While I would like to see them all included in the movie, there are two scenes which I think were very important and should NOT have been edited out.

The first one is the Genco death scene. That scene should have been left in for the exact reasons that Turnbull posted above. I couldn't agree more.

The second scene, which I think was extremely important to the plot, was 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.

Sonny tells Michael to leave, that he may not like what he is going to hear from him and Tessio. So Michael tells him " He's my father too." Sonny says something like " Pop would kill me if he found out that I let you in on this stuff." But 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.

Now again, I may not have the exact dialogue down pat, but that is basically what took place in that scene. It clearifies 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.

Honorable mention goes to the scene where Sonny finds out that his father has been shot, so he goes into the Don's study to get a phone book out of the safe. We are shown Sonny glancing over at the Don's empty chair, and then he sits in a chair on the side of the Don's desk instead of in the Don's chair. To me that symbolized that at that moment, when he looks at the Don's empty chair, Sonny was too not sure if he could now "fill his father's shoes, or if he even wanted to. At that moment he had some doubt."

Some very important scenes.


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