The movie begins in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where an aging prisoner named Joseph Valachi is imprisoned for smuggling heroin. The boss of his crime family, Vito Genovese, is imprisoned there as well. Genovese is certain that Valachi is an informant, and gives him the "kiss of death," whereupon Valachi kisses him back.
Valachi mistakenly kills a fellow prisoner who he wrongly thinks is a mob assassin. Told of the mistake by federal agents, Valachi becomes an informant. He tells his life story in flashbacks.
The movie traces Valachi from a young punk to a gangster associating with bosses like Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano tells a mourner at a funeral, "I cannot bring back the dead. I can only kill the living." Valachi marries a boss's daughter, played by Bronson's real-life wife Jill Ireland.
Valachi's rise in the Mafia is hampered by his poor relations with his capo, Tony Bender. Bender is portrayed castrating a mobster for having relations with another mobster's wife. Valachi shoots the victim to put him out of his misery.
The mayhem and murder continue to the present, with Valachi shown testifying before a Senate committee. He is upset with having to testify and attempts suicide, but in the end (according to information superimposed on the screen) outlives Genovese, who dies in prison.
Directed by Terence Young
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Screenplay by Stephen Geller
Based on The Valachi Papers
by Peter Maas
Starring Charles Bronson
Lino Ventura
Jill Ireland
Walter Chiari
Joseph Wiseman
Music by Riz Ortolani
Armando Trovajoli
Cinematography Aldo Tonti
Edited by Johnny Dwyre
Monica Finzi