Finally, I have solved a mystery. I know I allegedly do it on the page all the time, but I have the advantage of making those up.
Perhaps others have solved this mystery, too. I deliberately did NOT Google or do any Internet-based research when I decided to solve my mystery. So if I am echoing something that someone else figured out long ago – my apologies, but know I’m no plagiarist.
But I think I finally know why the Rosato brothers invoke Michael Corleone’s name (“Michael Corleone says hello”)* when they attempt to kill Frankie Pentangeli in The Godfather Part II.
Michael, as the viewer knows, did not ask the Rosato brothers to kill Pentangeli, although he did ask Pentangeli to make nice with the Rosato brothers. Hyman Roth asked the Rosato brothers to kill Penangeli. It’s a complicated dance: Michael knows that Roth is his enemy, that Roth almost certainly tried to have him killed once, but he’s allowing Roth to believe that he believes that Pentangeli orchestrated the hit because he wants to figure out what Roth is up to. Keep your friends close, etc.
Frankie Pentageli — shades of Luca Brasi — is attacked in a bar and almost garroted. But a cop interrupts and Pentangeli survives. Pentageli thinks Michael is behind his attempted murder – “Michael Corleone says hello” — and agrees to testify against Michael at a congressional hearing because the feds have a lot of stuff on Pentageli. He’s assured that he probably won’t have to testify, but that’s another plot thread.
Why does the assassin bother telling Pentangeli who wants him dead? Why does he say anything? After all, they’re planning to kill him, not leave him alive to testify before Congress against the man who didn’t really want him dead. For years, I thought the only defense for the Rosato brothers invoking Michael’s name at the moment of the attempted hit was plot contrivance.
Unless, I decided during a recent AMC screening. . . . Hyman Roth told the Rosato brothers that Michael wanted Pentangeli dead. Why? Because Roth had to tell them something. It’s a high-level hit that could lead to a war – but not if Michael has approved it. Roth certainly couldn’t say, “Please kill Frankie Pentangeli because the longer he’s alive, the greater the possibility that Michael finds out that he didn’t attempt the hit on him in Nevada, and I did, with the help of Junior Soprano**.” He needs to get rid of Frank without revealing his own disloyalty. The fewer people that know what he’s up to, the better. Roth wouldn’t take the Rosato brothers into his confidence. He’s using the Pentangeli-Rosato feud to his advantage.
(And why does Roth want Michael dead? I’m still confused about that. The attempted hit takes place before the unpleasantness in Cuba. He swears that he wouldn’t attempt to avenge the death of Moe Green, and I sorta believe him. So is he trying to muscle Michael out of Cuba? Or is he really pissed about Moe Green?)
Still, the Rosato brothers could have done their work silently. That they credit Michael is a little contrived, but it’s not the flaw that I’ve worried about for YEARS, literally.
And it only took about fifteen, twenty viewings of the film to figure it out.
By the way, I recently submitted this blog to the <a href=”http://www.genderanalyzer.com/ “>gender analyzer</a>and it determined that there’s an 87 percent chance it’s written by a man. I don’t think this entry is going to up my femininity, blog-wise.
*I did use YouTube to verify my memory of this scene.
**I am blanking on the name of the character and the actor who plays Roth’s right-hand man. Johnny something? Dominic Chia – something? But those are the rules around here. No Googling until after I post, then I can correct myself in the comments thread.
***Okay, theoretically, Michael could be lying to EVERYONE in GII and he did seek the hit after asking Pentangeli to meet with the Rosato brothers, but I don’t think Michael’s “rot” – a term drawn from Pauline Kael’s insightful review of GII – is that far advanced. That comes with the murder of Fredo. And, no, no spoiler alert. It’s 2008. If you don’t know that Fredo dies, you are too young to be reading this blog.
Okay, now I am coming up as 86 percent male. Go figure.
This is higher than my friends Terry Teachout and Bryon Quertermous, to name two certifiable male bloggers.
Dave White? 54 percent male.
Nancy Nall? 60 percent likelihood of being male.
Sarah Weinman? She’s a man, baby. But still, only 69 percent.
Dominic Chianese. I always remember his name because there was a girl named Rebecca Chianese in my class at Sarah Lawrence, and I keep wondering if she’s his daughter.
Maud Newton? Gender neutral, but about the same score as Dave White.
I am beginning to suspect the gender analyzer is really whack.
Dominic Chianese played Uncle Junior on The Sopranos. Didn’t you recognize him?
My blog is 70% male. But mostly I just want to salute the amount of thought you’re still putting into a 30+-year-old movie — that is a true mark of art.
Absolutely! But I couldn’t pull up his full name from memory.
Hey, I recognized Frankie Pentangeli in a Columbo episode. (Louis Jordan kills him.) I’m good on faces, bad on names.
“I’m good on faces, bad on names.”
Me, too! So if I see you at a restaurant, I’d probably say something like “Say! Aren’t you…errrr…Jessica Fletcher! No – that’s not it…. Leslie McFarlane ! No…. Stephanie Meyer!! That’s it!” etc etc
I cannot distinguish – in my memory – between the first two Godfather movies, except that I know deNiro only pops up in the later ones, and Caan and Vigoda (who ain’t dead yet!) are only in the first one.
And generally, the first one (or two) are unique and compelling, whereas the later ones interchangeably float in my memory along with others of a type (Good Fellas, The Departed, etc). The passing of Brando’s older generation of mobsters, to the ‘rot’ of Michael – and his father’s despair that Michael was pulled in – is just compelling stuff.
(my favorite scene, for no particular reason, is when Clemenza is prepping Michael for his hit on the bad cop and Sollozzo, with the extra noisey gun, and the expectation that things will be ‘pretty damn bad’, and the matter-of-fact acceptance that these bad turns have to happen every 5 or 10 years…)
When I die, they’ll do an autopsy and find one of those phantom testicles floating around, unattached, in my abdominal cavity. That’ll explain a lot.
Dominic Chianese’s character’s name is Johnny Ola. I remember that, for some reason.
87% male. Something is afoot here. Misogynists at every turn.
72% female.
But the other 28% is all man, baby.
I’m 76% woman and I’ve never felt better! If I don’t get my woman quotient up to 100% I’m going to be really sad. I vow to work at it every day until my dream can become a reality.
I just fed the gender genie the first 400 words of the next NYT installment — and I’m still a guy. Going to try again with the first 500 words of Life Sentences. Stand by.
ETA: Life Sentences is written by a woman. I am clearly very confused.
Is it possible that the thing is backwards?
You may well be right, but only a woman would think of that! (probably because of years of dealing with underwear and turtle neck sweater [etc] that looks almost right when they’re backwards!)
Well, the gender analyzer says that Laurie R. King’s website is 99% female. (Which I somehow think would actually dissapoint Laurie in some fashion.)
But in an even stranger result, it says that it can’t analyze Karen O.’s website becaust it is not written in English!
But these combined results seem to point me in the direction of believing in the powers of the Magic Eight Ball as a far more reliable oracle!
–Marjorie
I wonder how different the results would be in this? http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php
<i>”Is it possible that the thing is backwards?”</i>
I’ve had occasion to wonder that, at times, through my life.
And I forgot to mention, Laura, the elegance of your Godfather solution. That problem has always bothered and confused me! I believe you are correct. I always remembered Johnny Ola (and Junior Soprano, later) because of that devastating scene when Fredo accidentally reveals that he knew Johnny Ola before… and you can just see that look on Michael’s face! I’m glad they had that prior moment: “How do you say banana daiquiri?” “Banana daiquiri.” One of my favorite exchanges in any movie, and worthy of the Marx Bros.
Being mentioned in the same sentence as Terry Teachout, Yay. Because my blog is likely written by a woman, Boooooo. Maybe I should have Becky write it…
My sister feels that even if one accepts my explanation, it’s inelegant. And she came up with something much better — the Rosato brothers should say nothing and the FEDS should then tell Pentangeli that it was Michael because they want to bring him down. Mendacious FBI agents really would add a whole new layer.
(My sister also is indirectly responsible for the plot of The Girl in the Green Raincoat, but swears she can’t remember it. )
In a bid to be recognized as a woman at an age when the estrogen is on a severe decline, I tried to be more feminine and now I get:
“We guess http://pattinase.blogspot.com is written by a woman (58%), however it’s quite gender neutral.
Yay, I guess.