One deleted scene which I think was extremely important to part of the plot is the one where Michael arrives at the Corleone Mall after finding out that his father has been shot, and when he walks into the house, we are shown Thresa Hagen sitting alongside Clemenza, outside the Don's office. When Michael enters the Don's office, we see Sonny and Tessio sitting there talking. Now I don't remember the exact dialogue, so I am going to paraphrase a bit here.
Michael refuses to leave. Sonny then says something like " Ok college boy, you're so smart, who set up the old man, was it Clemenza or Paulie?" and Michael sits there for a moment and then says " Nah, not Clemenza, It had to be Paulie." and Sonny tells him, "Yes you're right, our man in the phone company confirmed that by tracing the calls from a phone booth across the street from pop's office." So that scene tells us that Sonny immedeatly suspected Clemenza, and that is why he had Clemenza sit out of that meeting between him and Tessio. They were deciding and trying to find out if Clemenza was involved.
It gives clarification to the later scene which shows Sonny telling Clemenza to take care of Paulie, because he set up the old man. Without that deleted scene we are left to wonder how Sonny came to that conclusion.
As I recall in that scene there is also some gesture Michael makes to teresa Hagen who is just sitting alone worrying about her husband. Doessnt he tell someone to take care of her? To me it showed that Sonny was already not controlling everything the way a good Don should.
DC your point is a good one, and Clemenza remains suspect throughout. At VVito's funeral when Tom asks Michael if he knows how they are going to come at them, and Michael says they are teking him to a meeting on Tessio's grouns "where I'll be 'safe'" Tom says, "I always thought it would be Clemenza."
I wonder about this lingering suspicion about Clemenza because in GF II we learn that Clemenza was Vito's first real "partner" and that Tessio came on board later.
