Ok, after my last watch, I’m more convinced than ever that Frankie didn’t deserve to die. Kicked out of the family interests yes, but spared his life. He wasn’t a traitor, he was forced into everything. He is a husband and a father and his choices were none
Lets look at the facts
1) Frankie Five Angels, a highly regarded capo-regime, who has served the Corleone’s faithfully way back from Vito’s day well into Micheal’s run. He has succeeded Clemenza in New York and hasn’t done a bad job running things even though the rest of the family is on the other side of the country. He is getting squeezed by the Rosato’s who belong to Hyman Roth. He attends Michael’s son’s holy communion with a hope to getting a word with his don and getting these matters straightened out. He has come all the way from New York, and this gesture is appreciated by Fredo…but not by Mike.
2) Michael doesn’t want to see Frank, not until very last. Michael would rather talk to Gardner Shaw than him. Pentangeli is understandably pissed to made to wait and thus he has a few drinks…what else can he do? Just why Mike is leaving Frank till last isn’t explained. During dinner, Frank STILL hasn’t been seen by Mike, and by now, he’s a little drunk and he wonders aloud just why this is the case. Frank is a capo-regime, he can speak out in this fashion, just as Tessio and Clemenza questioned Mike at the end of part 1.
3) Frank can be seen as a good man, incapable of betraying the Corleone’s by the way he plays with Anthony.
4) By the time Mike FINALLY sees Frank, he’s totally drunk and the conversation is not as it should be. Frank lays into Mike’s treatment of him, and then moves onto the issue of The Rosato’s and Roth.
5) Frank wants to know why Michael has permitted the new york end of the family to be squeezed by the Rosato brothers, and why he is conducting business with Hyman Roth. Mike’s explanation is glib, and he refuses to allow a hit on the Rosato brothers. Mike says he has business with Roth, who is responsible for two men harming Corleone family interests
6) Frank then says he wants to run his family without Michael on his back, but Mike says that his family still bears the name Corleone and he’ll run it like a Corleone…even though at the end of Part I, he promised Clemenza he’d get to break off and have his own family when he moves to Nevada. Mike then patronizes Frank by calling him a ‘good old man’, and ordering him not to take any action against the Rosato’s. Frank leaves this meeting unsatisfied…but bound to Mike’s orders
7) The attempt on Mike’s life is carried out and Mike visits Roth in Miami. From this meeting, the viewer is led to believe that Frankie actually carried out the hit attempt…but Frankie – drunk – would never have been able to organise such a thing in such little time, and if he arranged it beforehand, then why bother seeing Mike at all if he knew what the answer was going to be. Mike knew it wasn’t Frank, and Roth knew that Mike knew it wasn’t Frank, and Mike should have known that Roth knew Mike knew it wasn’t really Frank…but he doesn’t, and he is dumb enough to tell the wily veteran Roth that Frank is a dead man.
8) Mike sees Pentangeli at his house and initially yells at him to make us think that he really did do it. But Mike doesn’t really ever do things like that, he’d have just had Frankie shot if he thought he did it. Know, Mike quickly tells Frank that he knows Roth did it, which pleases Frankie who expects that the Rosato’s and Roth can now be hit on. Frank is desperate for these men to die, as he knows through experience that Roth can’t be trusted. Now that we are seeing a sober Frank, we can see that he cares for Michael and wants to serve him, yet he is perturbed to have to make nice with the Rosato’s and keep things cool while Mike has time to investigate who betrayed him. Frank is too loyal to know he’s being used and goes along with it, making the mistake of turning up his meet with the Rosato’s unaided…sending Cicci to his car. The Rosato’s then attempt to kill Pentangeli, which is interrupted by the police, this makes us think that Frankie was supposed to die, but the Rosato’s always intended to let Frankie live, hence the ‘Michael Corleone says hello’
9) There is the argument that Frankie shouldn’t have been fooled by ‘Michael Corleone says hello’ and realize that Mike would never work with the Rosato’s…but on the other hand, Mike has said time and time again that he has important business with Roth, and this was still going ahead. And Mike said that he wanted time to find out who the traitor in his family was…Frank must have thought that Mike decided HE was the traitor after all. The man has just had a near death experience and was picked up by the police and charged with all sorts, Cicci was also picked up and he squealed like a baby. With evidence to now hand Mike a subpoena (With Questadt pulling the strings in the senate) this happens and Mike is brought to trial.
10) Frank Pentangeli has nothing. He can’t trust Mike anymore and the police will put him away for life. Frank decides to speak to the FBI and break Omerta. He feels he was betrayed so now he can betray, and even if Mike wasn’t responsible for the hit attempt, he was still responsible for not helping Frank when he asked for it, and then using his life to keep Roth happy. Mike played it terribly…and yet, after the senate hearings break down and Frank sees his brother, Frank is still told to kill himself, that it was the only way for his family to be looked after. Frank does so, out of honour. At the end of the day, Frank spoke to the senate, but only after he had been crapped on oh so many times by Michael. He is 80% innocent and his death is a tragedy. He was a loyal Corleone employee.
Frank didn’t have to die. Mike, if he just sat down on his ass and thought about it, should have realized that Roth manipulated the whole thing, the best thing Mike could have done was to tell Frankie he’s sorry for what he’s put him through, and send him on his way to live a peaceful life somewhere.
Roth played it beautifully.
