Does anyone else notice characters speaking slightly too soon in Part II? This mannerism really takes me out of the film's reality because it exposes the characters as prepared actors. I wonder if this is a directorial choiceYou
-Johnny Ola: "One by one, our old friends are all dead." This remark, changing the topic of conversation, seems to come in a beat too soon, as he hadn't really been listening to Michael or thinking about what they were saying.
You could look at it that way. Another way of looking at it: The Johnny Ola character is a con man and is totally insincere. He's Roth's front man. We learn later that Roth wants Michael dead, and that Ola and Roth have corrupted Fredo. So, you could say that the scene introduces the Roth character even before we see him, and that Ola is expounding on Roth's virtues as a way of conning Michael to make him more amenable to Roth's deal.
-Neri: talking about the High Court of Israel's ruling on Hyman Roth. His speaking manner during the entire scene here seems rushed and contrived, as if reading from a script. As an acting student, I may be projecting myself onto him, but Richard Bright seems to be attempting to disguise his (the actor's) genuine nervousness (perhaps at working with such high-caliber peers) as Neri's scorn, but it doesn't work for me.
Compare these actors' choices with the naturalism of Caan or Gazzo. Like Ola and Neri, Hagen also seem to have a somewhat stiffer "prepared" speaking style.
Richard Bright, let's face it, was hardly a great actor. and a big part of it was that he wasn't any good at dialog. That may have been one of the reasons he got so few lines. I see the significance of that scene as Neri pushing past Rocco, and trying to push past Tom, to become Michael's #2 man. He played that part well. Notice how he leads the discussion about Roth's whereabouts. Notice how he sits back, relaxed, while Rocco stands, looking tense. Also notice how, when Michael slams Tom about getting an outside offer, and how he can take his wife, his mistress and his family and live in Vegas, Neri smirks--as if he were the source of that info.
