forces with.

Although Kelly gets star billing, it's really Naish that carries the film although he's killed three quarters of the way into the story. His character is based on the real life Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino who had a biographical film of his own ten years later in Pay Or Die where Ernest Borgnine starred. Naish was Hollywood's all purpose ethnic, good at every kind of nationality with every dialect you can imagine.

Oddly enough Kelly really has no handle on how to deal with the Black Hand, they're beating him up and besting him at every turn until the very end when a stroke of luck that nearly kills him causes the tables to be turned. But you have to watch the film to see exactly what.

Black Hand was a decent routine costume noir for lack of a better term as it is not set in the present day. It certainly did Kelly's career no harm as he got good reviews for the part.

Turn-of-the-century ethnic crime drama shows points of interest but falls short of potential

[bmacv · 7/10 · 23 August 2002]

With its scenes of extortion and murder in the Italian-American community of Manhattan's Lower East Side at the turn of the century, The Black Hand inevitably calls to mind the flashbacks to young Vito Corleone's start in The Godfather, Part II. And while it's far from that league, there's much in The Black Hand to admire.

Eight years after the murder of his father, an Italian immigrant, for daring to oppose the criminal organization called The Black Hand (the script also calls it The Mafia and The Comorra), young Gene Kelly returns to New York to pursue his vendetta. With the help of police detective J. Carrol Naish, he tries to organize the tenement neighborhood to resist the reign of intimidation and terror. But the mob has moles who anticipate and thwart his every move. When Naish travels to Naples on the case, he's killed, but not before mailing an envelope of incriminating photos to Kelly. But the little brother of Kelly's girlfriend (Teresa Celli) is kidnapped, with the envelope serving as ransom....

Among the movie's admirable points are the thoughtful, rather restrained script and foreboding nightscapes, both in New York and Naples, which lend the film a noirish tinge (as do a couple of adroitly staged moments of suspense). But the story occasionally rambles off into rhetoric about the exploitation of the immigrant underclass by politicians and police – valid points, but not presented dramatically. Another dramaturgical shortcoming is that the many characters haven't been sufficiently individuated, leaving a generic ethnic muddle. The romantic angle is oddly subdued, too. The Black Hand shows signs of an interesting and ambitious production that nonetheless falls somewhat short of what it might have been.

Low rent Godfather sans the glamor

[st-shot · 6/10 · 31 July 2010]

After his father is murdered for standing up to the mob Johnny Columbo swears to avenge his death. Well entrenched in Little Italy the Mafia uses violence and intimidation to keep the community in its grip and Columbo finds it difficult at first to get assistance in breaking the code of silence that solidify's their grip. When he enlists the help of detective Louis Lorelli things begin to happen and the mob responds harshly.

Gene Kelly in an off type role as Johnny is a slight stretch (it begs for Richard Conti) but convincing enough. It is J. Carroll Naish as intrepid detective Lorelli though that runs away with the film. It's nice to see J. center stage and noble given his career as a venal and craven weakling in many of his films hanging on the edge of scenes, ready to pounce on someone's misfortune.

Workman like director Richard Thorpe more than once allows his scenes to drag in spots but cinematographer Paul Vogels excellent camera work fills the suspense lapses with excellently lit exteriors and some nice subtle tracking work. There are Lang like moments as well with Thorpe eschewing suspense music in favor of silence and ambient noise to heighten scenes but his poor pacing and moments of incredulity prevent the film from reaching full potential.

There is certainly more ugly truth to be found in the film Black Hand that deals with the same topic of the Mafia as the more sophisticated violently romantic Godfather films. Pale in comparison to the production values, vaunted cast and and directing styles of the saga it still delivers moments that rival.

Better than you might expect!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 22 October 2014]

Sandwiched between On the Town and Summer Stock, this film represented a radical change of vehicle for Gene Kelly. According to MGM's publicity, he requested the role himself. As it turned out, it did his career no harm. In tact, it boosted his macho image and was surprisingly successful at the box office, returning a handsome dividend for a modest investment.

Apart from the dialogue scenes, it is difficult to credit the film to director Richard Thorpe, as the action footage is brilliant in every way. The script is exciting too (we like the character of the bodyguard assigned to Naish), although it is not as well constructed as the later version, Pay Or Die (which starred Ernest Borgnine in the Naish role). For this one, MGM's art department have constructed some marvelous sets, which are superbly lit by cinematographer Paul C. Vogel. The performances are also better than we might expect. Kelly is capable enough in a fight and reasonably convincing as an Italian. J. Carroll Naish plays without his usual hammy mannerisms and Teresa Celli is also impressive in what transpired to be her first and only starring role. She made her film debut as the Mexican wife in Border Incident, and subsequently appeared in Nancy Goes to Rio, The Asphalt Jungle, Crisis, Right Cross and The Great Caruso after which she disappeared briefly into TV.

Black Hand also marks the only film appearance of stage actress Eleonora Mendelssohn, a former star for producer Max Reinhardt in Berlin and a great-great-granddaughter of composer Felix Mendelssohn.

All in all, suspenseful, well-produced entertainment. (Even Bosley Crowther agrees with us.) The whole idea doesn't sound all that appealing or even workable, but MGM have brought it off with honors.

Mano nera

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 20 July 2022]

What we have is a competently made film that blends elements of noir with the gangster genre. It also has the requisite love story which somehow does not get in the way.

Sometimes MGM's efforts at crime drama were too sterile, but this one is down and dirty which it must be if you're telling a tale about mafia clans and retribution. Of course, the usual studio polish is applied in terms of direction, camera work and performances, but these aspects of the film do not draw extra attention to themselves. Instead the focus is on providing the audience with a gritty slice of life in Little Italy.

Perhaps the film's strongest asset is Gene Kelly, totally cast against type. He's playing a young Italian man who returns to New York City from Europe to avenge his father's murder. Fresh off the boat, he runs into a girl from the old neighborhood (Teresa Celli) who agrees to help him. Her relatives, except for a kid brother in her care, were all killed in an explosion that was set off by a killer connected to the mob. They have much in common in terms of what they've both lost, plus there are romantic feelings developing between them.

Added into the mix are a few important supporting characters. One of them is Marc Lawrence as a leader of organized crime that the cops have not been able to nail yet. He hangs around like a bad smell, upsetting the efforts of Kelly and Celli to create a citizens' league that will root out local corruption.

We also have Barry Kelley's turn as a decent police captain, as well as one of his underlings, a detective played by J. Carrol Naish. Mr. Naish shines in his role as a fellow Italian on the right side of the law, intent on bringing the big goons to justice and cleaning up the streets. His character is supposedly based on Joseph Petrosino, a real-life NYPD investigator who went up against the mob in the early 1900s and was murdered when he sought to deport several powerful kingpins.

In our story, Kelly goes to work for Naish, while studying to be a lawyer. Together they seek to end the extortion rackets that are occurring in Little Italy. Anyone in the neighborhood who opposes the mafia and refuses to pay protection money faces great danger. Letters are received by the store owners that demand payment or else terrible things will happen. Things like the kidnapping of innocent children; homes being burned to the ground; as well as hits carried out that result in sudden death. The messages are signed with a mano nera-- a black hand. Hence the film's title.

There are several suspenseful sequences. The first one involves Naish's murder, when he travels to Palermo, Italy to obtain criminal records on a few bosses that he wants to deport. There is a cat-and-mouse chase, filmed on MGM's backlot, which leads to Naish's character being slain.

The second notable sequence occurs late in the picture and concerns the abduction of Celli's brother. Kelly goes undercover, with only his knife to fend off possible harm. He is temporarily outsmarted by some hoods and is held hostage himself. He manages to ensure the safe release of the boy, before he sets off a bomb that sends a bunch of criminals to hell.

Supposedly Kelly's role was intended for Robert Taylor who was too busy making westerns at this time. Though he'd played a serious dramatic part on loan to Universal in the thriller CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944), it wasn't until he appeared in BLACK HAND (1950) that Gene Kelly had his first non-musical role at MGM. His dialogue in Italian is convincingly spoken. And he does such a fine job here alongside Naish and Celli, one wishes he'd been given more of these types of assignments.

Vendetta

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 18 January 2008]

This film is a curiosity because of the casting of the main role, Johnny Columbo, played by Gene Kelly, an talented actor better known for his contribution to musicals, and for direction. A seldom film these days, "Black Hand", is at best a crime picture about the turn of the century mafia groups that preyed on decent folks eking a life in their adopted country.

Directed by Richard Thorpe, and with a screen play by Luther Davis, the picture presents an urban drama in which a powerful organized machinery wrecks havoc among Italians. Johnny Columbo had seen his own father killed a the hand of a criminal element that had a lot of power and seeks to avenge his father, as well as to expose the bandits that controlled the extortion and crime.

Gene Kelly does what he could in a role that asked a lot of him in a dramatic way. J. Carrol Naish, a wonderful character actor, is seen as Louis Lorelli, a police detective who wants to help the community, only to become a target for the mafiosi that wanted him out of the picture.

"Black Hand" offers a glimpse of the mafia in action during those early days.

Early Godfather movie

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 28 March 2007]

When I think of Gene Kelly, I think of "Singing in the Rain" or "An American in Paris," as I imagine most would. I would never expect to see him playing an Italian who comes back from the old country to avenge the death of his father. Casting him as an Italian was way off base. They couldn't find an Italian to play an Italian? This miscasting affects the whole movie.

You should not look for something that resembles "The Godfather" here as there is a similar revenge story. This was done in 1950 and people were obviously more gullible. Imagine that he was able to pick up a lit cigarette with his feet and use it to light a fuse. Imagine that he could do that, without even imagining the fact that he did it in a room full of people. Incredible! The one redeeming part of the movie was the part played by J. Carrol Naish, as a police detective who figures out a way to beat the mob.

Of interest as the predecessor to the films that we all love today about the Mafia.

Vivid, slightly romanticized version of true efforts to fight NYC mafia

[secondtake · 8/10 · 2 May 2014]

Black Hand (1950)

Sandwiched between his many superb musicals, this straight up drama has Gene Kelly playing an Italian returning home to find out who murdered his father years before. It's very well made—crisp writing and editing, excellent acting, and a kind of mise-en-scene that seems about right for bustling New York.

The pressure Italian mobsters press onto their own neighborhood Italian store owners and merchants is terrible and maddening, of course, and here we are made to feel it as directly as a movie can manage. Besides Kelly, two other actors are just superlative—J. Carol Naish, playing the police detective who eventually goes to Italy to find evidence, and the store owner (whose name I can't find in a hurry). Oddly, both Naish and Kelly are Irish-Americans playing Italians in early 20th Century New York.

The plot is a bit forced, as this kind of large social-issue movie usually ends up doing. The mob (known as the Black Hand) is making life miserable for average folk, and whenever one resists, they end up dying or almost. But somebody has to do something about this, so between the cops (some Italian, some not) and the heroics of one individual (played by Kelly), the thugs are brought down one little notch.

But if you go along with inevitable victory of the little guy over the forces of evil, you'll see a really finely made drama with terrific acting (Kelly is no slouch and Naish is brilliant) and excellent filming (almost inevitable in lat 1940s American cinema). There are lots of other characters, a few chilling scenes, some dreamy idealism, and in all a look at the times with only a slight filter over the harsher reality that is, always, the truth.

This Hand is Dirty

[Richie-67-485852 · 7/10 · 18 October 2017]

I like this movie because it takes us back in time and we get to see how the start-up was for people who came to America and why. Everyone in this movie works hard, dreams, sacrifices and wants the best for their children, themselves and their neighbors, family and friends. However, the wolves move-in and instead of everyone enjoying the fruits of their labor, they now shift from living care free into a predator prey environment. The one trying to make a go is vulnerable and the ones trying to make a quick, dishonest buck go to work ala the black hand! Pay attention to the dress, streets, shops, sights and sounds and how there was so much opportunity if one wanted to work. Note how many people share a room and how rooms where above the stores back then. In the movie, one guy points out to another that speaking English and Italian is all the edge you need to make it rich in this country at that time. There is another similar film with Ernest Borgnine call Pay or Die that covers the same subject matter and is entertaining as well. Good movie to eat and have a tasty drink plus a snack. Gene Kelly who speaks a decent Italian in the film at least and J. Carol Naish too. Enjoy this Buono Cinema

You have to believe Gene Kelly is Italian

[emkt_o · 4/10 · 11 October 2022]

Watched this with my brother growing up and can't say I liked it since I was scared by it. "Black Hand," and as others have mentioned, "Pay Up or Die," told frightening tales of immigrant Italian thugs preying on their own people. Any story of courage to stand up to such brutal bullies is commendable. When I was a kid I didn't think Gene Kelly had a chance to succeed in this flick with his enemies so ominous.

TCM just ran it in 2022 and one's suspension of belief might have to be in full bloom. While I accept a great actor can do any role, H'Wood's tendency to cask dark-haired men and women as "ethnic" holds up less and less today. Gino from the hood? Sure, the hood was in Pittsburgh. Funny thing about Kelly - he was no great actor, no great singer, and his dancing style was simply unique, so not great by any standards. If you buy him as an Italian immigrantin NYC in the early 20th century, then you should enjoy this movie.

Grtty and well made...despite some odd casting.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 31 January 2011]

The 'Black Hand' was an extortion racket used by the mafia and other forms of organized crime. Anonymous letters demanding money were sent with the understanding that should the recipient not pay, horribly violent things will result. Each letter was signed with a black hand print--hence the name. Apparently, it was pretty much eliminated in the US by the 1920s, as negative publicity and increased police action had a serious effect on this practice.

This film begins with an Italian-American standing up to the Black Hand and assisting the police. However, there is a traitor amongst them and the man is killed by these creeps. The dead man's son grows up and makes it his life work to defeat these forces of darkness--it's vendetta time. This grown up man is played by Gene Kelly--a very, very peculiar choice by the studio. This pretty song and dance man is not exactly the mob-fighting sort--at least not in any of his other films. Now I am not saying it was a bad choice--just very odd.

After Kelly returns to America years later, things haven't changed that much. The Black Hand is still rampant and people are still afraid to talk or stand up to them. Much of the film consists of Kelly trying to organize the neighborhood against these thugs. Not surprisingly, they are met with kidnappings and murder and it looks as if they are just in over their heads--the criminals must win. Can the forces of niceness prevail? Can Kelly do a good job in a tough-guy role? Will the film be entertaining? Well, the answer to all of these is yes--the film was well done and quite convincing. And, shock of all shocks, Gene Kelly (yes, THAT Gene Kelly) was just fine. The film is a lot like a film noir movie--dark, very violent and with a few unusual twists and changes to the formula. Well worth your time and one of Kelly's best screen roles.

Wow...wonders never cease. Imagine seeing Gene Kelly throwing knives, killing people, slugging and vowing a vendetta in a film!! Was this movie made on Bizarro World?!

Gene Kelly against the mafia

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 31 October 2022]

It's 1900 New York City. Italian immigrants are trying to incorporate into the New World while discarding the oppressive mafia Black Hand from the Old World. Honest lawyer Roberto Columbo reports the Black Hand to a policeman, but they murder both him and the cop. It's 1908. Roberto's son Giovanni E. 'Johnny' Columbo (Gene Kelly) returns to America vowing revenge after his heart-broken mother's death.

This is a mafia movie with Gene Kelly as a lower-class Italian immigrant. It's a non-dancing role for Kelly. He's not that convincing as an Italian immigrant. Black Hand is a type of Italian extortion racket that came to America with the immigrants. The middle of the movie stalls a little. First, the court case slows the pacing and then it goes to Italy without Gene Kelly. It's interesting to see Gene Kelly try to do some serious acting and the movie tries to tackle some Italian-American culture. While it's not completely successful, it is still interesting.

Brisk thriller,with some strange casting

[lorenellroy · 18 December 2001]

Gene Kelly was a perfectly good dramatic actor(e.g Inherit the Wind,Seagulls Over Sorrento)but it is not good casting asking him to play an earnest young Italian American intent on avenging the death of his father at the hands of New York gang the Black Hand He tries the legal route,aided by a veteran Italian-American cop,played in another bizarre piece of casting by J Carroll Naish,before resorting to a physical confrontation with the bad guys The movie moves briskly and will satisfy those looking for an afternoon's diversion in front of the TV but the acting does not quite pass muster and the bad guys never seem all thar much of a threat Good direction though with some well handled action scenes

Black Hand- A Shake Hands With the Devil ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 29 March 2014]

Marvelous Gene Kelly 1950 vehicle where he returns from Italy years after his father was killed in America and he and his mother had gone back home following the slaying.

With his mother now dead, Kelly returns to seek revenge on those underworld figures, The Black Hand, who killed him.

The film shows the reluctance of the community to wipe out this group for fear of certain retaliation. There are bombings, stabbings and shootings. No one seems to be safe with this group around.

J. Carrol Naish is terrific as the police inspector who is dedicated to the eradication of the Black Hand. He meets his end in Italy while searching out criminal lists there.

A study of the culture of Italians who came to America, hard working and dedicated to fulfilling the American dream and the obstacles they faced from organized crime. A true gem of a film.

Bold drama where the leading man dances his way towards justice.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 26 November 2023]

I'm surprised that MGM didn't cast Gene Kelly's three time costar Frank Sinatra in his role as while dark haired and determined, Kelly isn't exactly someone who oozes Italiano let alone Siciliano. But he's good, in fact very good, totally serious, and giving one of his best performances as an idealistic first generation Italian American who goes up against an old organization, as old as Italy itself, the mob, here referred to by its old fashioned name, the black hand, an extortion racket that terrified hard working and usually poor American citizens of Italian decent too frightened to fight back.

I'd be frightened too by assassinations of family members and neighbors who went up against them, or brutally beaten and left off much worse than the dead. Kelly has suffered torture after his father was brutally murdered (seen in shadow, and quite disturbing) and his mother sat in grief doing nothing for the remainder of her life. He's beaten when he dares to even begin to question, and involves an honest Italian American cop in his efforts, beautifully played by J. Carroll Naish, leading to more violence and public outcry for the legal system to do something.

This film outside of Kelly focuses on story and atmosphere to tell its important historical saga, only resorting on occasion to stereotypes and subtle comedy. Singer Teresa Celli is nicely cast as Kelly's love interest, playing her role with gentility and no frills. The photography is excellent, especially the night scenes, and the editing tight and no nonsense. Good character performances all round makes this much better than I remembered from previous viewing, upping my rating a notch from good to very good.

Phony?

[rmax304823 · 23 August 2002]

It doesn't make a good impression. It's in black and white, involves Gene Kelly in a strictly dramatic role, has low production values, and is rarely shown and never publicized. All the trappings of a B feature when movie theaters still showed double bills.

Yet it's interesting, for three main reasons. One is that the story itself simply isn't too bad. Unlike many of the Godfather-type epics, Italian immigrant life isn't romanticized. The settings are grungy. Families don't live in secluded splendor. If the plot isn't nearly as nuanced as more modern stories on the subject, neither does it falsify the nature of criminal groups. There are clearly good guys here, and clearly bad guys, and a couple of guys squeezed in the middle.

Two questions are raised that have little to do with the Black Hand. Few of the principal actors are Italian. Does it matter? Kelly, curly haired and wearing dark make up, looks the part, although he sounds like a Mid-Westerner rather than an Italian immigrant to New York. (He pronounces his Italian correctly, though.) J. Carrol Naish, an Irishman from New York, is also made to look swarthy and gives what is for him a modulated performance. The man specialized in ethnic universality. He played Arabs, Asiatic Indians, lots of Italians, and God know what else, except an Irishman. Like Lawrence Olivier, he had only one accent that seemed to fit all of his parts. Some years ago, Vanessa Redgrave, a virulent pro-Palestinian, played a Jewish violinist in a pretty decent TV movie -- "Playing for Time," I think was the title -- about survival in Theresenstadt. Whew! What a brouhaha! Imagine an anti-Zionist playing a Jew in a concentration camp! Before that, Freddie Prinz came in for a blistering because he played a Mexicano in "Chico and the Man," a TV series, and Prinz was half Hungarian and half Puerto Rican. Again, it seems to matter, but should it? Doesn't the essence of acting involve playing the part of someone else? Unless the portrayal is so far off the mark that it works only as parody, why should it matter to us? Reduced to the absurd, the argument would have us never playing anyone other than ourselves. The same logic would have us object to every performance on screen or stage, because the actors are pretending to be something that -- genetically and culturally -- they are not.

The second question, and the third thing about the movie that I found impressive, had to do with the sets. The production is studio bound. Large scale location shooting was only beginning in 1949. The sets are clearly artificial. But, although not as convincing as on-location shooting, the production is at least as suggestive, seeming a bit stylized and stylized in the right direction. Turn-of-the-century New York City poverty has rarely been so well captured. The head of the local Black Hand is arrested while taking a bath. He is in his cellar. (It's a definite "cellar," not a "basement"!) There is a single naked overhead light. The cellar walls seem made of large bricks hastily thrown together. The man is naked in a bathtub that has no running water. (He undoubtedly filled it with water from kettles warmed on the top of a coal burning range in the upstairs kitchen.) A goat stands placidly next to the tub, ignoring the intrusion of the cops. Now THAT is production design. Studio sets can be taken even further and still be effective. A scene in "Mystery of the Wax Museum" or "Horrors of same" has Phyllis Kirk being chased through turn-of-the-century New York streets by a deformed and murderous madman. The streets through which she runs and he shuffles bear the same resemblance to real streets that a schematic diagram does to the inside of a TV set. The apartment fronts look made of thin plywood. The windows -- all equally lighted with bland yellow -- are of identical size and all have their shades drawn, like glowing but blank and impenetrable eyes, suggesting there is no succor for the heroine behind any of them, only thin buttresses propping up the false fronts and a couple of lights strung by the grip. And of course, there are no pedestrians, there is no garbage in the gutters or the streets, let alone garbage cans, no vehicles, no nothing except those surrealistically empty streets. "The Black Hand" doesn't go this far, but is an effective suspension of realism and stylization. The scenes in "Naples" are almost overboard. The night-time streets of Italy are well enough done but Naish eats in a Neapolitan restaurant with a view overlooking a patently false bay. It's the kind of "staged authenticity" that the sociologist Dean MacCannell described. All that was needed, besides that blow up, would be a couple of fish nets and phony salamis and provolones hanging from the walls.

There are three kinds of phoniness here: (1) the plot that pits good against evil; (2) the substitution of non-Italian actors for Italian characters; and (3) the use of studio sound stages as substitutes for real locations. None of it matters. It's not a bad flick. Not very good -- no one could argue that -- but simply not bad. I enjoyed it anyway. I mean, in a way, its phoniness is emblematic of our own realities. Are you really everything you claim to be?

Don't let the main star names keep you from watching it

[non_sportcardandy · 10/10 · 22 September 2005]

Being a big fan of crime/gangster/mafia movies the Black Hand title really got my attention.Having never watched a musical from beginning to end it was a downer to see the main star was Gene Kelly.Gene Kelly? The singing in the rain person?That much about him is known to me only because of his exhibit at the movie land wax museum in Buena Park.He's OK in this movie,J.C.Naish is better but the production gives the most entertainment.The Italian neighborhood street scenes do give the viewer the impression that's actually what they are seeing.Many of the lesser players are Italien and are used well to portray an Italien community.A favorite scene is the run down bar where poor hard working men go to have a drink and sing,the private conversation between Johnny Colombo(Kelly) and the bartender there seems so realistic.The overall dark look of this movie reminds of the TV show "the untouchables" which I enjoyed very much,this movie is a notch above that show. The first killing in the movie is such a surprise I wouldn't want to give away any part of it. There may not be one real strong performance in the movie but many small quality contributions come together to be entertaining.Amongst all the beautiful Italian language and culture there is a scene in an Italien home where an adult reminds a child to speak English.In another movie a similar scene was repeated.Although not Italien I find it strange to treat the speaking of that language as doing something wrong,it seems to be a reflection of life.Sometimes I speak or listen to more than five languages a day but no Italien,such a sad lose.

When this film was first in theatrical release, critic Bosley Crowther...

[Carycomic · 10/10 · 9 December 2013]

...panned it as being a "wee bit theatrical."

If he were alive today, I'd remind him: "Truth, sir, is stranger (and, quite often, _more_ theatrical) than fiction."

The Mafia--and other crime syndicates, regardless of ethnicity--might be leery of murdering incorruptible public servants. But, that doesn't mean they're completely averse to it. For example: roughly sixty years before this film came out, a certain Irish-American police captain was murdered along the New Orleans waterfront while investigating certain crimes attributed to the Sicilian immigrants working there. The local citizenry were so enraged, they actually stormed the jail house where the arrested suspects were being held and lynched them there (almost leading to war between America and Italy)!

Much more recently, the Old School Mafia in Sicily, itself, has taken to murdering police officers and judges, who won't kowtow to them, more often than they used to.

Gene Kelly is surprisingly adept at playing just such a public servant. It's the finest non-song-and-dance role he ever had since 1948's THE THREE MUSKETEERS! So as a one-quarter Italian-American, I have nothing but shamelessly high praise for the gritty realism (for its time) depicted in this criminally under-rated classic. Because, that's the way things were back then, where organized crime is concerned.

And, in some respects, they still are...if not worse.

Edgy Material Needs Edgier Director

[dougdoepke · 20 October 2017]

Plot--As a youngster Johnny Columbo vows to crack the criminal organization in New York's Little Italy, the Black Hand, after they've murdered his father. As an adult he seeks to carry out his pledge among the teeming streets, where people are mostly too intimidated to help out. Eventually, he allies with the fearless Louis Lorelli. But will that be enough.

It's a well-produced crime drama from MGM. I suspect the film was approved under the general aegis of Dore Schary who was replacing Louis B. Mayer as studio head. Under Mayer the studio typically turned out sunny escapism that came to define Hollywood as the Dream Factory. But the sunny themes of Andy Hardy were out of synch with a traumatized post-war audience, so studio adjustments such as Schary's darker vision was needed. Black Hand typifies the noirish themes that came to dominate the period that Schary's former studio RKO specialized in.

Looks like actor Kelly was also hoping to expand his range into the new period. I had some difficulty viewing him as an Italian immigrant, but he manages the lingo smoothly enough even though I kept expecting a soft shoe at any moment. The movie itself creates some suspense even though director Thorpe films in impersonal style. Unfortunately, that minimizes the many dramatic highlights that more close-ups and edgier acting would have underscored. Nonetheless, the shabby settings and shadowy lighting impart an appropriate mood. Columbo's moral predicament at the end is a poignant one, a culmination of the shadowy mood.

Overall, the result fails to give enough bite to the drama implicit in the material. My guess is Schary should have brought some of RKO's crime specialists with him.

Mainly for Gene Kelly fans

[Geofbob · 15 August 2001]

Remarkable only for the presence of Gene Kelly, this decidedly no-dancing 1949 drama purports to tell how a New York Mafia protection racket was smashed in the early 1900s. Kelly appears to have made it in between On the Town and Summer Stock, and possibly welcomed the chance to do some serious acting, though this never was his forte, and there are moments when you half expect him to start hoofing and warbling!

Kelly plays the part of a young man whose Italian father has been killed by the Black Hand gang years before, and is seeking revenge, initially by direct action with a knife, but later by legal means, though at the end of the day he has to use the knife any way. The film as a whole is variable, with some plausible dramatic scenes, but with others straight out of a Keystone Kops comedy, including some set in Naples. J Carrol Naish has a major role as an Italian-American detective, and a little romantic interest for Kelly is provided by Teresa Celli.

A real surprise.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 6 November 2011]

I know this film since more than thirty years now. But I saw it again last Sunday. And I must admit that this movie is very similar to Richard Wilson's PAY OR DIE about mafia, the real one, the genuine organisation at the turn of the century, shot with very realism. Far better than other films, with gunshots every two minutes and lots of clichés; i don't speak of the GODFATHER films, although. The story is very close to PAY OR DIE, made ten years later, starring Ernest Borgnine, a real masterpiece. Borgnine was the lead character that J Caroll Naish has here, the policeman mailing a letter against the mafia just before being killed. In this film, the cop is a supporting characters, whilst Borgnine was the lead character in the 1960 version. The last thing I will add is that it is a real surprise to have here Gene Kelly in a unusual role for him. And he is great.

That's all I wanted to point out about this one. The other users have done it very well.