This is not an alternate "Death" scene for Fanucci, its a scene that explains two things in the final version of the film: 1. How Fanucci got the big scar on his neck 2. to show us that Fanucci wasnt really a big shot with power and why Vito wasnt scared of him
The black hand was not the actual mafia it was just guy's scaring the mom and pop owners for money hence guy's like Luciano formed the families and the outfit in Chicago
You are exactly right. The scene was just cut out of the movie. Dude had a huge scar on his neck and the kids didn't Kill him. Vito killed and robbed him.
@John fanucci does kill one of the kids, but the other two payed fanucci off, something a true sicilian mafioso would never do. this is why vito realises he has no power.
@@bittu2507 Actually, in the book, that's just how they describe it. The book describes that Vito witnessed the knifing, and that Fanucci only killed one of the attackers, but allowed the other two to pay him off. Based on that, Vito decided that Fanucci was not a "real" Mafioso.
This is one of the best threads I have observed. Most of the comments are insightful and intelligent. I have learned so much more about this great movie and book. Thank you all.
Vito learns 2 things here; Fanucci is weak and has no real power or crew as these thugs aren't afraid to attack him and face possible retribution, and he has no respect of the neighborhood as he's attacked and screaming in broad daylight and no one assists him.
The black hand was not the mafia it was just guy's running around the neighborhood scaring the mom and pop owners for money hence guy's like Charles Luciano formed the mafia in Chicago had the outfit
This scene is recounted in the book by Puzo. Fanucci managed to kill the knife wielder, but was unable to extract revenge on the other two. Their families paid an indemnity to Fanucci to protect their sons. From this Vito knew that Fanucci was not a true mafioso because Fanucci had allowed his vengeance to be bought off. He also figured out that Fanucci operated alone, that he had no friends or police contacts. He eventually discovered after killing Fanucci that no one, including the police, cared that Fanucci was dead and were just as glad to leave it alone.
Fanucci was said to have connections and protection with the Mafia, particularly with the head Mafia boss at the time. But after this encounter, only 1 of the kids was ever killed in retaliation. This is how Vito discovered Fanucci was not actually backed up by the mob, because if he was, all of the kids would have been killed off. After Vito killed Fanucci for good, his thoughts proved to be correct, as no one really cared about the Black Hand's death. Black Hand just operated on his own accord.
"One day Fanucci was set upon by three young men who cut his throat from ear to ear, not deeply enough to kill him, but enough to frighten him and make him bleed a great deal. Vito saw Fanucci fleeing from his punishers, the circular slash flowing red. What he never forgot was Fanucci holding the cream-colored fedora under his chin to catch the dripping blood as he ran. As if he did not want his suit soiled or did not want to leave a shameful trail of carmine. But this attack proved a blessing in disguise for Fanucci. The three young men were not murderers, merely tough young boys determined to teach him a lesson and stop him from scavenging. Fannucci proved himself a murderer. A few weeks later the knife-wielder was shot to death and the families of the other two young men paid an indemnity to Fanucci to make him forswear his vengeance. After that the tributes became higher and Fanucci became a partner in the neighborhood gambling games. As for Vito Corleone, it was none of his affair. He forgot about it immediately."
Yeah you could definitely tell he was a lightweight. No amount of money would have kept those other two punks alive if Fanucci was a big time mafioso. They would HAVE to die as an example to others or it would be seen as a sign of weakness.
mad hatter He is one of those Sicilians who is MIXED , it's a unfortunate fact that almost half of all Sicilians have a Arabic or African ancestor due to the Arab raids on Sicily
"In the neighborhood lived a man called Fanucci. He was a heavy-set, fierce-looking Italian who wore expensive light-colored suits and a cream-colored fedora. This man was reputed to be of the "Black Hand," an offshoot of the Mafia which extorted money from families and storekeepers by threat of physical violence. However, since most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood were violent themselves, Fanucci's threats of bodily harm were effective only with elderly couples without male children to defend them. Some of the storekeepers paid him trifling sums as a matter of convenience. However, Fanucci was also a scavenger on fellow criminals, people who illegally sold Italian lottery or ran gambling games in their homes. The Abbandando grocery gave him a small tribute, this despite the protests of young Genco, who told his father he would settle the Fanucci hash. His father forbade him. Vito Corleone observed all this without feeling in any way involved."
Even what wasn't cut still shows why Fanucci was targeted. What this did was show either an attempt to first intimidate him out of the picture or a failed assasination,
The purpose of this scene was to show Fanucci was not nearly as powerful as he fronted. This gave Vito the idea that he could take Fanucci out with no retribution.
Correct! It showed that Fanucci was all talk and doesn't have any protection from anyone. Plus, Fanucci was intimidating his own people which really pissed Vito off. Great movie
If you watch closely you see the scar on fanucci's neck in another scene in the movie as well. I can't remember exactly which scene it is. Been awhile since I've watched this movie.. Tomorrow may be a godfather kind of day
I understand why this was edited out and for good reason. It makes Fanucci look too vulnerable, especially when it appeared that just about everyone - including Clemenza and Genco - was terrified of him.
@83rdox it's better without this scene, and no the event does not happen. The scar could have come from a whole plethora of things sans this deleted scene, and it's better to have Vito fight someone not just because he learns he is a feckless fraud but because vito has guts
@@UridonTheMaster Exactly. When we the audience view this scene, we get the impression that Fanucci is actually a spineless wimp, a stark contrast from the way everyone, including Clemenza, Tessio and even Genco, portray him. In the book they state that although Clemenza and Tessio are in fear of Fanucci, Vito isn't fazed, largely because of his upbringing in Sicily, particularly his family being murdered. Because of this intense adversity, Vito is much stronger than his colleagues and isn't frightened by Fanucci, whom he views as a pseudo tough guy.
Fanucci's weakness is also apparent when he pinches Vito's cheek in the cafe and Vito notices by the moisture left behind that his palms had been sweating.
What sealed Fanucci's fate was at the end of his and Vito's encounter at the bar, Fanucci stood up and pinched Vito's cheek. It was an extremely disrespectful thing to do.
+I Don't Have Man Boobs (erislaton) I disagree. The very first time he laid eyes on the guy, and detected the Don Ciccio swag that Fanucci had, he already got the bad taste in his mouth. Then, the instant that Fanucci approached him to extort money, Vito was 100% absolutely sure he wanted to never see that face again by any means necessary. Anything in between that, and the execution was simply biding his time for processing, calculating, and planning.
If you read the book, this scene is pivotal; Fannucci has power over the neighbourhood cos everybody believes he has deep Mafia connections; when Vito sees him getting mugged and learns that no great vengeance has been meted out to his attackers, he realises Fannucci's a big fake and decides it'll be safe to get rid of him. This is when he decides to kill Fannucci and establish himself as leader of the neighbourhood.
This was just ONE scene, albeit edited out of the movie, where Vito makes the human calculus that Fanucci is all hat and no cattle. The others are when Vito sees that Fanucci walks around the neighborhood completely unguarded, he knows some bookies aren’t paying Fanucci, and when he only pays Fanucci $100 instead of the demanded $600. Rather than retaliating for Vito’s lack of respect in not paying the full amount, Fanucci tells Vito he has guts and offers him a job. The only thing Vito DIDN’T know about Fanucci was how close Fanucci was connected to the bigger legit gangster, Maranzalla. Vito had no idea if there would be retribution from Maranzalla if Fanucci was murdered. As it turned out, Maranzalla didn’t lift a finger to determine who killed Fanucci and much of the neighborhood’s fear of Fanucci because it was believed he had strong ties to the Black Hand, were completely unfounded and overstated. In other words, Fanucci was just a poser and he was only feared because of inflated rumors and exaggerations. A good tip off was when Fanucci said he couldn’t watch the puppet show because it was “too violent.” 😂
This is actually much more near the orginal story of Fanucci by Puzzo. Vito realized that Fanucci had no powerful supporters at all and very easy target to gun down.
Damn right. Fanucci kills one of them later, and demands some payment from the other to "forget the attack", making Vito realize he´s not a powerful man, because he won´t be able to track down the second one and kill him. A real mob boss would not waste time killing by himself, but getting someone to do the job, hence = he is just a bully depending on his own brute force. Every deleted scene in this movie is a jewel in itself.
Fanucci was a pretty tough guy on his own, but he had no backup, just his fancy white suits and a reputation. Even without this scene, Vito had apparently been digging around and found out Fanucci, at best, might slip a few bucks to the cops or some street kids, but he had no standing army.
This scene was to show us that Fanucci was not a big shot and also it made Vito not fear him because he some him as kind of feminine given how he tries to not get blood on his suit. To Vito that kind of vanity shows weakness.
How can they left out such an important scene? This scene puts out how Fanucci isn't as powerful and fearful as Vito thought he was, it was this scene that made Vito realize that he can bleed, that he was as fragile as any other human and that gave him the courage to do what he did. Leaving this out was an infamia.
+Julio Bustos I watched The Godfather Epic last night. It is is Godfather 1 and 2 together with possibly all of the formerly deleted scenes included. I realized that a lot of extremely important scenes were left out of the originals. Things I was always kind of confused about were thoroughly explained by many of the added scenes, and others added extra relevance and meaning to important situations. I'm sure it was all about the time factor because the original movies are extremely long as they are.
+Julio Bustos Yeah, not quite right actually. In the book this happens, and Fanucci kills one of his attackers but allows the others to pay him. This is what made Vito know that Fannuci was not as powerful as he made himself out to be. He knew that no true mafiosi would let their attacker live after something like this.
fanucci doesn't die in this scene,he lives and walks about with a massive scar across his throat?and those who did it are murdered !read the book.when you see uncut version you will notice the scar before Vito finally kills him.
amcalabrese1 The throat cutting scene was in the combined books of the God Father. There was a lot of discussion about what Vito was thinking, about Fanucci, about his own role in the world, and the role of destiny. There was a lot of introspection in the books that was missing in the movies.
That is part of the problem with movies made from great books -- it is hard to release the inner voice. They got some of that in the scenes where Michael and his father are talking, but it is not the same.
When I saw Godfather 2, I had totally forgotten about Fabrizio. The scene of his murder tells a lot about how long a memory Michael had as well as his inability to forgive.
Fabrizio shouldn’t have been forgiven. That was probably the only true justified killing in the whole series aside from Vito going to Sicily and killing the man who forced him to flee to America as a kid.
It was a wise decision to take this scene out: makes Fannuci look like small potatoes ... and therefore Vito's killing him like small bussiness instead of the life-changing moment it is in the original release.
This scene should definitely have been kept in the movie. It revealed where Fanucci got the scar on his neck. And it revealed to Vito that Fanucci was indeed vulnerable.
This is from the book - he is attacked seriously but does not die, and this shows Vito not to fear him. In the scene in the restaurant later when this guy meets Vito, you can see the scars from the attack on his throat.
Just because Fanucci got stabbed by the thugs doesn't mean he isn't a big shot, and Vito saw some weakness. He had to kill him anyway. Many real life "big shots" or bosses got murdered. That being said, the scene is a little silly, so I'm glad it was deleted.
No, Fannuci only kills one of his young assailants. His vengeance is bought off for the other two by their families, which Vito interprets as a sign of weakness. A true Mafioso would never allow his revenge for something like that to be deterred by money. Vito reasons that Fanucci knows he got lucky with the first one and now that the other two were alerted, he couldn’t get them. (This is from the novel.) He uses this intelligence later in sizing up his antagonist before deciding to kill him.
This wasn't his death. According to the description on the DVD before this scene, he wouldn't escaped, barely alive and bloodied. It would have given Vito his first inspiration for murder. Powerful scene-shame they left it out. Oh well..
I like how Vito just observers and then hides himself. This is true to his character - it's the smart and opportunistic move. Fanucci doesn't know that he saw the event and Vito pretends not to know anything about it.
All of these scenes were included in the "Godfather Saga" -- the combined version of Godfather One and Two that were put together for a TV release and which was also released on VHS (although I don't know if it ever got a DVD release). NMS
It's Jimmy and Frankie when they were young! Lol. This was a powerful scene in the book. They should've kept it on. It shows how Vito first plotted to kill Fanucci, because he realized how little power he had by not being able to get to all 3 of the kids.
I really wish they'd made a separate prequel film dealing with Vito's rise to power since there's so much source material in the novels backstory which could have been used! Although the onscreen prequel story is good it only deals with Vito starting out in organized crime. Opinions welcome!
I wish they put this in the film because I noticed, when Vito was talking to Fanucci in the cafe that he had a scar on his neck, partly hidden by his collar. I've always wanted to know the story behind it. (Eh, I haven't read the books but I am going to get them soon!)
@yesthatmitch I havent read the book, but after seeing this video and before reading your comment, this was exactly what I thought about him. This scene seemed quite important to cut lol
It's good that Ford choosed the one where Vito finish fancuis. I love that scene where hes stalking fanuci and kills him in he's apartment with a pistol wrap around a towel
This is from The Godfather two when they show how Vito came up in New York as a kid. It's not Fanucci's second death... This is a deleted scene, he survives the attack and henceforth on later scenes has a scar on his neck. Look it up.
I didn't read the book but if this was the way Fanucci dies, then it screws up the storyline where Fanucci uses his "influence" to give Vito's job to the Don's nephew. This is important because as the store's owner feels badly, Vito confesses how he always thought of him as a father and when the owner tries to give him food as a token, Vito refuses but says ( and I am paraphrasing his line "I won't forget ..."
The novel explains this further, that Fanucci killed one assailant later on and the family of the second (there were only two in the book IIRC) paid him a tribute to have him call off his "vendetta". This showed Vito that Fanucci was a fraud, basically, because a "real mafioso" wouldn't have let his vengeance be bought off and would have killed the second guy too. So this made Vito realize that Fanucci was likely working alone and using the name of "The Black Hand" and Maranzalla (since Fanucci claims he has a license from Maranzalla to collect in the neighborhood) to intimidate people (also he's a pretty tough-looking guy) but had no real power other than being scary looking. The novel actually has one of my all-time favorite lines about this. Basically, it's that Fanucci used threats and violence to get people to pay him in the neighborhood, however since most of the inhabitants of the neighborhood were violent themselves his threats were basically only good against the elderly without children to provide for them, or perhaps young children. Basically, anyone who couldn't already take care of themselves.
This was during the time when Vito was begining to realize that Fannuci wasn't as tough or feared as people anticipated. Real don's are always heavily sourrounded by bodyguards and no punk would dare think of touching a hair on him. While fanucci was seemingly lonely and less influential and Vito analyzed all this before ultimaley killing him.
After reading many of the comments below I learned a great deal more about The Fanucci character. However, it somewhat dilutes my appreciation for Vito. I'd prefer that he killed him while thinking he was indeed a big shot.
The screenwriter should've never left this scene in from the book. It undermined what Vito would eventually do. I imagine Francis saw this immediately and had it cut during editing.
It's a shame that the violence for this scene was carefully choreographed with a knife that had a blood cartridge that spurted when it crossed actor Gaston Moschin's neck, but wasn't used. In every version I've seen they cut away to Vito at the moment of the slashing. I think it had to do with when they broadcasted THE GODFATHER: THE COMPLETE NOVEL FOR TELEVISION on NBC. The scene was "cleaned up" for network television and the violence was never restored in subsequent versions of the film.
His buddy in the grocery was his long time consiairy. He died on Connys wedding day. Tom was then named the 1st ever non-italian consiairy. This also caused distrust towards the Corleons.
It would portrait a more pragmatic and calculated Vito. Not as daring as the original movie showed, but there are merits in both. Especially Vito is "men can't make mistake" type of guy.
There were 3 big things that tipped Vito off that Fanucci was not a real gangster. 1) Not only were these 3 young punks able and unafraid to attack him, but two of them were allowed to live. A Sicilian boss would have killed them, and any members of their families who protested (Like they did to Vito's family). 2) When Fanucci confronts Vito about selling the dresses without paying tribute to him, his biggest threat is that he would call the police on Vito. No boss with any power do that. 3) Vito only gives him half the money he asked for, and he takes it, without demanding that Vito get the rest.
Fanucci doesn't died, he was just injured, but survived. This attempt assassination of Fanucci is narrated in the book. And since nobody was assassinated after this attack, as a revenge, made the smart Vito realize that Fanucci is not so powerful, and could be eliminated.
I think removing this scene was probably best. It makes the Don seem more bad ass for slaying an enemy who seemingly had everyone else scared. This scene would make Fannuci's enemy aura weaker. Using his hat to catch his blood was classic!
I thought I was crazy. I had always remembered that scene but when I bought the dvd and watched the movie several times on television they never show it.
i remember as well.. also another scene where he gets revenge on the guy who killed his wife in sicily(car bomb in nyc) they never put that on video or dvd
Fanucci walked the streets with no obvious protection, that led to an incident where Fanucci was knifed by several neighborhood boys whose familes he had tried to extort. He later murdered one of the boys, but had called off the vendetta after the families of the remaining two paid him an indemnity to foreswear his vengence.
@cabagool Yeah, he was only able to kill one of them. He accepted payment, so he wouldn't kill the other 2.He was able to kill one and was unable get to the other 2 once they were alerted. This showed Vito that Fanucci wasn't powerful enough to get to all 3 of them. That's when he first plotted to kill him, and the rest is history.
This didn't kill Fanucci. It was a failed attempt. The reason he made a lot of noise was because he was a gutless coward, a bully and a narcissistic drama queen.
