Bytegeist–Carlo was in on it. He riled her up (I guess by having his mistress call?) and then started hitting her, because he knew that Sonny would kill him if he touched Connie again. So that’s how they knew.
ETA: This is why Michael has Carlo killed towards the end of the film. (And then lies about it to his sister and his wife.)
I believe that the husband deliberately picked a fight with Connie, and then tipped them off when he knew Sonny was on his way over.
I don’t mean fake in the sense that he wasn’t a hit man, but in the sense that he knew he was never actually going to kill Frank.
I think it is plausible that a cop came into the bar. The mob guys ask the owner if he’s open, and he says he just came in to clean up, implying that the store wouldn’t usually be open at that point, thus the cop came in just to check on things. Plus, the cop has to be stumbling somewhere. May as well be a bar.
You asked for an explanation, and I gave you mine for why and how Pentangeli was turned against Michael, and for his subsequent suicide. You don’t find it credible? That’s fine. But I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.
Just to answer a question, I’ve always felt that the brother appeared with the Corleone family because:
• his appearing there was telling his brother “If these are the bad guys why the Hell am I sitting here?”
• his reminding him of the “old ways” of the Mafia, Sicily, “the code” - you don’t fink on another Mafioso.
I have 2 questions.
If Senator Geary was to be framed by allegedly killing the prostitute, when did the Corleone family bring this pressure to bear on him? Oh yeah Geary was a bigoted, detestable, Italian-hating jerk but it is not brought out in the film that Geary finally relents on granting a gambling license to Michael because he was blackmailed. Also, if he was on the Senate committee investigating Michael, why the Hell did he resign from that committee? Wouldn’t it be more helpful to Michael Corleone for Geary to remain on the committee? Couldn’t they have blackmailed him to remain on the committee?
At the very end of that Senate hearing, what does Tom Hagen say (in Italian) to Frankie Pantangeli’s brother? (it sound as if one of the words is “posta” but I’m not sure).
I assumed that Michael got the gambling license as a matter of course. But what was more important, I think, was Michael establishing “ownership” over Geary, making him his puppet. Not only for practical reasons, but for the arrogance of knowng he could and did so, after being so grievously insulted at the first meeting we saw. (Contrast that one with Geary’s ass-kissing manner toward Michael when they run into eachother agan in Cuba.)
As for resigning from the commission–did he really? I thought he just left that particular round of hearings to oversee some other meetings elsewhere in the building.
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I think the brother being there may have had this meaning, but Frank says himself that his brother would kill him for squealing. We will never know of the brother knew why he was there, but it worked.
Geary doesn’t resign from the committee, just takes the day off. Hagen learns that Pantangeli is the witness from Geary or his staff.
I have no idea.
Actually, it was only one in the hat.
For those who think Vito was a gent, recall, if you will, that in the book it was explained that the Godfather got Luca Brasi’s loyalty after a little incident in which Luca threw his own bastard child (by a prostitute, I believe) into a furnace.
Vito knew what Luca was, and wasn’t particularly comfortable with it, but opted to use him, because he was, well, useful. Sounds a bit of a pragmatist, to me.
I may be wrong since it has been a while since I have seen it. IIRC that wasn’t Rocco. Rocco went to kill Roth then backed off when he saw the doctors and minions. Too many witnesses. At the airport it was some anonimous hitman whose motivation we will never know. I agree, that part always bothered me.
And, to amplify on my suggestion above, of what would make for true genius, a throw away line earlier, about “Damned shame Rocco’s got cancer,” “Yah, that’s tough,” even half-audible while something else is going on, would make that cohere.