I just recently watched The Godfather again and it reminded me of something that I never understood.

Why did they never show Bruno Tattaglia getting killed? It was a pretty important event in the war and to the plot. I always wondered why they never put that in the movie.

What do you guys think?

Probaby because FFC had three dramatic killing scenes to come up in short order: Paulie, Luca and Sol/Tatt. He didn't want to overload viewers.

I agree with TB. At 4 hours, some sacrifices had to be made.

Wikipedia has this:

"Bruno's death is not seen in the film (although Sal Tessio says "We hit Bruno Tattaglia at 4 o'clock this morning"), but in The Godfather: The Game, he is tossed into a cremation retort by the protagonist Aldo Trapani for murdering his girlfriend, Frances "Frankie" Malone."

The novel also doesn't mention his death beyond the quote, so that was likely why as well. It happens "offscreen" there too.

Plus, the killing of Solozzo and Captain McCluskey is the much more dramatic kill.

More powerful being said then being shown as it felt like you were Michael for a moment when Tom says it to Michael.

As I recall, it was actually Tessio who conveyed the news to Michael.

~ Q

Yes, Tessio told Michael and Clemenza.

Also, even edited, the film was already 4 hours long.

I thought they killed Tattaglia in bed. I took the earlier "we hit Bruno Tattaglia at 4 o'clock" statement to mean they "hit" the Tattaglia family, as in, "attacked" a part of the family.

Don Tattaglia (Phillip, I think?) was gunned down in bed with the prostitute. Bruno was whacked out of revenge for Luca's death/Don Corleone's shooting, but it wasn't shown just mentioned (in both the novel and film). In the game, the protagonist (Aldo Trapani, by default) kills Bruno by throwing him into a furnace in a crematorium in revenge for gunning down his girlfriend, however that's not canon so in reality Bruno's killer(s) are never mentioned. I always assumed it was just via some Corleone buttonmen that likely went to his nightclub late at night when he was cleaning up and gunned him down there.