Don Fanucci
Encyclopedia
Massimo Fanucci is a fictional character appearing in the Mario Puzo
novel The Godfather
and the film The Godfather Part II
, sequel to the film based on the novel of the same name
. He is portrayed by Gastone Moschin
.
ist in New York City
's Little Italy
. Fanucci demands "protection" money
from neighborhood businesses, and does not confine his demands to non-Italians, which is considered a sign of disrespect in the Mafia
. Vito Corleone
(Robert De Niro
) witnesses Fanucci threaten to disfigure a young girl when her father refuses to pay him, and almost intervenes but is stopped by his friend, Genco Abbandando
, who tells him who Fanucci really is. He also loses his own job when Fanucci demands that Genco's father provide employment for Fanucci's nephew, Sandiago.
Vito becomes increasingly aware of Fanucci in the time that follows and notices that in spite of the terror he instills on others he does not appear to have powerful backers or any evident connections to powerful mobs other than by rumor. Fanucci wanders the streets without obvious protection. In the novel (filmed as a scene for the movie but deleted from the theatrical cut and available on the DVD sets) Vito witnesses an attack on Fanucci by two young muggers; though Fanucci screams for help nobody comes to his rescue and the attack ends only when the youths have robbed him, cut his throat (not enough to do serious injury), and run away. Vito knows from his own experiences that a real mafia don would probably be escorted by bodyguards, and if for some reason he did not anybody who dared attack him would be dealt with severely, quickly, and probably publicly as soon as the Don was free, yet in the days that follow there is no indication that Fanucci killed or otherwise took revenge on the two thieves. Vito begins to suspect that Fanucci's reign of terror in Little Italy is based as much on Fanucci's nerve, choosing weak victims (such as the young girl and the scared store owner) and rumor as much, if not more, than it is upon actual personal strength or Mafia connections.
One day while Vito is out driving a load of stolen merchandise, Fanucci accosts him by jumping onto the moving vehicle. Fanucci explains that he'd gotten word, correctly, that Vito, Peter Clemenza and Sal Tessio had participated in several robberies and fencing the stolen goods including a shipment of dresses. He claims that the trio has treated him "shabbily" by not allowing him to "wet my beak," (i.e. to let him take a cut of their profits) or shown respect and courtesy by sending some of the stolen dresses as a gift for Fanucci's daughters. Fanucci demands a payment of $600 from the three men, an amount based on his estimate of their proceeds from the stolen merchandise, but almost immediately states he will take slightly less if he is wrong on the amount ("but not much less" he says emphatically). He also threatens to go to the police unless Vito gives him a cut of their profits.
Realizing that if Fanucci really is a mafia chief he would neither threaten or use police intervention, and combined with his observations on Fanucci and the man's , Vito sees a chance to take the Don's place. First he assures him that he will convince his friends to pay him. In meeting with Tessio and Clemenza later, Vito is surprised that his two partners are both terrified of Fanucci and want to pay him and give Vito their third of the demanded tribute. Vito takes the money but when he meets with Fanucci he offers only a fraction of the amount demanded: $100 of the $600 Fanucci had expected. Fanucci is less insulted or outraged than he is impressed with the young man's courage and offers him work, while Vito interprets his ability to low-ball Fanucci as a sign of the latter's weakness, thus confirming his suspicion of Fanucci's vulnerability.
After the meeting, Vito stalks
Fanucci through a street carnival and then, via the rooftops, to his apartment down the street. Letting himself in through a rooftop doorway, he descends to Fanucci's apartment and prepares to execute him. When Fanucci arrives, Corleone shoots him once in the chest and two times in the face, the sounds of gunfire masked by the carnival outside and by Vito using a rolled-up towel as a makeshift silencer. After the hit, Vito retrieves the money that Fanucci had taken earlier in the day and then destroys the gun, breaking it up and dropping the pieces down several of the apartment building's vent pipes that lead to garbage chutes.
Because the hit was taken by Vito's own initiative and because he was the only one of the three now cowed by Fanucci Vito moves from being equal partners with Tessio and Clemenza to being their uncontested boss in the operation. Gradually Vito, with Clemenza and Tessio as his respected lieutenants, take over the neighborhood. Because he treats the residents with a great deal more respect than Fanucci had, showing generosity especially to the weak with his money and his influence, he soon earns the neighborhood's respect and loyalty. Since Fanucci was not very well liked by the police, his murder is not fully investigated and assumed to be an assassination by a jealous rival. Due to his clean record, Vito is never suspected, though the open secret that he is responsible for Fanucci's death increases Vito's reputation for toughness when it is needed even before, at Vito's orders, Tessio and Clemenza begin assembling a gang of "tough guys" to do assist in any work that requires violence or intimidation.
Unbeknownst to Vito, his young son Sonny
saw his father on the rooftop of Fanucci's apartment. However, this is not mentioned in the movie; it is mentioned in the book when Sonny is nearly caught by the police for armed robbery when he is 16. When asked by Vito why he stole, the boy brings up witnessing his father disposing of the gun and fleeing the scene. It is this revelation that results in Sonny becoming a member of the Corleone crime family.
Mario Puzo
Mario Gianluigi Puzo was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola...
novel The Godfather
The Godfather (novel)
The Godfather is a crime novel written by Italian American author Mario Puzo, originally published in 1969 by G. P. Putnam's Sons. It details the story of a fictitious Sicilian Mafia family based in New York City and headed by Don Vito Corleone, who became synonymous with the Italian Mafia...
and the film The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American gangster film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling the story of the Corleone family following the events of the first film while also depicting the...
, sequel to the film based on the novel of the same name
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
. He is portrayed by Gastone Moschin
Gastone Moschin
Gastone Moschin is an Italian actor.Born in San Giovanni Lupatoto , he began his career in the 1950s as theatre actor, first with the Stable Theater in Genoa and then with the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. In the same period Moschin also began to play in feature films, such as La rivale and L'audace...
.
In the novel
In the novel, Fanucci is a freelance Black Hand extortionExtortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
ist in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Little Italy
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.-Canada:*Little Italy, Edmonton, in Alberta*Little Italy, Montreal, in Quebec...
. Fanucci demands "protection" money
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
from neighborhood businesses, and does not confine his demands to non-Italians, which is considered a sign of disrespect in the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. Vito Corleone
Vito Corleone
Vito Andolini Corleone is a fictional character and the main character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, where he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II. Premiere Magazine listed Vito...
(Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
) witnesses Fanucci threaten to disfigure a young girl when her father refuses to pay him, and almost intervenes but is stopped by his friend, Genco Abbandando
Genco Abbandando
Genco Abbandando is a fictional character from the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo, and the film adaptations The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. He serves as Don Vito Corleone's first consigliere for 20 years until he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. As Genco's health worsens he is...
, who tells him who Fanucci really is. He also loses his own job when Fanucci demands that Genco's father provide employment for Fanucci's nephew, Sandiago.
Vito becomes increasingly aware of Fanucci in the time that follows and notices that in spite of the terror he instills on others he does not appear to have powerful backers or any evident connections to powerful mobs other than by rumor. Fanucci wanders the streets without obvious protection. In the novel (filmed as a scene for the movie but deleted from the theatrical cut and available on the DVD sets) Vito witnesses an attack on Fanucci by two young muggers; though Fanucci screams for help nobody comes to his rescue and the attack ends only when the youths have robbed him, cut his throat (not enough to do serious injury), and run away. Vito knows from his own experiences that a real mafia don would probably be escorted by bodyguards, and if for some reason he did not anybody who dared attack him would be dealt with severely, quickly, and probably publicly as soon as the Don was free, yet in the days that follow there is no indication that Fanucci killed or otherwise took revenge on the two thieves. Vito begins to suspect that Fanucci's reign of terror in Little Italy is based as much on Fanucci's nerve, choosing weak victims (such as the young girl and the scared store owner) and rumor as much, if not more, than it is upon actual personal strength or Mafia connections.
One day while Vito is out driving a load of stolen merchandise, Fanucci accosts him by jumping onto the moving vehicle. Fanucci explains that he'd gotten word, correctly, that Vito, Peter Clemenza and Sal Tessio had participated in several robberies and fencing the stolen goods including a shipment of dresses. He claims that the trio has treated him "shabbily" by not allowing him to "wet my beak," (i.e. to let him take a cut of their profits) or shown respect and courtesy by sending some of the stolen dresses as a gift for Fanucci's daughters. Fanucci demands a payment of $600 from the three men, an amount based on his estimate of their proceeds from the stolen merchandise, but almost immediately states he will take slightly less if he is wrong on the amount ("but not much less" he says emphatically). He also threatens to go to the police unless Vito gives him a cut of their profits.
Realizing that if Fanucci really is a mafia chief he would neither threaten or use police intervention, and combined with his observations on Fanucci and the man's , Vito sees a chance to take the Don's place. First he assures him that he will convince his friends to pay him. In meeting with Tessio and Clemenza later, Vito is surprised that his two partners are both terrified of Fanucci and want to pay him and give Vito their third of the demanded tribute. Vito takes the money but when he meets with Fanucci he offers only a fraction of the amount demanded: $100 of the $600 Fanucci had expected. Fanucci is less insulted or outraged than he is impressed with the young man's courage and offers him work, while Vito interprets his ability to low-ball Fanucci as a sign of the latter's weakness, thus confirming his suspicion of Fanucci's vulnerability.
After the meeting, Vito stalks
Stalking
Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...
Fanucci through a street carnival and then, via the rooftops, to his apartment down the street. Letting himself in through a rooftop doorway, he descends to Fanucci's apartment and prepares to execute him. When Fanucci arrives, Corleone shoots him once in the chest and two times in the face, the sounds of gunfire masked by the carnival outside and by Vito using a rolled-up towel as a makeshift silencer. After the hit, Vito retrieves the money that Fanucci had taken earlier in the day and then destroys the gun, breaking it up and dropping the pieces down several of the apartment building's vent pipes that lead to garbage chutes.
Because the hit was taken by Vito's own initiative and because he was the only one of the three now cowed by Fanucci Vito moves from being equal partners with Tessio and Clemenza to being their uncontested boss in the operation. Gradually Vito, with Clemenza and Tessio as his respected lieutenants, take over the neighborhood. Because he treats the residents with a great deal more respect than Fanucci had, showing generosity especially to the weak with his money and his influence, he soon earns the neighborhood's respect and loyalty. Since Fanucci was not very well liked by the police, his murder is not fully investigated and assumed to be an assassination by a jealous rival. Due to his clean record, Vito is never suspected, though the open secret that he is responsible for Fanucci's death increases Vito's reputation for toughness when it is needed even before, at Vito's orders, Tessio and Clemenza begin assembling a gang of "tough guys" to do assist in any work that requires violence or intimidation.
Unbeknownst to Vito, his young son Sonny
Sonny Corleone
Santino "Sonny" Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and its 1972 film adaptation. He also appears as an infant, as a young boy, and an adult in The Godfather Part II....
saw his father on the rooftop of Fanucci's apartment. However, this is not mentioned in the movie; it is mentioned in the book when Sonny is nearly caught by the police for armed robbery when he is 16. When asked by Vito why he stole, the boy brings up witnessing his father disposing of the gun and fleeing the scene. It is this revelation that results in Sonny becoming a member of the Corleone crime family.