There’s a scene that I thought I had seen at one point where Vito says to Michael “It looks like you found your Luca Brasi." I think it took place after the meeting when Tessio and Clemenza are complaining about Barzini and Tom is demoted. I recently got the Godfather DVD collection which has a disk with a lot of cut scenes, but I didn’t see that part. Does anyone else remember such a scene?

The other part of that scene that’s always intrigued me is how Vito congratulates Carlo. At the wedding Vito clearly says to Tom, to give him a living but never discuss the family business with him. I’ve always thought that his change of attitude in congratulating Carlo for becoming Michael’s “Right hand man”, meant that he was going along with the plan of fooling Carlo into thinking that they weren’t on to his betrayal of Sonny. Since he seemed to know that Carlo was a dirt bag right at the start, I wonder why he let Connie marry him in the first place?

Welcome to the boards!

This scene appears in the Godfather Saga, which has been airing frequently on AMC and Bravo this summer. I wish it were on the extras disk of the "Godfather Trilogy" DVD.

Welcome, SNJ!
The "you've found your Luca Brasi" scene that you're referring to appears in the novel. Hagen, not Vito, made that statement to Michael. Much as I don't like to disagree with my friend Goombah, I don't recall it in the Saga.

The question of why Vito didn't prevent Connie from marrying Carlo has come up many times on this board. Carlo certainly was a dirtbag From Da Woid Go, and Vito obviously saw through him. For all we know, Vito did remonstrate with Connie, but perhaps out of sentiment for his youngest child, and maybe to avoid domestic discord, he stopped short of forbidding her to marry him. Or, he may have taken the attitude that it was her decision to make--and she'd have to be responsible for the consequences (as in Vito telling Sonny, "Never interfere between a man and his wife"). Michael seems to have adopted a form of that attitude toward Connie. It might seem horrendously cruel and cynical for Michael to have Carlo whacked on the very day that he stood godfather to Connie and Carlo's infant son. But in the novel (and partly in the film) he rationalized it by saying it wasn't his idea to be godfather--it was Connie's idea. And how about murdering Fredo? Well, it wasn't his idea to "forgive" Fredo--it was Connie's request. Or, as Flip Wilson used to say on TV, "the devil made me do it."

Perhaps I'm not correct about it being in the Saga, but that scene is in one I dvr'd Bravo this year. I believe it was referred to as the "Novella," but how much that differs from the Saga I could not state.

On a side note, one scene from the novel that I never understood why it wasn't filmed was the scene in which Sonny proposed to kill Sollozzo and Sonny laughs uncontrollably. In the novel, Mike confronts Sonny and tells him to stop laughing, thus reminding everyone in the room of the similarity b/w Michael & Vito. Sonny explains "I'm not laughing at what you said, but how things turned out...All it took was a sock to the jaw. Howdaya like that?" I always felt that this scene would have added to the film.

That scene was filmed and shown. But it is Clemenza that starts laughing at Mike's bravado. In fact, I think the film version is superior to the novel version because it works. I always thought the novel version was a bit of a stretch.

I've lost track of how many versions of the films have been made and shown--and that doesn't even include the overseas versions.

TB, I'd hate to challenge you on anything GODFATHER, but I too recall Vito saying to Michael, "I think you found your Luca Brasi." Perhaps it was in THE GODFATHER EPIC, which was released on vhs in the early 80's. I believe I still have mine in one of my storage units. I'll be sure to check.

"Well now you've got your Luca." It was Hagen who said it in the novel. I don't recall it in any version of he film.

vito was referring to neri as mike's luca brasi.