Right just hear me out

IMO The shooters were about to kill mike by going in to the house, this explains why they needed Fredos information about the compound and where the corleone men were and how to get in to the house (assuming fredo was dumb enough to believe that Roth wanted to kidnap Mike and no harm would come to him). However as they are about to do it they see the drapes are open and try to kill mike but they mess it up.

Many people agree that Anthony opened the drapes to see where his father was (to see the pitcure). I also beieve that Kay probably got dressed in the bathroom and was too tired to see if the drapes were open (it was a long and tiring party)and went straight to bed, Then mike comes and then she realises the drapes are open.

Thats what i think. I'm not sure if anybody has came up with a conclusive answer to this or has said this before but thats my thought.

What do you think.

I'm telling you, it was Manolo, the Gardner.

We are never told what information Fredo supplied to Ola and Roth.
If the shooters' plan was to enter Michael's home and nail him inside, they wouldn't have changed plans to shoot through the window if they saw that the drapes were opened. Professional hit men don't operate that way. It would have been less exacting, less precise, than sticking to the original plan, which would have been to get up close and personal before shooting Michael--and Michael only. Spraying the bedroom with machinegun bullets would not have been an acceptable substitute--unless that was the original plan.
And that's what I believe: Fredo opened the drapes to give them the opportunity to spray the bedroom with bullets and kill Michael--and anyone else who got in the way, including Kay and MIchael's kids if they were present. That's why the would-be killers use machine guns.

Why did the shooters wait so long to shoot (other than theatrical purposes)? I mean, Michael was exposed for a couple of minutes as he walked in, looked at Anthony's picture, etc.

True, it could be a sign of them thinking about how they gonna kill mike, Up close and personal or through the window.

I dont think the killers were pros, because if they were they wouldnt have been that sloppy with the mechine guns.

Machine guns actually would be the logical choice if they were planning to shoot through the window (which is what I believe). There's no other way to be with machine guns than "sloppy," but they'd have the likelihood that at least some of the dozens of bullets they'd spray around would find their mark. Relying on a rifle to shoot into a bedroom whose lighting would be suboptimal would be far more risky.
The use of machine guns in that scene underscores Roth's ruthlessness--though Michael was the target, he obviously didn't care if Kay or anyone else (like the kids) got in the way. It also underscores why Michael was so desperate to find out who the traitor was--because Roth, with the traitor's help, would try again, and perhaps be even more ruthless.
I agree with Bozak that the main reason for the delay was for theatrical effect.

There was NO reason to wait other than for 'theatrical purposes'.
Nor is there a reason for Kay to have even gotten undressed and into bed without ever ONCE noticing the drapes were open until her husband was standing in front of the window.

It simply could not have happened.

Had this been a real life hit, no professional gunman would've waited that long once Michael. Even if one did for whatever reason, his partner would not.

The wait is for US the audience, for DRAMATIC purposes... because the hit is to be unsuccessful.

Had this been a real life hit, it never would've even occurred this way, been botched this way and Michael would've been dead and there would be no movie, no theories, no nothing.


Apple

Then i'm sure the Mechine guns were also used for theatrical effect. But then again the way the whole scene was (action packed) was for theatrical effect too. Looks like the Drapes question will never be solved. It must have been sloppy writing by Puzo and coppola or was it left open for a purpose.

I don't think it was left open for a purpose, I'd just chalk it up to sloppy screen writing.

Plus, you have to remember, they had no idea that in 30 years there'd be a bunch of movie geeks, like us, discussing the movie through the Internet. If you told me 30 years ago there'd be an Internet I'd have called Bellevue on you.

Only Al Gore knew about the Internet in 1974.

TB so you are saying Fredo knew it was going to be a hit?

Yes, that's what I believe. I can't prove it, of course. If you believe, as I do, that Fredo opened the drapes, you have to ask: for what purpose? Some here think Fredo was made to believe that Michael would be kidnapped, not whacked (what he meant when he told Johnny Ola, "you guys lied to me"). But even stupid Fredo could not possibly have imagined that simply kidnapping Michael and letting him survive would have resulted in anything beneficial for Fredo. Since Fredo knew his own brother and feared him (as we saw in some dialog twixt Fredo and Deanna at Anthony's party), he'd know that the only way he, Fredo would survive and benefit an attack on Michael would be for Michael to be killed. The violence of Fredo's anger and resentment in the boathouse scene caps it for me.

You could be right TB, and if you are it puts Fredo's murder in a whole different light. This would mean that Fredo was lying to Michael even when he said "I didnt' know it was going to be a hit." And Michael would have had to have known Fredo was lying.
This did make Fredo a threat undercuts many of the arguments made on the boards about whether or not Michael went "too far" when he had Fredo whacked.

I certainaly agree that if Fredo would have acquiesed to Michael being kidnpped he would have acquiesced to Michael being killed. The whole point of a kidnapping is to put a ransom on the victims head...or else. So assuming for a minute Michael was kidnapped, you would have Tom, Neri,and Rocco doing the negotiations, and Fredo out of the loop anyway. Assuming they got them to cave on whatever the "negotiations" were, and Michael was released, and then Fredo suddenly got "something for him" then Fredo would be a suspect anyway. None of that makes sense, so the only reason to open the drapes was to allow for a hit. Unless of course Ola convinced Fredo he just wanted to watch Kay get undressed .

Just like when Christopher caught Paulie Walnuts going through Adriana's underwear drawer!

Well, if Wiengartner is right, maybe Fredo just was being passive-aggressive about how much he loathed the window treatments.

It hit me like a thnderbolt this weekend. Anthony opened the drapes, and here's how.

In watching the Saga we know that Anthony was up and around well pasy his bedtime. We see him sittingnext to a very drunk Pentangeli, so it is logical that anyone else could also have gotten to him.

I think it is likely that Ola saw Anthony making that drawing of Michael, and told him "Anthony you could really surprise your dad by puttting this on his pillow....and while you are in there open the drapes really wide so he can see it when he comes to bed."

Assuming this happened, it would explain a lot about why Anthony is such a psychological mess...he may even have had a repressed memory about what he did.

That's quite a limb you are going out on. So, someone is going to rely on a 7 or 8 year old kid to aid and abet an assassination. Also, I don't find any evidence that Anthony was a "psychological mess."

Oh, Olivant you ARE blind...look what's happened to Anthony!

Anthony's fine!

Anthony's NOT FINE
I don't wanna hear about it
Anthony's friends are your buttonmen!

Okay, what happened to him?

He was a MUSICIAN!!!

I don't know about his being a "psychological mess" but the kid definitely had to have had mental problems.

Have you ever seen the deleted scene from the Saga where he runs off during his communion and comes upon the "family" soldiers and Kay chases after him and tries to shelter him from what he had just discovered? Couple that with the hit attempt in his house, his parent's bedroom, where his mother and father slept, where he and his sister came an played with their toys, and the kid had to have had some mental problems.

Not to mention the scene where Michael comes back to the house after Christmas and sees the little red car that he supposedly bought for his boy lying there in the snow as if it was uncared for and untouched. Anthony obviously wanted his father with him for Christmas more than that toy.

And after all he did lose his uncle Fredo, in a boating accident, after leaving the boat that he was supposed to be on with him. And the rumors about his father being responsible for his uncles death started to fly!


GFIII : "I have bad memories."

"Did he kill his own brother?"


I think that FFC threw all those little Anthony scenes in GFII to try and show us that Anthony was becoming affected by what Michael had become. Perhaps the kid really did become a psychological mess!

I think that in Connie's state of mind - pissed at Michael for dis'n her and Merle - she told Fredo that she was going to have sex with Merle on Michael's bed. She told him that she was going to open the drapes so everyone could see them and this would humiliate and embarass Michael in front of his guests. When Fredo heard Connie's plan, he inadvertantly passed it on to Johnny Ola, knowing Johnny likes a good sex show (Superman in Havanna). Johnny then took this as a possible plan for seeing Michael in the bedroom, near the window. When Michael was to be informed that his sister was humpitating Merle, on his bed, with the drapes open; Michael would rush into the room, run to the window to shut the drapes and then be killed. Problem was Merle had a premature ejaculation and Connie passed out in the bathroom. Those were scenes that were edited out.

It was Troy Donahue all along.

This is my favorite theory.

Finally someone around here is thinking straight!

No wonder Merle didn't have money to book passage on the Queen....he was a filure as a gigolo.