Vito's Fanucci Ruse

Watching GF II last night, Mrs. Woltz raised a question that I couldn't really answer...

Leading up to the murder of Fanucci, Vito sets up a rather elaborate plan. He has Clemenza and Tessio approach Fanucci and agree to his terms. He takes $50 from each of them. He meets with Fanucci and pays him, only to kill him later that day.

The question is: Why the elaborate ruse? Why not just kill Fanucci? Surely that was his plan all along.

What's gained by all the steps Vito takes beforehand? With or without them Vito is unlikely to face retribution, and he would have taken charge of Clemenza and Tessio either way.

I don't know what everyone else is gonna say, but, I'm pretty sure he had to offer SOMETHING to Fanucci in order to get him to put his guard down.

Once Vito offered up some sort of payment Fanucci then assumed the three were under his thumb.

I agree. Fanucci could murder if need be and his instincts were probably keen. Also, I think that it was characteristic of Vito to plan things out elaborately and to anticipate variables. He was smart too, enough so that (in the novel) he didn't take the $5 gold piece from Fanucci's wallet. Michael inherited some of those characteristics.

Vito's plan is sheer brilliance. First he convinces Tessio and Clemenza to give him money in exchange for getting them off the hook with Fanucci. This puts them in his debt, something which which he reminds them of immediately saying that they should remember he is doing them a favor. When they ask how he plans to pull it off, he simply says its his problem.

Vito then pockets some of the money and puts a smaller amount on the table when he confronts Fanucci, making the lame (but still respectful) excuse that they are a little short, and would he please take what he can offer, etc. He takes a calculated risk here, but I think his Sicilian cunning has informed him that Fanucci is a bully, and is more talk than action. After all, he knows bookies who don't pay him, and he also knows from Genco that Fannucci is somewhat slppy in collecting protection money and complains and gets angry when poeple pay late. He also has allowed Vito and company to set up their little fencing business without clamping down on them sooner. Vito sees this as weakness, and he believes that Fanucci has lost his edge, and would no longer resort to murder and other brutal tactics necessary to keep the neighborhood under his thumb.

Vito's beliefs are confirmed when Fanucci accepts the low ball offer, and tells Vito that he has "balls" and that perhaps Vito should consider coming to work for him.

Having pulled this off, and knowing that Fanucci is hated and feared in the neighborhood, Vito then put part two of his plan into play and assassinates Fanucci, and, in the process takes all the money out of his wallet!

Obviously the news of Fanucci's demise and the rumor about who caused it seep throught the neighborhood. Clemenza and Tessio are no longer Vito's partners, they are his subordinates. No doubt they both played a rle in making Vito a hero in the neighborhood for having vanquished the dreaded Fanucci.

Vito becomes the "go to" guy in Little Italy, but instead of ruling the way Fanucci did, he sets up an operation in which he does favors for people who return the favors monetarily or in any other way Vito can arrange. He is seen as a kind of Italian Robin Hood, and we see the affection for him that the people have in the scnes where the fruit vendor won't take his money (and in which Vito thanks him and says "if I can ever do anything for you you come, we talk....") ; and in the scne where he relents to his wife's pressure and helps out the widow with her landlord. The way he deal with the landlord is telling as well. When the land lord refuses Vito's offer, Vito stuff's the money in his ocket and tells him to please ask around about him.
The landlord does this and he learns that Vito is the man who killed Fanucci, and he returns to Genco Olive Oil terrified, and doesn't leave until he has lowered the rent.

All in al the Fanucci move is what made Vito Vito, and launched him as THE GODFATHER.

It was important for Vito to be seen in public meeting with Fanucci--and for Fanucci to be seen leaving Vito, amicably and alive. That way, Vito had an alibi, as long as nobody saw him climbing over roofs to intercept Fanucci outside his apartment door.

In the novel, Vito has Fanucci call on him in Vito's apartment to get the money. Vito's wife and the other women in the building were sitting on the stoop, conversing. They saw Fanucci leave the building alive, and could vouch for that fact if Vito'd been arrested. Meanwhile, he was climbing over roofs to intercept Fanucci.

Good points and being that Vito met and paid something. Fanucci would not be inclined to tell anyone close to him to "watch out for this Vito character" he doesnt want to pay and there might be trouble.

I think it a Corleone family's strategy to make themselves look weak before their enemies.
Vito,by giving money to Fanuci,makes him believe that he had no "bad intentions" against him,that's why Fanuci walks around alone,careless.
The alibi assumption is ont right:It's NY in '20s-noone gets arrested:)
What the film doesn't clear however,is what was the reaction by the Fanuci's bosses.Clemenza says that the neibourhood was "given" to Fanuci by the "Black Hand" or something.No reaction by the organization however...

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Michael was even more clever than that. But giving Fanucci only a part of the money he demanded, and telling Fanucci that he was a little short, out of work, needed time, "let me owe you the money," Michael was making Fanucci think that maybe Fanucci could find work for Michael, exploit him, etc. In other words, making Fanucci relax, be confident, not expect what happened.


As we saw, Michael always doubted that Fanucci was "mobbed up." When Clemenza tells him that Fanucci has "a license from Maranzalla" to work that neighborhood, Michael doubts it. Why? Because, as he tells Tessio and Clemenza, he knows two neighborhood gambling operators who don't pay Fanucci. And, in a deleted scene, he sees two punk kids attempt to cut Fanucci's throat. Fanucci kills one, but lets the other pay him off. Michael tells Genco it's a sign of weakness: "In my village, if you attack someone, you'd better finish him off."

Constantino, since you're from Greece, you should know that, in American cities in the early years of the 20th Century, immigrants were often extorted not by big organizations like the Mafia or the Camorra, but by individuals or small gangs who called themselves "The Black Hand," or some other fearsome title that made their victims think they were part of a much larger organization. The novel points out that, after Fanucci's murder, no one was collecting from the businesses and gambling games that Fanucci was extorting--another sign that Fanucci was a solo operator, and really didn't have "a license from Maranzalla." That's why Clemenza and Tessio convinced Michael to step into that vacuum and become the new boss of the neighborhood.

Probably the assumption that Fanuci was working alone is right.I will try to find any other hints regarding this in the book.

Turnbull, I think that both Genco and Clemenza opposite Vito's decision to go against Fanuci. So,they should belive that some bigger organization was behind him.Vito was the one that insisted on going against him.

Fanucci did have "friends". He also had some connections with the police. But Vito had thought everything through and decided that because there were some people in the area who paid no extortion money to Fanucci and that Fanucci had allowed his vengeance to be bought off in other cases, that therefore Fanucci was not really a true Mafiosi chief. Also Vito reasoned that Fanucci's friends were strictly hired per job and had no personal loyalty to him.

This was all pragmatic reasoning after the fact. Vito simply did not see a good reason to pay Fanucci money and felt the world would be better off without him. He was angrier about the attempt to extort money from him than he was fearful of Fanucci. This boldness and leadership is what bound Tessio and Clemenza to him for life.

Yes, and we see two graphic examples in deleted scenes from II:
Prior to the Fanucci murder, Clemenza acts as if he's in charge. He shows Vito the ropes, plans the dress holdup, and, when he and Tessio are dining with Vito, gets patronizing-- angry--with Vito when he asks why they have to pay Fanucci.

In a deleted scene after the dress robbery, Vito's driving the truck with the dresses. Clemenza goes into a building to "sell" some dresses to a housewife, who he then beds in return for the dresses. When he emerges from the building (buttoning his fly), Vito complains about the time he took. "She couldn't make up her mind," replies "boss" Clemenza, who then orders Vito to deliver the rest of the dresses to "Dadino."

But in another deleted scene following the Fanucci murder (after Sr. Roberto makes his hasty retreat from Vito's office), Clemenza introduces the young Hyman Roth to Vito. As soon as Vito comes in, Clemenza removes his hat, and refers to Vito (to Roth) as "Mr. Corleone." Big turnaround in attitude.

So thats where Sonny got that from LOL

You think he had stolen the dress for Lucy?

No, just the lifting of the dress

Yes, but back on point...CLemenza was subservient to Vito cause he didn't tell him, "Save it for the library."