Can I burn a movie in PAL format and play it in a regular NTSC (american) DVD player?

I am downloading a movie from a torrent site. Before anyone gives a speech about copyrighted material being downloaded, etc., that is not the case in this situation. Anyway, I am downloading and ISO, but the NFO says the video is in PAL format. If I burn the ISO, will it play in my american DVD player?

According to most of what I've read on the 'net, yes. However, your mileage may vary. All in all, with blank DVDs only costing a few bucks at the absolute most. I'd say give it a try, chances are good that it will work.

Caution: technical explanation follows
DVDs only carry video data in the MPEG-2 format. The only difference between a PAL and an NTSC DVD is the resolution. PAL and NTSC are just ways of transmitting video using analog. The DVD player should be able to scale or crop the video correctly, and it should have no trouble outputting to your TV.

Update: The region code might cause a problem, but I would not expect it to be an isssue, especially if the disc is, as you say, not copyrighted. If it is copyrighted, you may run into trouble, but I doubt it.