Michael telling Kay colorful "stories" at wedding

Do you think Michael later regretted telling Kay, essentially an "outsider," a "stranger," all those colorful stories to her at the Rizzi wedding?

I'm sure Michael didn't repeat that mistake when he was with Appollina.

No, because he was already seriously dating her and later married her. I think he liked being able to portray himself as somewhat connected to some "colorful" people. He didn't have to tell Apollonia anything because she had grown up around it.

I'm not sure it could be considered a 'mistake', because first of all in the context of the film, by revealing those things to Kay, he was revealing them to the audience as well.

And second of all there's no reason he would later regret it because at the time he claimed and believed that that was his family, not him.

I understand "for the audience's sake," but Michael knew about Omerta, the vow of silence, and even though Michael wasn't involved with the Mafia at the time, telling "tales out of school" to a girlfriend is pretty serious.

Far as I can recall, outside of the bandleader story (which she whined and coerced out of him) ... all he did was fill her in on how Tom is his brother without the same last name, what a consiglieri is, and agree that Luca Brasi was a 'very scary guy'.

I don't see how explaining how Johnny got released from that contract is even remotely considered breaking of 'Omerta', since the bandleader's brains did not end up on the release.

I don't know what the statute of limitations is on Extortion, but Vito could have been in for it if Kay went to the cops.

Exactly. Legally, it would be hearsay and not admissable.

It was almost like Michael was gloating when he revealed the secrets of his father to Kay. I mean, if you're supposedly "ashamed" of the Family Business, why tell your potential wife all the dirt to make her weary of his family? Why make her possibly afraid of Vito? What advantage is there to it? It's a terrible risk, on his part.

I don't know that there was supposed to be any deep motive on Michael's part here. I think he was just having a little fun telling her some semi-scary stories, just like any boyfriend might do. Or maybe he was just gauging her reaction to make sure she wouldn't run away from him.

I think it's pretty obvious that this was not an insider story. Even Woltz knew it, because the Corleones wanted everybody to know.

but would you be so apt to tell your girlfriend that your father is a gangster?

Nah, he didn't regret it. Though at first he was doing it out of disdain for his father's "business," Kay was still the sort of woman that was not about to turn a blind eye to things. Of course he kept her out of the loop on a lot of other things as the years went by, but just the same, she knew the lay of the land and Michael did love her for her strength and intelligence as a sort of prototype "modern progressive" woman. The sort of woman who would demand to know certain things.

Appolonia on the other hand, was a completely different sort of woman, filling a traditional role. While Kay no doubt saw herself as an "equal" to Michael, Appolonia was clearly filling the traditional role of subordinate, tending to the needs of her King, who in turn strove to protect her and shield her from the evils of the family business, in much the same way we saw Vito do when he closed the door to open the parcel of guns in part II.