What did Don Vito Corleone see in Rocco Lampone

When the Don and Tom come back after making peace at the meeting with the 5 families, he tells Tom to keep an eye on rocco, he's worth something better. And, as always he was right. But what did he see in rocco, he drove them and did what was expected of him. What was it that caught the ever-alert eye of Don Vito?

Who knows? Tom didn't notice anything special. As the novel states, apparently Vito did, but we'll never know.

Puzo probably intended the reference as an example of Vito having a sharp eye for personnel, despite his recent disability and apparent surrender to the other Dons.

Recall that, when Clemenza gave Rocco the assignment to whack Paulie, he told him that he'd get a reward down the line, but that the family was preoccupied with the current crisis right then. Presumably he got closer to Clemenza after that. But Vito was in no position to notice that, so perhaps he was unaware that Clemenza was already recognizing and rewarding Rocco.

Two interesting sidelights:
--Clemenza was the one who brought Neri to Michael's attention. And, as it turned out, Neri, not Rocco, was Michael's man.
--In the film, just a few days (maybe even a few hours) after Rocco makes his bones on Paulie, he's sitting with Sonny, Tom, Michael, Tessio and Clemenza, scarfing down Chinese food with the mighty and participating in the plan to whack Sol and Mac.

Thanks a lot, that was a nice explanation, it clarified many things...Lemme ask you somethin, how did you get so good?

TB, you make good points. But it was also Vito who put off Clemenza's request for greater rewards for buttonmen who were the first in line when push came to shove. Vito unwisely failed to heed that proding.

Didn't the two just have different positions in the organisation? We learn that Rocco built a secret regime, smoething that only Vito and Michael knew about.
So, just as Neri is Michael's Luca, Rocco is Michael's Clemenza.

I always thought of Rocco as a new Tessio because he was building a secret regime just as Tessio was thought of as a separate operation from the Corleone Family in the Olive Oil War.

It seemed to me that:
--Clemenza spotted Neri as a promising recruit, and Michael and Vito vetted him;
--Clemenza undertook Neri's training;
--After Clemenza was satisfied with Neri, he seemed to function as Michael's bodyguard.
But I think he became Michael's "Luca Brasi" after he whacked Moe Green, thus "doing a job of murder all by himself."

I don't recall any personal interactions between Michael and Rocco.

It was Neri's father in law that petitioned the Corleones to intervene in Neri's legal case. Clemenza told Tom about him and it was Tom who first described him as another Luca. After an apprenticeship in Clemenza's regime, Clemenza described him as another Luca also. He was then made responsible to Michael.

That's right. No interaction between the two is mentioned in the novel explicitly. But if Rocco built a secret regime without Tom's knowledge, there had to be interaction between Michael and Rocco. Vitos says "I told Michael that Lampone’s secret regime would not escape your eye." This looks like it was Michael's idea. And most probably he contacted him directly, without the interference of Clemenza or Tessio. Who else could have been a middle man?

Could be. On the other hand, since Clemenza was part of Michael's Great Massacre team, and Rocco was Clemenza's man, Clem may have given him the order to form a secret regime.

I respectfully disagree once more. In the library room scene (which takes place in the novel the night after they come back from Las Vegas) Michael tells Clemenza and Tessio to wait, which turns out to be a test that Tessio fails. After they left the room, Tom asks Michael about his observation of a secret Lampone regime.
Clemenza wasn't part of the Great Massacre Team before it became clear that Tessio had turned traitor.

Neri.

By the way, in the novel Michael states that he will instruct Clemenza personally. However, as in the film, if Clemenza murders Cuneo(?) in the elevator, Clemenza would have had to be brought in on the plan earlier than that day. In addition, since Rocco worked for Clemenza, I don't see how Clemenza could not have noticed what was going on.

I just think that Puzo and FFC put themselves in a little box. Obviously, it's not until the funeral that Tessio reveals himself. So, to that point since the traitor could have been Clemenza, he couldn't have been brought in on things.

You're right, Danito. Since that meeting was, in part, a test of loyalty for Tess and Clem, Rocco's "secret regime" would have to be secret from Clem at that point.

But, if Tom--who wasn't in on the muscle end of the family and was being cut out of the action--knew about Rocco's secret regime, how could Clem, who was Rocco's direct boss, not know about it?

Tom answers this: "You gave Lampone his own living, you gave him a lot of freedom. So he needs people to help him in his little empire. But everybody he recruits has to be reported to me. And I notice everybody he puts on the payroll is a little too good for that particular job, is getting a little more money than that particular exercise is worth. You picked the right man when you picked Lampone, by the way. He’s operating perfectly.”

So when Michael gave Rocco "a lot of freedom" this means that he reported to Michael directly, not to Clemenza. Clemenza wouldn't be suspicious because it was Clemenza who promised him a good reward for the killing of Paulie. My guess is that everybody thought that Rocco was a kind of bodyguard and special agent to Michael (he picked him up from the airport). But no-one except Tom who dealt with recruitments and payments could discover the formation of a new regime.

Oh, and grazie for the smilie above.

But to serve Michael, Rocco would have been removed from Clemenza's supervision. That would have to be explained to Clemenza somehow. I just don't see how Clemenza who was in on the Corleone family from day one could have been kept in the dark.

If Rocco's official position was to be Michael's bodyguard, he didn't have to be under Clemenza's control anymore, which was an easy explanation. Just as Neri, Rocco probably reported to Michael directly.

I was under the impression that Rocco became a Capo? As such, if I'm right, he wouldn't have been Michael's man.

The novel says that, after the Great Massacre, "Now the Corleone Family was unchallengeable, and Clemenza had his own Family. Rocco Lampone was the Corleone caporegime.In Nevada, Albert Neri was in charge of security for all Corleone hotels." So, Rocco cleary was a capo. But for whom? The sentence is a bit ambiguous. Was he a capo under Michael? Or under Clemenza? If he were a capo under Michael, was he in Nevada? And why would Michael, with his "legitimate" front, need a capo in the first place.

As you know, in GFII, Rocco is little more than a rent-a-cop, while Neri clearly eclipsed him in Michael's estimation. Not surprising: Rocco was Clemenza's recruit, Neri was Michael's. Small wonder Michael asked Rocco to make the ultimate sacrifice at the Miami airport--he was expendible.

Well TB, given the context, Rocco was Clemenza's Capo. Remember, Michael tells Frankie that his family is still called Corleone. So, Rocco is the capo for the Corleone family under Clemenza in NY.

By the way, think of all the money the Corleones saved by their stingy designation of capos.

Michael said that in the film. The novel says Clemenza had his "own family." But then again, Frankie thought of it as his own family.


...to say nothing of Xmas gifts. If Kay had been buying Xmas gifts for the post-Great Massacre Corleone Family, her shopping trip would have ended earlier...

Reviving this old thread, I was leafing through the other day, and this (after Bonasera was ushered out) caught my eye:



Obviously, by the time Vito tells Tom to keep an eye on Rocco, everything has been turned upside down and Michael must become the new Don. It's possible, though, that this curious remark from Vito arises from conversations with his personnel manager Clemenza (who valued Rocco's "good judgment") about young men outside of the inner circle who could be groomed for leadership in the next generation. Clemenza himself need not have been told that head of the Family was among the positions that Vito was trying to fill.

The novel also has Tom expressing surprise at Vito's appraisal. He states that Rocco had not manifested any exceptional behavior; he had acted as any chauffeur should. Thus, Tom attributes Vito's appraisal to the Don's keen eye.