Tessio Always Smarter?

Michael makes this assertion at Vito's funeral when he explains why it was Tessio, not Clemenza who betrayed the family.

What evidence there is of this?

Yes Tessio looked smarter, maybe cause Clemenza was so fat, but in following the story it seems Clemenza had a fairly substantial role to be considered the less smart of the two.

Clemenza was Vito's first accomplice, and always remained close to him. Even when they suspected him of being mixed up in the assassination attempt on Vito, he vindicated himself, wiped out Paulie, and seemed to be the one doing most of the strategy to set things up on the West Side when they went to the mattresses.

When Michael made his plans to kill Sol, he wanted Clemenza to tape the gun to the back of the box with the chain thing, and he had Clemenza train him in how to kill Sol and McC, and how to get away with it.

During that session Clemenza waxed philosophical about how wars had to havven every ten years or so to get rid of the bad blood, and he even made a comparison to nipping things in the bud which he compared to the appeasement of Hitler. I think this knowledge of history spilled over into the Clemenza replacement character Frankie, whr was also a stuent of history.
Tessio was also the one who had his ear to the ground right after the assassination attempt on ito and had to calm Sonny down after he delivered the news that the word on the street was Vito was already dead.

And on top of all that he made a mean pasta sauce, and delivered the line Leave the gun, take the Cannoli."

In other words I don't see where there is anything showing Tessio was the smarter one. Am I missing something?

The thing is - we just don't know very much about Tessio. In the novel he doesn't even have a first name. Clemenza is smart in the way he plans the revenge on the two young guys who hurt Bonasera's daughter and the killing of Paulie.
But I've always had the feeling that some of his actions were a little risky.
- When they steal the carpet, he's ready to shoot a police officer. For a carpet!
- When he tricks Paulie, he goes for lunch. This could have gone wrong.
- Telling Rocco to leave the gun wasn't smart because of fingerprints, unless of course, he had prepared it with the magic tape.

For the "box & chain thing": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet#History

Although there is little or no evidence in the film that Tessio was smarter, there is such evidence in the novel. Vito instructs his capos to not associate even socially. "He [Vito] explained this to the more intelligent Tessio, who caught his drift immediately, ..."

Of course, one could argue that in the film as well as in the novel that from all appearances the Corleones were doomed and that Tessio has assessed the situation correctly while Clemenza didn't have a clue.

It's also possible--just barely--that Michael was being sarcastic. Clearly Clemenza was smart enough to stick with him. Tessio wasn't.

I don't know about that TB. Clemenza's decision to stick with Michael was probably more a function of loyalty than intelligence. Besides, Vito and Michael purposely represented the Corleones as vulnerable. That charade was good enough to fool Barzini; thus, it was good enough to fool Tessio.

TB could be right. Michael did have a tone of sarcasm in his voice. He well could have meant that Tessio was too clever by half.

Oh DT, I don't recognize any sarcasm at all.

Yeah, something is there...after all he is doing his favorite thing, contradicting Tom. Maybe it was irony not sarcasm..."It was the smart move. Tessio was always smarter." He says it with a kind of tone as if to say "I knew it would be Tessio." But back to the question...where was Tessio so smart? IN THE MOVIE NOT THE BOOK!

That's because the restaurant was located in Clemenza's territory in The Bronx and that made him the logical choice.

Well, in the movie, it's quite evident (consistent with the novel) that Michael presents a Corleone family that is just a shadow of its former self. That was his objective. He accomplished it. Tessio figured that he was going to get wiped out along with the rest of Corleone hieracrchy. It was a smart move; Clemenza bought into Michael's Potemkin Village ("Let us recruit some new men."). Clemenza was willing to go down with the ship.

I beg to differ. The secret Rocco regime was there and the Corleones were not going down. Maybe Clemenza was smart enough to figure it out. tom was.

If Clemenza had known, he wouldn't be there whinning about things.
The only reason Tom knew was that he saw what they were getting paid and he knew the money was for more then just hanging out there.

And one more thing: A film and a novel don't have to show every detail. FFC lets us know that Michael thinks that Tessio was smarter. That's enough for us speculate about his history.
And it's more than the plot holes in GF2.

Come on DT. Your own words: "... secret Rocco regime..."

I always thought the "Tessio was always smarter" comment was very ironic because there he is trying to pull a very predictable move thinking Michael wouldn't catch on.

OK a quasi secret Rocco regime. Tom knew, Vito knew, Michael knew, Rocco knew, Neri probably knew, and the members of the regime knew. Whats the old saying about things not being secret if three or more people know?

(Deleted kithen scene)
Tom - Clemenza thats a huge pot of sauce you got there.
Clem - Yeah, Rocco asked me to make it he said I gotta feed a hundred guys.
Tom - Mind if I have some with my pasta.
Clem - Yeah sure. So whats with Rocco and these guys?
Tom - Can't tell you. I've been in Vegas so I really can't say.
Clem - I think Mike is up to something. Maybe it has to do with cutting me and Tessio out so we can form our own family.
Tom - Well you'd have to ask the Don about that.
Clem - Well I aint saying nothin' but think Mikey has something planned, and I mean something big. If the Don doesn't cut us loose then I know they're gonna need me for some suprise meets.
Tom - Youre a good man Clem. Just remember to save some extra for Manolo.

Watching it again, it doesn't seem to me that he's saying that Tessio was actually smarter in the sense of intelligence, but saying that Tessio was always smarter meaning a smarter choice. That makes sense because of how loyal Clemenza is to both Vito and Michael and Barzini probably knew that he'd be less likely to go along with it than Tessio.

I think that what some of you are forgetting is that Michael doesn't say only "Tessio was always smarter." He also says just before those words "It's a smart move."

Michael knew with the way he let it seem that the family was just about done, with so little left that a smart person would be the one to try and cut a deal and get out with something rather then nothing. It was just a smart business kind of thing to do.

Clemenza would have rode the ship all the way down to the bottom. Loyal but not very smart, Vito and Michael both knew that it was a smart move to leave. In fact you have to some what blame them for the false setup that caused Tessio to be disloyal when he looked at what was happening.

By staying loyal as Pete was/did, they knew they could now trust him to go foward with them into the future. It was almost like checking the loyalty of your men in a way. To see who would be behind Michael once Vito passed.

Thats what i mean, taken in context with that it seems more that by saying "Tessio was always smarter" he's saying that Tessio was always the smarter choice.

It wasn't too smart since The Corleones saw it coming from a mile away.

Telling Sonny to never lose that temper wasn't very smart.

I think that was more of Barzini and Tessio underestimating Michael.

Obviously.

They all did, that was noticeable when Michael said he'd kill Sollozzo and McCluskey and they all laughed at him. That part always seemed strange to me when Sonny remarked about him being a nice college boy, like he forgot that Michael was in the Marines and undoubtedly had to kill someone before. It did seem as though Sonny believed him and realized he was serious until Clemenza started laughing but I also think Sonny really had alot of respect for Michael after he planned out how to be able to divert some of the heat from killing a cop and was seriously going through with it.

Michael would've made a good wartime Consigliere...Maybe one who could've gotten through to Sonny's hot temper.

Imagine a team with Sonny as Don, Michael as Consigliere....I think it could've worked.

I think Sonny would of been better as Michael's underboss, his temper would keep the troops in line and if Michael handed down a hit order Sonny'd be best to carry it out, that being said though I don't think the baptism hit would of went down as well if Sonny was around.

I can't imagne Michael being number two to anyone. Maybe thats one of the underlying reasons he didn't want to get into the family business in the first place.

Not really, what Michael was before his father was shot and what Michael became were two different people that is for sure.

Your talking about what Michael had become as a result of working to protect his father and the family.
Michael was a fun loving easy going type of guy as you can tell by the wedding and the hotel where he is shacked up with Kay right before the shooting.
No matter how you try and spin it. Michael is a product of his Enviroment- plain and simple

I agree FS, but something happened to Michael after the incident with McCluskey. He told Vito he was now "with him" which of course was both a physical fact and a metaphor, but then the following day I think he saw the way Sonny and Tom were running things, and he realized they both didn't get it. Thats when he announced the plan to "kill them both." After everyone had a god laugh, he took apart Sonny's argument and then Ton's argument, and he found an ally in Clemenza (the smart one) who said "Mikey's right." He seemed a transformed man who knoew he was destined to lead the family.

I don't see it that way. I think Michael stepped up because he knew it had to be done to protect his father. It was going to be a one and done event.

He knew he would have to go away and leave his lover and it would be a while before he would be home.

When he killed you could tell on his face that he wasn't the killer type. He left and went to Itlay and almost became a normal life once again, Still guarded but a more normal style. Normal enough to fall in love and get married. Without any other family members there I may add.

It wasn't until Sonny is reported killed that he is pulled back into the life not by choice, but knowing there was no one else to step up with Sonny gone. His father once again needed him. His family needed him.

It was what changed him and then he started getting that wild mind of his working. And look what it did to him.

Getting back to the original topic, the writers put some nonsensical words in Michael's mouth at the end of GF, and these are among them.

Describing Tessio as smart for signing his own death warrant by falling into Michael's trap is like calling Vito smart for sending Luca to the Tattaglias.

A smarter person would have seen Michael's talent and intelligence after he figured out the right way to kill Sollozzo. A smarter person would never have believed that Michael would really make Carlo his right-hand man. A smarter person might have listened to Michael when he told the capos that negotiations were under way to solve all their problems and answer all their questions. A smarter person would have thought twice about approaching Michael with a fake meeting shortly after expressing doubts about the future of the Corleone Family - in front of Michael, no less.

Maybe Clemenza was dumber, but Tessio was hardly smart.

When Michael said "Tessio was always smarter" was that Tessio was able to recognize change quicker than Clemenza. Clemenza was a drunk. It was he that allowed that little greedy runt Paulie to call in sick giving the Tattaglias the opening they needed to shoot at V Corleone. Clemenza had a heart, meaning he believed Hitler should have been stopped before 1939 but he was not able to see that people were looking to kill Vito in order to bring in their narcotics (opium/heroin) supplied to numb the pain associated with death. Vito sent Luca to the Tattaglias because Luca was dispensable. If you read the novel Luca Brazi was a stone cold sociopathic killer who was suicidal and didn't want his bad gene's to be passed down to a child which is why he had the "prostitute" killed for having his baby.


Tessio was honest, in the film he wanted to part ways with Vito but Godfather didn't want that. As far as Michael shooting Sollozzo I can't really comment on that because I, like Tom Hagan, feel that Sunny should have kept his cool and focused a little more on being productive and not so over eager to join forces with Sollozzo. Yes, Michael was very intelligent and he didn't seem surprised that Clemenza would follow order's till the end. Tessio was angry.. and I'm almost thinking the writer's threw in the "Tessio was always smarter line" because they already knew a second film was going to be released, which it did, around 1978. At that point Tessio must have thought that Carlo was going to be the right hand man which is why he approached Michael with the meeting because by then it was clear he didn't want Michael to be head of the family.

I think you need to revisit the film and/or the novel. "Clemenza was a drunk." Where did that come from?

"It was he [Clemenza] that allowed that little greedy runt Paulie to call in sick"

CLEMENZA" -- "I asked Freddy if he wants me to get a different bodyguard and he said "no."

"...they already knew a second film was going to be released (they did?), which it did, around 1978. (You mean '74)

If he really thought Michael was going to make Carlo his right hand man then he wasn't very smart. I have always felt that Michael liked and trusted Clemenza more then Tessio. Even before they know where the meeting is going to be held its Clemenza that Michael trusts to plant the gun. It's Clemenza that instructs Michael on how to carry out the hit. When Clemenza is cooking for the men while Michael is talking to Kay you even see Clemenza joking with him about telling Kay he loves her. You never see any of this one-on-one interaction between Michael and Tessio. I also think Michael felt Clemenza was more loyal to his father and the family. When Vito asks Clemenza and Tessio if they trust him and Michael's plans its Clemenza that immediately replies " yes Godfather." I agree with some of the others that the"Tessio was always smarter" remark was said sarcastically. In my opinion I think Micheal expected the traitor to be Tessio the whole time.

Ya'll keep ignoring what Michael says first: "It's a smart move."

I just put the movie in and watched this scene. I will concede to you that it may not be said in a sarcastic tone especially when you take in to account the "smart move" statement." However I stand by the fact that Michael expected it to be Tessio that betrayed him all along. I think FFC put those scenes of Michael and Clemenza in to show the viewer there was some sort of bond between the two. We see none of that between Michael and Tessio. Was it the smart move? Vito told Michael exactly how everything was going to go down. Did Tessio not learn anything from Vito. If Vito was able to predict what was going to happen, wouldn't smart Tessio be able to come up with a plan that wasn't so obvious. And then to top it off you go to Michael with your plan in the middle of his fathers burial. Then you go over to the enemy and shake his hand right in front of Michael. It may have been the smart move but Tessio sure set it up like a complete idiot.

The Last Woltz, I agree with your assessment of Tessio. Tessio wasn't smart at all. He wasn't even a convincing liar. When he says to Micheal "The meeting will be in Brooklyn, on my turf, where you'll be safe", He doesn't even sound sincere at all. Then, he goes right over to Barzini and tells him right in front of Micheal. No, Tessio was more AMBITIOUS than Clemenza, but not smarter. Anyway, look who got discovered and then killed, Tessio, not Clemenza.

Here's one more thing that pops into my mind which undermines my argument above, but supports the assumption that Michael trusted Clemenza more.
When Tessio says he knows the restaurant, Michael wants Clemenza "to figure a way to have a weapon planted there". Why Clemenza? After all it was Tessio who knew the bar!
Was Tessio too dumb in technical ways?
Or was it that Tessio's men were known in that bar?

You have to take Michael saying "Its a smart move" in context. That context would be that the Corleone family was weak and depleted, and that it was only a matter of time that Barzini would get away with chiseling away at Tessio and Clemenza's territories, and that once the family made the move to Vegas, they wold abandon New York altogether.

In other words it was a smart move if someone assumed all the misdirection Michael was throwing around to get to settle all the family business.

Exactly DT. The misdirection was working and Michael's characterization of Tessio's decision acknowledged that. Because it was working so well, Michael then told Tom that he was going to wait util after the baptism of Connie's baby.

Clemenza was exonerated for Paulie's misdeeds. And he does tell Sonny that he had asked Fredo whether he should switch bodyguards, and Fredo told him not to. Why do you think he's a drunk?

As for Luca, he was hardly "dispensable." In the novel his unique skills are made even more clear. The negatives you cite made him all the more suited for his role. Even in the movie, Sonny mentions that the Family would be in a lot of trouble if Luca sells out.

Who is a drunk?

paprincess referred to Clemenza as a drunk in the post I quoted above.

at Connie's wedding, paulie revealed he was greedy when he commented on the money envelopes and said "marrone if this was anybody else's wedding to clemenza, clemenza was too busy dancing and drinking wine to notice paulie could be bribed to call in sick, which he did, which gave the turk the opportunity to gun down the godfather...

Watch the scene again. Paulie does not say that to Clemenza. He just mutters it to himself. Clemenza's nowhere to be seen.

That may be foreshadowing to the audience, but not to Clemenza, drunk or not.

Exactly W. He does say Sfortunata to himself. It lets the audience know that if he didn't have to worry about the Corleones murdering him, he'd steal the purse.

[/quote] I think Sonny would of been better as Michael's underboss, his temper would keep the troops in line and if Michael handed down a hit order Sonny'd be best to carry it out, that being said though I don't think the baptism hit would of went down as well if Sonny was around. [/quote]

I beg to differ. Yes, we can imagine and fabricate all day, but Michael HAD TO BE the family Savior. Plus, I think it would be the opposite...Sonny could not be controlled...that was evident. If anything, if Sonny had lived, no one would have taken that crown from him.

Once again everyone is taking it personal and not keeping it business... Luca was dispensable as he was a soldier and a killer, someone Vito avoided even looking at unless it was absolutely necessary. yes the family would worry if Luca switched sides because that means the old school family loyalty way was over because their biggest muscle was gone, they literally had no power left.. UNTIL Michael the more travelled and trained war hero figured out how to kill the turk. Michael was fond of Clemenza as he was considered more like part of the family, the smart move AMONGST THE EAST COAST ITALIANS was to go with Barzini, Michael had to kill EVERYONE and then run and start all over instead of go with the flow which was what Tessio was planning to do.

I have always been under the impression that Tesio was more of an earner and Clemenza was more the muscle. It was Clemenza who first got Vito mixed up in crime by giving him the guns. It seems like when there is a job to be done which involves violent force of some kind it goes to clemenzas and his people. I am sure they both earn substantial amounts of money and they probably both do assassinations.(Tesio's men hit Bruno, but we know that at that time the family was still unsure whether or not Ckemenza had betrayed them.) It just seems as if Tessio was more of a business man and Clemenza a thug.

I believe the novel mentions that Tessio was more cunning than Clemenza (who was more direct and brutal; I believe the novel also mentions that Clemenza didn't like guns and preferred the garrote). The original reason why Tessio and Clemenza were split up is so they couldn't conspire against Vito but also there was a line mentioning that many families thought Tessio was acting on his own and wasn't affiliated with the Corleones.