[2] The film opens in 1900 as Roberto Colombo, an Italian-American attorney living in the Little Italy section of New York City, is killed by gangsters as he meets with a police officer to give information about an attempt to extort money from him.

The trial that results comes to nothing when a key witness is intimidated and refuses to testify, but the defendant is ultimately deported when police in Naples identify him as a fugitive from justice there.

And Mr. Naish is equally impressive as an Italian detective on the New York police force who joins in the youthful zealot's campaign to wipe out this terrifying scourge.

The Black Hand is 'based on the real-life story of Joseph Petrosino, a New York City police lieutenant who traveled to Palermo, Italy, to investigate the Mafia.

Director Richard Thorpe (Night Must Fall/Malaya/Ivanhoe) sets a dark mood, while Irish-American hoofer Gene Kelly plays a brave Italian-American immigrant out to avenge his father's death by the Mafia, at the turn of the 20th century.