Black Hand (1950): Yes, That Is Gene Kelly, Singer and Dancer Extraordinaire, in a B Film

Gene Kelly does a great job as the lead, Johnny Columbo, in a story that requires a little bit of his singing and none of his dancing (but it does include some of his signature physicality, which I will describe in more detail later in this article). I love finding films noir and B films that feature stars who are not ordinarily known for their dramatic acting skills. It was a treat to see Gene Kelly in a film noir that showcases his acting talents alone.

The fictional story in Black Hand is based on elements of fact. After the opening credits, the following type, part of a disclaimer of sorts, appears: “At the turn of the [twentieth] century, there were more Italians living in New York than in Rome . . . This story deals with the hard, angry days when these new citizens began to place their stake in the American dream—when they purged the Old World terror of the Black Hand from their ranks and gave bright dignity to their people and to this nation.”

Black Hand criminal activity was a problem in Italy and in U.S. cities that had large Italian immigrant populations at the turn of the last century. The character of Lieutenant Louis Lorelli is based on an actual New York City police detective, Joseph Petrosino. Click on each item in the list below for more information at Wikipedia:

◊ Black Hand

◊ Joseph Petrosino

The narrative starts in the tenement slums of New York City in 1900. Fruit and produce vendors and a granito and gelato vendor sell their wares on the street. The camera follows one vendor as he crosses the street, and then it pans up the front of a tenement apartment building, ceiling by ceiling, showing people living in cramped one-room apartments. It ends in the apartment of the Columbo family, whose living conditions are not as crowded as the others because Roberto Columbo is a lawyer.

Roberto leaves the apartment against the wishes of his wife. She warns him that he will be killed for speaking out against the Black Hand, a criminal organization active at the turn of the last century. And just as his wife warned, Roberto is murdered by Black Hand members. He told what he knew to a police officer, but the officer is an informant for the Black Hand. Police corruption means that there is no protection for the people who go to the police. Roberto’s son, Johnny Columbo, agrees to return to Italy with his now-grieving and widowed mother, but he vows to return to New York City.

Johnny Columbo does return to New York as an adult with vengeance on his mind. He finds Isabella Gomboli, someone he knows from his past, and admits that he wants to avenge his father’s death. Isabella would rather that Johnny form a citizen’s league instead of pursuing a vendetta and using violence, but Johnny remains unconvinced. He goes to someone named Moriani to get some information about his father’s death, but Moriani is killed soon after their first meeting and before he can tell Johnny anything. When Johnny goes to Moriani’s apartment to keep their appointment, Lieutenant Louis Lorelli is sitting with Moriani’s body. Johnny Columbo and Isabella Gomboli finally decide to form a citizen’s league, and Lieutenant Louis Lorelli helps by recruiting league members. Lorelli is optimistic about Johnny and Isabella’s work.

The league meeting is about to start, and everyone is there except Johnny Columbo. Lieutenant Lorelli decides to start the meeting anyway. One of the men sitting behind Lorelli on the makeshift stage is the corrupt police officer who was present when Johnny’s father, was killed, which means that the league is already infiltrated by Black Hand members before its first meeting begins. Soon after Lorelli starts speaking to the attendees, Johnny Columbo is “delivered” outside the door to the meeting: He falls against the door and through the doorway, unconscious and bleeding, and his leg is obviously broken. I wondered if this particular injury was a nod to Gene Kelly’s dancing, a broken leg being one of the worst ways to retaliate against someone who made their living dancing in films.

People are more frightened than ever and will no longer go to league meetings. Things are quiet for a while, until someone leaves a bomb at a dry goods store. This time, no one is killed, but the police finally find a piece of usable evidence. A piece of paper with handwriting on it was inside the bomb and survived the blast. Johnny Columbo is now studying for the law, but he wants to go after the bombers. The evidence is enough to lead Columbo and Lorelli to George Allani, who is arrested and put on trial. But when the store owner, Carlo Saballera, is on the witness stand, someone in the court threatens him with a hand gesture, and the intimidation works. The store owner will not testify. Lieutenant Lorelli gives a speech in the courtroom about why Italian immigrants are so easy to intimidate: They don’t have enough education about city and local laws to know that they can be protected, that they can trust some of the police officers. But Lorelli’s effort come to nothing: Carlo Sabballera will no longer testify.

Before George Allani is released for lack of evidence, however, the judge receives information about his real identity, which is George Tomasino. He is wanted for murder in Italy, which means that he is in the United States illegally. No citizen from another country one with a criminal record is allowed into the United States. He is now handed over to the federal authorities for deportation, although the trial against him for the bombing is dismissed for lack of evidence.

Lieutenant Lorelli and Johnny Columbo celebrate the victory, but they want to deport more of the people in the country illegally. Lorrelli decides to return to Naples, Italy, to conduct research on known Black Hand members in New York City that immigrated from Italy, and he finds real names and photos. Lorelli is eventually ambushed and killed in Italy, but he survives long enough to mail the envelope containing all his research to Johnny Columbo in New York City. Black Hand members kidnap Isabella’s brother Rudi and use him to blackmail Johnny into giving them the envelope and all of Lorelli’s research. Johnny learns that a wine merchant, Pietro Riago, is holding Rudi. He follows him, intent on bringing Rudi home without having to pay the ransom, without having to give up Lorelli’s research.

Black Hand uses Kelly’s physicality to good effect in the sequence where his character, Johnny Columbo, follows Pietro Riago, the wine merchant who is blackmailing the Italian residents of the neighborhood. If you are a fan of Gene Kelly’s musicals and his dance numbers, as I am, you will likely recognize him, even on the dark narrow streets of the tenement slums in a B film. In this particular sequence, with Columbo following Riago, there is very little sound on the soundtrack. Columbo loses Riago on the dark streets, and his sense of urgency and desperation is evident in the way Gene Kelly continues searching: the way that he stops in front of each building on the dark street, the way that he holds his arms still and rigid, the way that his feet tap two or three times in front of each doorway. Viewers can almost hear Kelly’s signature tap dancing on the pavement in this dark neighborhood.

When the film cuts to the front of the last building and Kelly approaches the camera, he stops, his arms still rigid, his hands closed in fists. Viewers can feel his anger, despair, and unwillingness to give up.

When he turns around and spots the light in one of the apartments, Kelly looks up and approaches the building with more hope than he had in the last moment. The outline of his body is clear in the light, even though Kelly himself is in shadow. The lighting throughout emphasizes Kelly and his movements.

Although Gene Kelly’s character, Johnny Columbo, fights the Black Hand with a partner in Lieutenant Louis Lorelli, Kelly is the star. He even has a short singing part. When Johnny first arrives in New York City, he meets several of his countrymen in a bar where Moriani works, and all of them break out into an Italian song. Viewers can hear Gene Kelly’s voice over the others. He doesn’t dominate the others, but this is Gene Kelly after all. His voice is clear and strong. Fans do want to hear him sing, just as we want to see him succeed in his fight against evil and corruption.

This article about Black Hand is my entry for the Favorite Stars in B Movies Blogathon, hosted by Brian at filmsfrombeyond.com. Click here for a day-by-day list of links to participants’ blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 31 to April 2.

March 17, 1950, release date  •  Directed by Richard Thorpe  •  Screenplay by Luther Davis  •  Based on a story by Leo Townsend  •  Music by Alberto Colombo  •  Edited by Cotton Warburton  •  Cinematography by Paul Vogel

Gene Kelly as Giovanni E. (aka Johnny) Columbo  •  J. Carrol Naish as Lieutenant Louis Lorelli  •  Teresa Celli as Isabella Gomboli  •  Marc Lawrence as Caesar Xavier Serpi  •  Frank Puglia as Carlo Sabballera  •  Barry Kelley as Police Captain Thompson  •  Mario Siletti as Benny Danetta/Nino  •  Carl Milletaire as George Allani/Tomasino  •  Peter Brocco as Roberto Columbo  •  Eleonora von Mendelssohn as Maria Columbo  •  Grazia Narciso as Mrs. Danetta  •  Maurice Samuels as Moriani  •  Burk Symon as the judge  •  Bert Freed as the prosecutor  •  Mimi Aguglia as Mrs. Sabballera  •  Baldo Minutti as Bettini  •  Carlo Tricoli as Pietro Riago  •  Marc Krah as Lombardi  •  Jimmy Lagano as Rudi Gomboli  •  Phyllis Morris as Mary the Shamrock

Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer  •  Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer