OK...I really don't recall this being brought up before on the Gangster BB. If it has, please indulge me...

Exactly WHAT is the significance of the $100 bill that Carmine Rosatto slips to Frankie? We see of course that Frankie is taken aback and truly insulted...on top of that, they are planning to kill him anyway.

So what's the deal with the C-note???

AppleOnYa

No, I don't think it's been brought up before. Congrats, Apple, on that rarest of GF Boards achievements!
I 'm guessing it was a calculated insult on Tony Rosato's part. Telling Frankie it was "a lucky C-note for our deal" in effect told Frankie that he and his agreement were basically worthless--kinda like a jury awarding a dollar in damages to someone suing another after hearing the plaintiff make a basically worthless argument. Maybe it was a way for Rosato to prepare himself to kill Frankie: first insult him and then garrot him. In any event, Frankie took it the way I believe it was intended.

I suppose you could argue in the reverse: the C-note was a way Rosato might seem to placate and lure Frankie into entering the bar. But if Rosato had any sense at all, he'd know that Frankie'd be insulted.

I've always assumed that the insult was that the money was a tip, which only passes from a superior to an inferior.

It was a left handed compliment. He said it was a "lucky C note" but really I think it was an insult to Frankie.

There was a deleted scene from GF2, showing Frankie giving Anthony $100 bill, and telling him to keep it a secret. Did he possibly refer to it as a C-Note in that conversation with Anthony? If so, that would've been some neat foreshadowing, as Frankie would have felt VERY patronized by the money, as if Frankie was being treated like a child by the Rosatos.

Money is discussed at a couple of points in the movie. Seeing money actually change hands at any point in The Godfather is rare. The Godfather was never a movie about organized crime on the street -- the "hustle and muscle" of the next deal to make your nut. That's Goodfellas. Or The Sopranos. Or New Jack City. These movies are checkers compared to the chess game in The Godfather.

There is so much more substance to the movie than seeing a cash deal being consummated. While it may not be deliberate, it's certainly noteworthy that neither Puzo nor Coppola EVER placed any emphasis on cash in the novel or the movie.

When Carmine hands Frankie the "c-note" I think it says something about the character of the Rosato brothers. They're street thugs who will live -- and die -- by the "hustle and muscle" of the day-to-day business of being a wiseguy. They could have handed Frankie $10,000 dollars and it would have been no more or less significant than handing him a one dollar bill. The Rosatos were the kind of people who would just steal it out your pocket later.

tony b.

i agree it's an insult alright...
But Wouldn't this insult make frankie feel at least a little bet insecured..specially when rosatto ask him to come alone without his bodyguard (Willie Cicci)..
either frankie is really dump..(which i despite),or it's a weak scene in the movie(which i really don't want to think about)
what does the novel says about this scene? Maybe it's clearer..

Puzo

Except for when Fredo brings $2 million in cash to Cuba ... immediately after Roth complains to Michael that it never arrived.

Apple

Nothing--because Pentangeli and the Rosatos are creatures of the movie, not the novel.

True. When in doubt, go to "real history".

When Larry Gallo was ambushed by The Profaci Mob in 1961 (and it became the basis for the Frankie Pentangeli garroting scene) Profaci Family member John Scimone gave Gallo a $100 bill (back then it was worth about $1,000 in today's value). As Gallo himself later described, "Scimone called me and told me he bet on a horse and it came in and paid a big price. He said he wanted to split the winnings with me. So I met him and he handed me a C-note".

The money was to have "relaxed" Gallo and the plan apparently worked as Gallo agreed to go with Scimone to The Sahara Lounge where the hit attempt took place.

Coppola/Puzo changed it in the storyline to where Frank Pentangeli took the offering as an insult, but like so much else in "The Godfather" it was based on fact.

this made me kind of confused here ...then why did micheal go to hyman? and what did they talk about? "according to the novel"

P.S: i'm from the middle east..and i looked for the novel everywhere..and i never found it..actually there's nothing written by Mario Puzo here..so please excuse my questions

I'm not sure what's confusing about Turnbull's answer. Hyman Roth, Frank Pentangelli and several other characters (Rosato's/Sen. Geary, etc.) that appear in GFII did not exist in Mario Puzo's original novel, 'The Godfather'.

The were written specifically for the latter scenes in GFII, as contemporaries of Vito Corleone who are now interacting with his son, Don Michael Corleone.

The plot of Hyman Roth and the Havana deal were written exclusively for GFII. As many have noted, real life history is borrowed from heavily, as we see in the Castro takeover of Cuba on New Year's Eve.

There is nothing in the novel to reference this stuff. It was all written after The Godfater was a confirmed hit and deemed worthy of a sequel.

Apple

oh ok..that's a shock
i feel like a real goof now
but anyway thanx apple...

Puzo