The final version of the GF I screenplay is available on the net, but I cannot get my hands on the final version of GF II. I'm interested in it mainly for the director's "instructions," which can provide very useful clues for interpretation. All I can find is the second draft of GFII, and my email request to Paramount for the final version has gone unanswered. Does anyone here have it, or know how to get it?

Go here:

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/godfather2.html

PENTANGELI :You remember Willy Cicci, don't you, Freddie? We was all together with the old man Clemenza in Brooklyn... before...uh...

FREDO: We were all upset about that.

PENTANGELI: That's what I'm here to talk to your brother about. What's with him, I got to get a letter of introduction to have a 'sitdown'?
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Interesting. I wonder what made FFC change the dialogue in that scene to a dialogue that implies that Clemenza died from something other than a heart attack?

Another interesting exchange between Michael and Hagen which gives us a bit more insight into who Turnbull was and how he was involved with the Corleones, as well as providing a bit of information about Geary.

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HAGEN: I've cleared it through the Senator's chief aide, a man named Turnbull. Turnbull's a heavy gambler, and into us for over a hundred grand, so I figure his information is reliable.


HAGEN: The Senator can be set up; but he thinks of himself as a clean politician. So it's got to be on terms he can live with: campaign contribution, donation to a charitable cause that he controls, things like that. If he gets even the inkling that you think you're buying him, he'll freeze up. Nevada's a funny state, they like things both ways here... All right. Turnbull says the Senator will be here at two-thirty, and he's been
primed. He knows you'll want to meet with him alone, and he knows it's about the Tropicana's license. At any rate, he expects to be introduced around to some of the influential people here today, and generally treated as an ordinary guest. Just go light on him, Mikey, sometimes the biggest crooks don't like to think of themselves as crooks...

Thanks, but this is the second draft, which I already have. It's the final version that I'm after.

What else changed? All I remmeber different is that Fredo says something about a heart attack and Cicci says something like "No, no, that was no heart attack."

Thats what changed..it makes no mention of the cause of death

Not true. Later on, when Pentangelli is speaking to Michael, he says Clemenza died of a heart attack, but that the Rosatos gave it to him. It seems to be deliberately ambiguous: did they cause him so much stress that he busted a vein, or was there some foul play involved?

Oh ok.I was just going by what was posted i hadn't actually read through it yet ..oops

You just answered your own question!

In the movie, Cicci's line "No, no, that was no heart attack." implies that Clemenza died of something else. In this draft, nothing is implied and later on down the script a heart attack is mentioned. Cut and dry. In this version he died of a heart attack. But in the final script Cicci is given that line which implies that Clemenza may have died from something other than a heart attack. So back to my original question, I wonder what made or inspired FFC to throw in that implication in adding in Cicci's line? Was it to set something up for later? Cinematic license?

Can you imagine if it was ad-libbed by Joe Spinell?

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but I believe FFC left Clemenza's death extra vague as a sort of "payback" (for Clemenza not coming to terms to appear in Part II).

I couldn't agree more, SC

FFC could be a really spiteful f*** when he wanted to be, especially over financial disputes. Although, it was okay for HIM to ransom Paramount when he needed to bail out on Zoetrope.

He could be a real hypocrite.

I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating... my belief about his spite also extended to his leaving out the pictures of Brando and Castellano on the Crime Family board present at the Senate hearings ... everyone else's picture was on the board, only those two who chose not to appear in Part II were left off.

Similarly, FFC chose not to explain what happened to Tom Hagen in Part III (after he and Duvall couldn't come to terms).

Such a pity they let money and pettiness get in the way.

I still can't believe Richard Castellano wanted his freaking girlfriend to write his lines.

Sure it led to an amazing performance by Michael V. Gazzo, but Clemenza was truly missed.

Didn't one of the Bonanno captains die of a heart attack (Magliocco?)? Maybe that was the inspiration.

Joe Magliocco was the Boss of the Profaci Family (now Columbo) after Profaci died. Magliocco died of a heart attack in a West Islip (NY) hospital in December, 1963. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner certified the death as caused by heart attack.

Ten days later the body was exhumed because two wiseguys talked about Magliocco being poisoned by Joe Bonanno (and the FBI had taped the phone conversation).

No poison was ever found.

I take it that no one has the final version of the screenplay. Well, if anyone should somehow get their hands on it, my client would give you his undying friendship if you would grant him the small favor of furnishing him with a copy.

90caiber will never get that script! I don't care how many -
- daigo guinea WOP greaseball gumbahs come out of the woodwork!