Godfather question: Did anybody back home know that Michael got married while he was in Italy?*

Yea maybe.

Michael clearly loves his father and goes all out to protect him. Maybe that extends into him taking over as head of the "Family Business" (one helluva euphemism btw) as there was nobody left to do so. Sonny is dead, Fredo does not have the smarts, and Tom is not a Sicilian.

Anything for Pop. That inevitably leads to the scene in the garden- my favorite scene in the entire film- where Vito laments this development. A scene loaded with fatalism and irony.

 

i preface with that i did not read this entire thread.

did kate ever know that michael was married in italy?

 

Yes, covered in Godfather III.

 

He's Enzo...Enzo the baker!

 

My favorite line from the whole movie lol, "I am Enzo...the baker."

 

I always admired Enzo. Dude knew how to thank the Godfather. When he says "if there is trouble..." he knows darn well what that means. Very touching scene, and also from a man that knew what it meant to get an opportunity.

 

Enzo was one sharp-dressed baker!

 

I was looking through deleted scenes and came across this one of Connie with Michael at the end of Part 2. Was this shown in any of the TV editions (The Saga etc.)?

For me the scene is far more powerful with Michael sat there alone, in a position of complete power but it has come at a terrible cost.

 

I have to revise this comment.
It would be natural for Connie to be the one to get Anthony. Kids are "women's work". So my point Is kinda moot.

Haha "moot". Funny word.

 

"He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time."

 

I agree. The Corleones couldn’t care less about the pedophile business.

 

One subtle angle on the Johnny Fontaine business was, did people know of his affiliation with Vito and the family? If they did and Woltz had succeeded in turning Johnny down, that would have hurt their reputation, and people in the business would fear them less. Plus Vito (and later Michael) knew Johnny could be an asset to them, but he would be a better one if he was successful. And of course Johnny knew he would end up owing the family big time if they got him the job despite Woltz. Point being it wasn't only a favor to Johnny that was involved.

 

Woltz knew of the affiliation and he said as much to Tom. It didn't sound like the contract business with Luka was a well kept secret.

 

Michael notices Enzo’s hands shaking, unable to light his cigarette. He grabs the lighter and notices that his own hands are not shaking. Previously, in the hospital room w his father, he tells his father, “I’m with you now”. I’ve always thought the hospital scene, as well as getting punched by McCluskey, as a turning point for Michael.

 

I’ve always viewed Michaels marriage to Appolonia as Michaels way of trying to be like his father. Traditional old school, old world Italian girl, from Corleone, no less. Similar to his own mother.

 

All I want to know is what Michael did for the year-plus he was home before meeting up with Kay again. I'm guessing attending intensive How To Be A Mafia Don classes 24/7 with Vito teaching.

 

That being the case, the Don probably considered Woltz to be challenging him by not giving the job to Johnny, and so he had to beat Woltz.

 

Actually, in the book, that's exactly what he was doing. Michael is quite a bit different in the book, one way being he wasn't as knowing and intuitively commanding as he is in the movie.

 

That's for sure. Such as Michael (in the book) shocking Hagen (IIRC), with Hagen thinking Michael is not the man his father was, for demanding an actual confession from Carlo Rizzi about setting up Sonny for Barzini. In the movie, it appears more like Michael softening up Carlo so that the latter would think he wasn't about to be killed.

 

In the book, Hagen seemed more disgusted.

 

Yeah, to me the whole section is sort of an idyllic dream, this idea that he can somehow hide in the past, maybe to live the happy peaceful life his father might have if not for Don Ciccio. The death of Appolonia is a harsh awakening to reality, perhaps that there can be no lasting happiness, only power.

I have always felt that he still had fondness for Kay, but it was not like his love for Appolonia (and who can blame him? sorry...) His love for the latter was perhaps based on older ways - the idea of a more subservient woman, less liberated than Kay, which fits in with his own need for control and power. It seems like he only meets up with Kay outside the school, months after coming back, when he's finally resigned to the idea that a marriage to Kay would not only give him a family but also an air of civilian respectability. I feel it is a friendly marriage of convenience for Michael at that time. Even Kay seems to have mixed feelings about it all, but is more tied to her original love of him. But for Michael, it's almost like a pre-fab relationship. His energy is too tied up with business to fall in love again with someone new.

Man, I love this movie. The sequel is also a classic, but that first one, I still find new things in it all the time, new questions.

 

Re: Johnny Fontaine 'business' - I don't know about the horse head, but the story Michael told Kay at the wedding about Luca helping Johnny get out of a contract is based on a Frank Sinatra tale.

“Anthony Moretti was the godfather of then-unknown singer Frank Sinatra. Sinatra's first wife, Nancy Barbato, was a paternal cousin of John Barbato, a Moretti associate. Moretti helped Sinatra get bookings in New Jersey clubs in return for kickbacks. Finally, in 1939, Sinatra signed a recording contract with band leader Tommy Dorsey. However, by the early 1940s, Sinatra had achieved national popularity and wanted to sign a more lucrative recording contract, but Dorsey refused to release him from their existing contract. A rumour claimed that Sinatra asked Moretti for help, and it was alleged that Moretti jammed a gun barrel down Dorsey's throat and threatened to kill him if he did not release Sinatra. Dorsey eventually sold the contract to Sinatra for one dollar.”

This rumour matches quite closely what Michael tells Kay about Johnny Fontane. There are many other parallels.

If Mario Puzo ever denied that Fontane was based on Sinatra, that should not necessarily be taken at face value: Sinatra’s lawyers already wrote to Puzo’s publisher before the book had even been published. Obviously, Puzo would not have been keen on being sued by a millionaire so he had nothing to gain by confirming the obvious.

 

The most incredible aspect, for me, of the Godfather is how Puzo basically took true tales of different Mafia families and their Godfathers, and basically cut and pasted them into a classic book.

 

I recall reading that the Fontaine character was supposed to have a much larger presence in the film, but they backed off in fear of lawsuits from Sinatra.