In Part II, when Will Cicci is testifying at the Senate hearings, the Senator asks him how orders were passed. He asks if a buffer was involved. Will didn't seem to understand, then he remembered. "Oh yeah, a buffer. Yeah, the family had alotta buffers." Then he cracks a smile and everyone in the room starts laughing.

I never understood that...what's the joke in that? Why's everybody laughing. I can't help but laugh everytime I heard that, simply cause of the way he says it, and the fact that I don't get the joke.

That's one of the best little touches in a great scene. One of the nice things about that scene is that it shows the cultural difference between a Mafia guy (Cicci) and someone who's "well bred" (the Senator). The Senator, an educated man, uses "buffer" to describe people between Cicc and the boss. Cicci obviously never heard of the word "buffer" used in that context (he was probably told, "You never go to da boss direct--ya go t'ru your capo") so he says, "Say what?" The Senator explains, and Cicci gets it: "Yeah, da family had a lotta buffiz..." It's just a perfect bit of dialog in a perfect scene.

Speaking of perfection: Joe Spinell, who played Cicci, was absolutely perfect in his role. He never did much memorable stuff before or after in his career, but he shone in the Trilogy. If you do the "search" function, you'll find that our members here have posted lots of thoughts about Cicci--far out of proportion to his relatively minor role in GF and II. I count that as a tribute to his performance, and a tribute to Spinell's performance and to his selection for the role.

I agree TB, Spinell played a good part in GFII.

I also enjoyed him as gangster Tony Gazzo in Rocky.

Another movie that he was in, which I enjoyed, was the the movie Cops and Robbers with Joe Bologna and Cliff Gorman.


Don Cardi

There's an excellent film that gets little or none of its well deserved praise.

I remember Spinell sitting on his blanket in Central Park with the picnic basket full of money, wearing that totally ridiculous flowered shirt.

"It's alriiiight."

Yes, an excellent movie. Never did get the recognition that it should have gotten.


Don Cardi

He also had a bit part in "Farewell My Lovely," another underrated film with Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling.

I remember the movie, but only from seeing it in the theatre so I don't remember Spinell. I should re-watch it.

Willie Cicci is, without a doubt, one of Mr. Babe's favorite characters. Spinell was fantastic, as TB pointed out earlier. And he also spawned one of my family's most oft-repeated Godfather lines "Cicci! A porta!".

Don't want to hijack here, but I will tell a little story about that line. My father was a hospital pharmacist and the hospital director's name was Frank, who my father called "Cheech". One of the pharmacy technician's was from India and didn't speak English all that well. He asked where the name "Cheech" came from. My father explained that it was an Italian nickname for Frank, and encouraged the poor, innocent man to not only refer to the hospital director as Cheech, but to stand at the doorway and repeat that Cicc! A porta! phrase, telling him that it meant, "Please let me open the door for you, Frank." This poor man, trying to become an American citizen, would've rather died than speak to the director of the hospital that way, but he did it for years, thinking he was sucking up.

Cicci's like the Wierzbowski of the GF series. You'll get that analogy if you're a fan of Cameron's ALIENS.

Joe Spinell was also in The Seven-Ups in a small scene. He is a hood taken in to be questioned. Roy Schieder is a cop and obviously getting reaady to "Beat" some kind of statement out of him, when Joe's chracter says something like, "Look at my knuckles (his knuckles are all misshapen)--The cops that did this worked on me for 12 hours and I didn't tell them s***. And I ain't tellin' you s*** either." Schieder kind of looks at him, realizes this guy will never talk and just tells the other cops to lock him back up.

He also worke in Maniac, right? He had this blues brothers's like glasses and buffalo billed some girls. It was not a very good movie, but it showed Spinell as a main character.

Yeah Maniac was great.

Excellent Post 100% agree!