I've tried looking back at old threads to see if this has already been discussed but i cant find it, so sorry if im blind and missed it.

I have the trilogy on VHS and am to soon get them on dvd.
So, maybe the VHS versions are cut short. But from what i can remember, Michael never deals with fabrizio. Not from the version ive seen anyway.

Is that right?

There is the uncut version which shows deleted scenes. In one of those scenes Michael has Fabrizio blown up in his car as he exits his pizza parlor.

oh right, ok. thanks.
And is the uncut version the dvd version?

This is not on tape. You can only view this version when it's on TV.

It's on the 'deleted scenes' portion of the bonus/extras dvd, but not in the context of the film itself. In the Saga, it's placed before the scene in which Michael is almost killed in his bedroom.

Oh right thanks.

Michael is almost killed im his bedroom? What, in the second one?

Yeah-FFC wished it to be in the first and filmed it, Mike was to blow Fabrizzio with his lupara. I don't know if it is on DVD. I really can't understand his reasons for cutting it.
Then he filmed car-blow for part2, but cut it too, it seemed too late, we know that Fabrizzio was killed in the book at the same time with Barzini and Tattaglia.

Ok, thanks a lot for explaining.
I'm no expert on it like most of you, i've only just got into it. so bare with me and sorry about all the questions.

There was a scene filmed when Part I was made in which Michael killed Fabrizzio with the very same shotgun that Fabrizzio had in Sicily. (This is the famous picture of Mike wearing a white hat). Sadly, that footage appears to be lost forever, and its not on the DVD extras or in the Saga version.

Lost Forever

Actually it is on tape. It is included in The Godfather Complete Epic 1901 - 1959 VHS set.


Don Cardi

See if it works

Thank you for posting that picture, havent seen it before.

You're welcome. I like it very much myself, such cold-cold eyes!

Speaking of Fabrizio, I've always figured that he had to be the one to reach out to The Barzini family to betray Mike. For the Barzini family could not have reached out to him first, because that would have been a risk on their part as they would not have known if Fabrizio was loyal to Mike or not! Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Don Cardi

DC- it had to be setup before Mike got to Sicily though, in one of the deleted scenes Fabrizio says something about Mike that Mike didn't tell him, so he knew something about him before hand.


I think barzini reached out to him first.

i read somewhere that FFC purposely showed Fabrizio talking to the GI's and saying "take me to america" and stuff like that to show that he wanted to go to america really bad. this was supposed to be one of his reasons for betraying mike; to get a chance to go to America, with a little help from the Barzini's.

What version is that deleted scene on? Is it on the DVD? I would need to watch that. I don't think that the attempeted killing of Mike was set up before he got to Sicily. You could be right, but I just don't see it that way. That means that there had to be an informer inside the Corleone family who alerted the Barzini's as to where Mike would be going. If that be the case, than the so called informant would have been privy to the overall Plan and Mike would have been killed before he was able to take out McClusky and Sollozo. Nah, Fabrizio found something out while spending time with Mike in Sicily and reached out to Barzini. That's how I see it. Later on we find out that The Barzini's sponsered Fabrizio's coming to America.


Don Cardi

It's in the box set special feature.


You make a valid point the only problem I have is how does Fabrizio know that it's Barzini that wants him dead? and how does he get in touch with Barzini?

Throughout the films, Mike and the Corleone family only seem to tell people what they need to know, nothing more nothing less. So I don't see Mike or anyone else telling Fabrizio that a guy named Barzini is out to get him because etc.... I only see him saying you are here to protect me because someone may be trying to kill me.


About the point about the rat in the family- what if Barzini was getting fed up with Solozzo and wanted to get rid of him. Maybe Barzini felt threatened or that McCluskey and Solozzo were becoming too friendly. Mike does the hit on both of them getting rid of Barzini's problem and Barzini knows where Mike is going.

By Fabrizio being around Mike as a bodyguard, I am sure that he picked up things here and there in conversation. Remember the scene where Mike tells Appolonia's father, through translation through Fabrizo, that there were people who would pay a lot of money for information about him? Well I think at that point Fabrizio probably started to think about this and maybe saw an opportunity for himself. Fabrizio probably started asking around through connections that he obviously had in Italy, in all likelyhood he spread the word that he was protecting someone from a very powerful Mafia family from America, who was wanted by a rival family and eventually it was figured out through the pipeline that Michael was wanted by Barzini. Just my theory.

Don Cardi

I forgot he says that, I guess that is a perfect example of the "old Michael" compared to the "new Michael"- I don't think the Michael at the end of GF1 and in GF2 says that to anyone who doesn't need to know it.


Your theory does make a lot of sense though.

The Fabrizzio story is another example of changes FFC brought into the novel and another example of novel’s superiority to the script.
In the book everything is related clearly, even if indirectly.
Mike was secretly transported to the heart of province controlled by Don Tommasino, who was “Greatly indebted to his father for some past service”. He lived in a walled estate, and nobody knew who he was. Of course nobody ever told shepherds anything like his being a son of a big shot, it was a stupidity that no Mafioso would allow himself, all what is said: “of course it was impossible to keep them in the dark about his true nationality. Still they did not know exactly who he was except that he was in hiding and there could be no babbling about him.”
But Barzini is looking for Michael, and he has connections with the Sicilian Mafia too, it is said many times in the book. He must know that Don T. was greatly indebted to Vito, and expects that he must be the one to hide Michael. Through his friends in the Mafia of Palermo he organizes troubles for Don T. It is said that after about 7 months of Mike’s hiding DT begun to have problems with “young Turks from Palermo", and they didn’t wish to be reconciled by any concession he proposed, but with strange stubbornness continued the feud and tried to kill him several times. It was intended not only to find out if Mike was really there, they must have learned it already after 7 months of spying, but to disguise his future killing.
Remember what DT says to Mike when he comes to consciousness: “The Palermo people have made their peace with me now that you’re supposed to be dead, so it was you they were after all the time. They wanted to kill you while making people think it was me they were after. That’s something you should know.”
Even before Sonny was killed, and Vito told the Dons at the peace meeting that he will newer forgive his son’s death, Barzini knew him well enough to fear his revenge.
When Michael is at home, he has such dialogue with Vito:
Vito: I was surprised, though, that Barzini still made a last try at you. Maybe it was arranged before the peace talk and he couldn’t stop it. Are you sure they were not after Don Tommasino? Michael said, “That’s the way it was supposed to look. And it would be perfect, even you would never have suspected. Except that I came out alive.”
So, Michael’s murder was long and carefully prepared, and, by the way, Mike revealed his presence marrying Apolla. So the only thing left to do was to find actual assassin, who could get close to Mike, because there was no way to get through the army of bodyguards surrounding DT and the Villa.
In fact they didn’t have much choice here. It couldn’t be Dr Taza or Filomena, so they had to choose between honest Calo, “a simple fellow, almost moronic, silent as the dead”, and Fabrizzio, who was a famous guy in his village because of his tattoo, more witted and outgoing, and obviously more lightheaded. He couldn’t possibly refuse them, because it meant his death, he couldn’t stand alone against Palermo Mafia, and he had no reason to be as faithful to Mike as to accept death, instead of money and move to America.
His disappearing was important for Barzini, because if he would be found and tortured well enough by Corleones, he might tell that he was hired to kill Michael, not DT. So he was hidden well enough not to be found, because it would be difficult to find him if Mike would die. Nobody would know that he was not blown in the car with Calo and others, and that he was the one who brought the car from the garage. Strange, by the way, that Barzini didn’t simply kill him, and no problems whatever. But Michael survived, and he knew whom to look for, so it didn’t take long. In the dialogue cited above Mike continues with:
“Except that I came out alive. I saw Fabrizzio going through the gate, running away. And of course I’ve checked it all since I’ve been back.” “Have they found that shepherd?” The Don asked. “I found him”, Michael said. “I found him a year ago.”
Of course Fabrizzio was not unprepared for their proposal, and of course Mike was the first person to put the thought in his mind, when he said that there were people who would pay a lot for information about him. About his wish to move to America Puso never says a word, it is only said that from time to time he would joke with Mike and ask questions about America. Maybe that’s where FFC got the idea, but he exaggerated it and showed it primitively and bluntly. In the book Fabrizzio had his own additional reason to have Mike killed:
"Fabrizzio said “Is your wife coming with you?” Michael squinted down at him. It occurred to him that Fabrizzio had been following Apollonia too much with his eyes the last few weeks. Not that he would dare ever to make an advance toward the wife of a friend of the Don’s. In Sicily there was no surer road to death. Michael said coldly, “No, she’s going home to her family first, she’ll join us in a few days.” He watched Fabrizzio hurry into the stony hut that served as a garage for the Alfa Romeo."
So, if Michael dies, Apolla is not supposed to be desperate for life, and anything is possible… Besides, Fabrizzio had no way to know that Apollonia was pregnant.

I believe I should ask Don Geoff to measure our posts in meters instead of quantity, how do you think?

I just found one more pic from that "Lost Forever" footage:

WHERE CAN I GET THIS LOST FOOTAGE!!!!! I NEED IT!! HAS ANY1 GOT IT?!?!?

thnks

that's why it's called LOST.

Apple

I wish Michael confronted Fabrizzio before murdering him, to let him know that he still remembers what he had done.

I would liked to have seen his face

You think any of them could forget? I believe that, dying, Fabrizzio was perfectly aware of Michael's reasons to kill him.

This was my thought about Fabrizio and Michael killing him.

Men who kill beautiful girls like Apollonia deserve a dead like this.

We all need it desperately, I believe. It cannot be helped. But, since you are so interested in this scene, here's the original script of it. Maybe it's not the first version, but the only I have .

FADE IN:

INT NITE: MICHAEL'S LIMO EN ROUTE (1955)

MICHAEL sits alone in the back of his car; NERI is driving.

They do not speak for a long time; it is night--car lights
flash by.

NERI turns back.

NERI
You know I would never question
anything you say.

MICHAEL
(smiles)
Speak your mind.

NERI
I'll do this for you; you know I
should.

MICHAEL
No. This I have to do.

EXT NITE: PIZZA STREET (1955)

MICHAEL's car pulls up in a quiet neighborhood, near an
Italian Pizzeria. NERI opens the door.

MICHAEL
Sit in the car.

INT NITE: PIZZA PLACE (1955)

He walks alone into the restaurant. A MAN is tossing pizza
dough in the air.

MICHAEL
Where's the boss?

MAN
In the back. Hey Frank, someone
wants you.

A MAN comes out of the shadows, with a strong Italian accent.

MAN
What is it?

He stops, frozen in fear. It is FABRIZZIO.

VIEW ON MICHAEL. Gunfire from under his coat. FABRIZZIO is
cut down. MICHAEL throws the gun down; turns and exits.