How was Tessio smarter than Clemenza? Up until the funeral he was (for me) a character in the background. During the funeral when Michael says Tessio was always smarter, I was like- what did I miss ?- I've watched the movie a gazillion times, focusing, listening, but I still can't get the part where he was always smarter- did he suddenly change with the death of Don VIto? Did he decide to play Barzini before Barzini played him?

The Strong move quiet the weak start riots. I believe during the movie when Michael said that Clemenza and Tessio couldn't break off from the family Clemenza seemed mad and Tessio was a little mad at first and then kinda just let it go. Tessio probably wouldn't have let it go and shaked Michael's hand after unless he had a trick up his sleeve. Tessio moved like a snake and because everyone thought he was in the background, that made his job a little easier.

Clemenza was always the louder and more flamboyant of the two caporegimes. You see this at the wedding (Tessio dancing quietly with the little girl, Clemenza loudly demanding wine) and at other meetings. Tessio is quieter, more thoughtful and introspective. Tessio's men were given the all-important job of guarding Vito at the hospital. His intelligence and trustworthiness are given in subtle ways throughout the film.

Good points all around! Thanks

Yeah, and this continues into the next movie when "Clemenza" is written as "Pentangeli." Pentangeli gets up on stage and acts like a buffoon, then gets drunk and mouths off to Michael. Same character, just a different name.

^^^^^

err no clamenza and pentengalli were two characters very different actually.

The book also looks upon how vito always valued tessio as the more able and smarter capo due to his subtleness much like the don which were in contrast to clamenza's loud and brash style.

I am sure you've probably noticed, that Pentangeli, who is supposed to be a close, trusted, old family friend, a friend of Vito's from way back, is not mentioned anywhere in the book. Just like he was nowhere to be seen in GF I.

Pentangeli was a character written in at the last minute when Paramount and FFC couldn't get Richard Castellano, Clemenza in the first movie, to sign on for GF II. Castellano had been, somewhat amazingly, the highest-paid actor in GF I (which reportedly did not sit well with the rest of the cast). In the meantime, of course largely because of the success of GF I, Pacino, Keaton and Duvall had become A-list stars.

Castellano, reportedly, also wanted to be paid the most for GF II. When he didn't get it, he walked (although not before appearing for one moment in GF II as one of the street spectators at the St. Rocco's Day parade, as Vito is tracking down Fanucci).

So FFC found himself with shooting deadlines for GF coming up fast, and no Castellano. Instead of just recasting the role of Clemenza, he created the replacement character of Pentangeli, who was supposed to have been a protege/pal of Clemenza.

The Pentangeli character was very similar to Clemenza, so most of the script lines already written for Clemenza were also used for Pentangeli. Like Clemenza, he was supposedly an old pal of Vito from way back. Like Clemenza he was hot to break off and form his own family and control his own territory, and thus be a threat to the Corleones.

All they had to do was put in a couple lines explaining that "old Clemenza" had died, and making sure everybody called Michael F. Gazza "Pentangeli," and everything was OK.

Yea, I totally agree Enzo

I think the book describes Tessio being smarter than Clemenza. The book gave me the image that Tessio was more of a "thinker" and Clemenza was more of a "dirty work" man. I mean, you never see Tessio kill a guy in the movie, whereas Clemenza strangles Carlo in the back seat

Actually the book makes this reference from the movie much better...Vito Corleone before the Maranzalla war keeps Clemenza in Queens (under his thumb, because he needed to rein him in) and gives Tessio Brooklyn. He further instructs Tessio (and not Clemenza) that the two should never be seen together. MP elaborates that Tessio knew that Vito did not want the two of them to conspire against him, and also to show enemies that Tessio was a splinter group. He gave more lattitude to Tessio, and if you recall after the shooting of Vito at the estate, Tessio's men guard the compound. In the book, when Sonny makes the call to Tessio, Tessio's reply is "you know my men?" meaning that even up till that point, Tessio is given more power than Clemenza, even though they are both Capos

Actually Clemenza ruled BX. not Queens.

Thats a look-a-like...it wasn't Richard Castellano (Clemenza).


[img]http://photopile.com/photos/Consigliere/Family/147456.bmp[/img]

^^^^Holy shit! Good eye! How the hell did anyone notice that?!

well spoted how did you see that

You sure? I read at some point that the street parade sequences were shot early in the filming, before it was a sealed deal that Castellano was not coming back as Clemenza.

Looking at GF II in retrospect, you almost have to believe that it was the intention of FFC and Puzo to bring back Clemenza and work through the story line where he would eventually betray the family.

It turned out of course that Pentangeli was the character they wrote into that role, but IMO that kind of wasted the back story scenes of Young Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) becoming tight with Vito and actually leading him into the life of crime.

If their intention all along was that Pentangeli was going to be the guy who rolled over, they could have cast Kirby as a Young Frank Pentangeli and reduced Pete Clemenza to a more peripheral character.

To me, it is clear that after the actual start of filming of GF II, the focus of the story line changed due to Castellano's bailing out. Had they known all along that Clemenza was going to be out of the picture for most of the 1958-59 sequence, they wouldn't have devoted all that time to him in the back story.

Castellano's refusal to appear in Part II was known before the filming started in October '73.

The young Clemenza scenes (in the flashback sequences) had to be included because Clemenza was a big character in Part I. If the producers totally wrote him out and included young Frank Pentangeli scenes (in the flashbacks) people would ask, "Who the hell is this guy and why wasn't he in Part I"? It was easier to kill off Clemenza.

"The Godfather Legacy" by Harlan Lebo has some info on this.

i think pentangila was a better part than clemenza ne way.

I appreciate the interesting wildness of Pentangeli's character, but I would've loved to see good old Fat Clemenza back to continue with his role as Capo for Michael. I felt more attached to Clemenza's character than Pentangeli at any rate.