Hi everybody,
After seeing The Godfather *again* I realized that in most of the scenes of Michael while hidding in Sicily he had a white handkerchief that sometimes he smells. Was that like a Kay remembrance?

Anybody knows what is it about?

And here's another question:

Does Mike and Kay had a 'traditional' wedding (Like Connie's?)

Suddenly they just appear married and godparenting Connie and Carlo's kid.

Thanks!

Snot rag! When the cop smashed in his face, it gave him permanent sinus trouble. Thus Fredo telling him in Vegas, when the plastic surgery had been done, "You look good Mike - that doctor did a good job." Or something to that effect.

The book does go into it in further detail, but his constant need of a handkerchief is a by-product of the broken jaw that never healed properly.

As for Michael and Kay's wedding, we never see it, nor is it mentioned. I would imagine it was not a church wedding, since Kay was not a Catholic at the time, and the Catholic Church was pretty strict about "mixed marriages" back then. Your guess is as good as mine!

I always wondered what kind of discretion Puzo and FFC had shown to not include Mike's wedding. Whats the point of not showing it?

I'm glad they didn't show it

After Connie's wedding, it would have been anticlimactic.

Cost I bet, and it didn't matter in the story itself.

Karl

But I would imagine that they were married as Catholics.

I'd say they had to have been, but it was probably supposed to have been a small ceremony.

Not so sure. My husband is not Catholic and we had to get a special dispensation to marry in the Church, and that was in 1986. I can't imagine that they were very easy-going in 40 years earlier - even for a Corleone.

According to the novel (at the very end), after the Great Massacre of 1955, Kay took instruction in the Catholic Church and went to Mass every morning with Mama Corleone to pray for Michael's soul. This "disappointed him...he wanted his children to be raised as Protestants...it was more 'American'..." [I'm paraphrasing]. This passage tells me that Kay was a Protestant when she married Michael--and that Michael may have preferred a civil or Protestant wedding to a Catholic nuptial.

The first time I saw the movie, I thought that michael was inhaling some kind of drug smeared on the hand-kerchief. I didn't realize at that time that it was the sinus trouble

So the book doesn't describe their wedding either?

Granted, Michael preferred Kay to remain Protestant and so probably preferred a Protestant or civil wedding in the book, but I don't think that would have been the case in the movie because (1) in GF II we see Anthony making his First Communion in the Catholic church, (2) in GF II Father Carmelo is introduced to Merle as the "family priest," and (3) Vito and Mamma's feelings about the situation would have mattered to Michael, and I think they were Catholic traditionalists in that respect.

"Michael had married Kay up in New England, a quiet wedding, with only her family and a few of her friends present. Then they had moved into one of the houses on the mall in Long Beach."

Please don't tell me that you haven't read the book.....

OH NO! We have another one!!!!

And here I thought that we took care of the only one who was a member here and had never read the book

This is an infamia!

A lover of The Godfather, a GF fan that posts with such passion and knowledge about the story, but has never read the book?

Do you know what the punishment is for this?


What are you waiting for?





Don Cardi

Not so! Not so!

I DID read the book. If you don't believe me, you can look up some of my earlier posts in which I wrote things like "... it's been a while since I read the book, so can someone tell me..." or "I can't remember if that was in the book, but..."

But it has been a LOOOOONG time since I read it -- maybe 16 or 17 years -- so I've forgotten, well, almost all of it . I do remember, though, that I didn't like it . I thought it was a pulpy, Sidney Sheldon-ish, event-driven, Italo-soap opera. It makes FFC's accomplishment of crafting a film masterpiece from it even more remarkable. He added all the missing elements: character development, atmosphere, deft plotting, pacing, etc.

So in the book Michael didn't invite his own parents to his wedding? (I don't remember that part, as you've gathered .) In the movie, that would be unimaginable! And so out of character .

... and this committee owes an apology, an apology!

ok, you're off the hook, for old times sake.

For a moment there you scared me!





Don Cardi

Whew!

I just hope I don't get "straightened out" for admitting I didn't like the book.

Yes, the book said Michael preferred that his kids be raised as Protestants. But since Kay preferred to be Catholic, I guess that's how their kids were raised. Michael didn't dump Kay until after Anthony's First Communion, Father Carmelo, etc.
Michael might not have invited his parents to the New Hampshire wedding because his parents probably didn't approve of his marrying a Protestant. Revealing moment: in a deleted scene from GF, after Connie's wedding, while Michael and Vito are waiting to be driven to Genco's deathbed, Vito says to Michael, "Did your American girlfriend get home alright" [emphasis in the original], and then rolls his eyes in a priceless and unmistakable expression of disapproval.

I haven't read the book either. I'm finishing The Sicilian first.

You certainly shall.
You know, I advice you to read the book again. It's a big space of time, and if then you were unable to understand it, it doesn't mean that you didn't develop and change for the better in all these years.
Then, maybe, you shall see that the book is much deeper and more subtle than the movie, especially in character development, and that the movie adds a lot of trash into the plot.

I agree. FFC did a bad job by removing the essential sub-plots of Lucy's reproductive organs, Dr Jules's expertise in dealing with those, the breast sizes of all the women including sandra, Hollywood actresses groping Nino and Johnny Fontane's sex life to name a few. Without these "vital" details, how can anyone understand the character of michael and his eventual fate?

JustMe and svsg, that's priceless!

... still giggling

Of course those part about Lucy and Johnny are not the most valuable in the book, but they are in no way connected to the development of main characters, as svsg justly pointed out. The rest of the book is truly priceless, every word and everything left between the lines, no giggling.

And here I thought that would be unimaginable in the movie. Michael not have a Catholic ceremony, not even for his father's sake? Michael not invite his parents to his wedding?

Well, I must eat my words. I was checking out www.imsdb.com: The Godfather , and in an early draft of the script, that's just what they had in mind. Before Vito was shot, Michael tells Kay, "We'll have a quiet, civil ceremony at the City Hall, no big fuss, no family, just a couple of friends as witnesses." When Kay asks what his father will say, Michael responds, "As long as I tell him beforehand he won't object. He'll be hurt, but he won't object."

I see why they omitted that from the film though. With Michael discussing marriage with Kay, it would make his wedding to Apollonia in Sicily a bit unbelievable. I mean, how could he up and marry someone when he's practically engaged to someone else back home?

Is there some message intended in the movie with the violence often being presented against a backdrop of a solemn Catholic religious service or festival honoring a saint? Or was it just for dramatic effect?

don illuminati, that is such a good topic. I'd LOVE to make it into a separate thread so we can ask people why they think FFC did that. (I'm thinking that it might get lost under the heading "Michael's Handkerchief" and that others might miss it.)

May I have your permission to start a new thread with that question (quoting your original words, of course), or would you like to start the new topic yourself? Or could one of the moderators move it to a new thread (with your permission)?

I hope I'm not breaking any bulletin board policy with my suggestion. (But I'm sure the moderators will "straighten me out" if I am . They might think it's just fine for your question to stay right here; but anyway, I hope we hear from them soon...)

Of course you go and start the thread, Cristina! Especially if you quote the post of don Illuminati, I don't see any problem. I don't remember such a thread recently, and it really is a brilliant idea. The only close thing is this: Were Michael / Vito religious men?

I'm glad you agree, JustMe. Don Cardi was looking out for us, and he has started a new thread with that topic: Violence and Religious Significance .

Thanks for the idea, don illuminati.