When Michael decides to make the Corleone family into a “legit” Nevada based casino business, he solicits the corrupt Senator Geary. In the meeting, Geary outlines his price for the granting of a casino license-unaware that Michael has already analyzed the situation (and gotten control of Moe Green). Geary delivers a scathing dump on Michael-saying about how the greasy wops have invaded his beautiful, pristine state. Michael reveals nothing…at that point, is Geary already compromised?
When Sen. Geary is caught in the brothel (with a dead prostitute in his bed) he confesses to Tom Hagen that “he’s done this before”-and never killed a woman before.
So did Michael plan this or was Geary already compromised at this point?
I always enjoyed how Geary delivered the “Enrico Fermi and Chris Columbus speech” to the Senate Committee investigating the Corleones-that was a great performance!
My interpretation (no idea if it was Coppola and or Puzo’s):
Michael would gladly have paid a “reasonable” bribe to the Senator and just seen it as business as usual, but he balked because
1- Geary wanted a ridiculous amount (5% of the gross of all four casinoes- millions of dollars per year for what’s basically a $75,000 favor tops
2- The “greasy wops” speech (specifically as it applied to Michael’s family)
3- To even make a counter off would have encouraged future shake downs and would have made him weak in front of his men (allowing them to remain was a big mistake for Geary)
Geary wasn’t compromised by the time he left the office but he was on Michael’s list and didn’t quite realize how touchable he was.
I’ve never quite understood the dynamics of the dead hooker, though. Did they have a “let’s get a dead hooker into his bed” battle plan just in case Geary ever set foot in the whorehouse, or was it something Tom Hagen cooked up as soon as he got the “Geary in the whorehouse” signal, or did Geary really kill her (because it doesn’t seem to occur to him that he’s been framed)?
Some of my favorite acting in that scene, btw, other than the drawling of “cor-lee-on-nee”, was how Geary went from “I’m going to squeeze you” mode to “Hey ladies, how y’all doing?” charm the second he sees Kay and his wife outside.
Geary didn’t even kill the hooker. It was Al Neri, whom you see cleaning up his hands as Tom Hagen arrives. This would mean that they drugged Geary so that he wouldn’t wake up.
The Corleones wanted to do business with Geary. They were willing to pay a reasonable price for this.
Geary refused to cooperate with them and insulted them.
In order to get what they wanted and in order to pay Geary back for the insults, the Corleones set Geary up. They found out he frequented prostitutes. They set him up in a brothel owned by the Corleones, drugged Geary, killed a prostitute and made it look like Geary did it, and then blackmailed Geary.
I’ll admit the first time I watched the movie, I missed the subtle nuances. I thought what we saw on the surface was what had actually happened: Geary accidentally killed a prostitute and the Corleones found out and were able to use this to blackmail Geary.
But then I realized how unlikely such a coincidence would have been and how the Corleones wouldn’t have left such a thing to chance. They wouldn’t have waited in hopes that something would happen on its own that would allow them to blackmail Geary. They’d take action and create the situation.
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
But then I realized how unlikely such a coincidence would have been and how the Corleones wouldn’t have left such a thing to chance. They wouldn’t have waited in hopes that something would happen on its own that would allow them to blackmail Geary. They’d take action and create the situation.
[/QUOTE]
The only thing that made me wonder if Geary was responsible for her death was his “we’ve done this before” comment (I can’t remember the exact line, but it implied it wasn’t just your usual “wham/bam/$49.95 Thursday night special” but something kinky and perhaps dangerous) and the fact that Geary doesn’t immediately figure out the Corleones killed the prostitute and are blackmailing him. There’s some reason he believes it’s feasible he’s responsible.
He had done it before as far as the sex was concerned. But the point was he had never killed anyone in the times he had done it before. That was one tip-off that this was a set-up.
The other was the mention that Fredo owned the brothel and Al Neri washing his hands in the background. This was evidence that the Corleones were in control of the situation.
And there was the earlier confrontation between Michael and the Senator. Was there any way that Michael was going to let an insult like that go unavenged? Imagine if the prostitute’s death was a genuine accident and it hadn’t occurred. In that case, Geary would have gotten away with defying and insulting the Corleones.
As for Geary’s apparent acceptance of what he’s being told, put it down to the lingering effects of the drugs and the realization that the Corleones now own him. He’s a broken man. Even if he believed the Corleones killed the girl he’s not in a position to argue with them.
I kinda like that it’s ambiguous and uncertain - exactly as it would appear to Geary.
The prostitute is handcuffed to the bed, so the implication is that Geary is into bondage and rough stuff. He thinks he might have overdone it this time because he was drunk.
As has been said, the Corleones used what they knew about Geary to set him up. They could have blackmailed him just because they knew he frequented prostitutes, so Michael probably already had that on him at their initial meeting. But he chose to compromise him even more seriously by setting him up for a murder rap.
From the IMDB Godfather FAQ:
I always found it interesting that Geary keeps saying, “Why can’t I remember?” and pounding his fist on a table, causing ripples in the half-empty glass on the table.
I think by the end of the scene, when Tom says, “All that remains is our friendship,” Geary’s expression shows that he knows how completely and totally fucked he is.
Sen. Geary was fucked the instant he interrupted Michael and uttered the line, “Ok let’s cut the bullshit, you can have the license…” By doing this he had done two irreparable things:
[ul]
[li]He had asked for way too large a kickback[/li]and even more importantly
[li]He had completely disrespected Michael & his family[/li][/ul]It can’t be understated that Michael was 100% right when he said, “We’re both part of the same hypocrisy”. Here’s Geary insulting Michael’s way of doing things, but then immediately asking for a huge bribe at the same time! I mean, he was a senator from Nevada, so it came as no surprise that he was just as corrupt.
Geary frequented prostitutes, that was just part & parcel of him being a powerful politician from Nevada. From there it was incredibly easy for the Corleones to entrap him via their underworld connections in Vegas. Find out when & where he bangs hookers, go there, slip him a mickey, and brutally murder the hooker. They may have taken photographs while he was unconscious too just for good measure (and to help the hooker to cooperate thinking that’s all they intended on doing, blackmailing him with pictures).
My take is that Micheal knew Geary liked to beat up hookers before the meeting. Geary was trying to show how important he was and let Micheal know he wasn’t going to be given the same respect his father was given. The meeting was Geary’s attempt to get back power in the relationship and the hooker killing was Micheal’s way of punishing Geary and making sure he stayed in Micheal’s pocket where he belonged.
I think that Michael had actually recorded his meeting with Geary-Geary was a Nevada hick who hadn’t the slightest bit of intelligence (on how to solicit a bribe). Most smart politicians know that :
-you never ask for money in person (bribes are handled by a 3rd party- a “bagman”)
-you never meet face-to-face (the room could be bugged)
-you never speak plainly (it is always best to refer to bribes as "help"or “campaign contributions”)
In the words of a several times indicted MA politician: “never write when you can speak, never speak when you can wink, never wink when you can nod”.
In politics, discretion is important.
Geary was compromised the minute he was “for sale”.
It was just a matter of time.
Now I have to go home and watch Godfather II for the umpteenth time. You done got me all worked up!
I look at it as another comparison between how Vito and Michael run the family. Vito kills horses to make friends; Michael kills hookers. Since Geary (in my interpretation) honestly believes he is the guilty party, there is no blackmail involved. That makes Michael’s way of doing business a lot more insidious because, as said, all that’s left is their friendship.
Assuming Michael knows of the dead hooker. It could be all Tom Hagen’s order as Michael was in Cuba at the time (or leastwise not in Nevada).
I’m not sure I follow you: why ain’t it blackmail if your target honestly believes he’s guilty? Heck, wouldn’t it be blackmail if your target honestly is guilty?
Thematically, I think Michael has to know (despite where he is when it happens). I mean, it’s Michael’s movie, right? We watch it though his lens. It’s all a reflection of the fallout from his choices, his hypocrisy, his failure to be the man his father was.
Well, because I’d characterize it that they’ve duped Geary, not blackmailed him. So, Tom doesn’t offer to fix the situation with demands, he offers to fix it with friendship; a friendship Geary accepts as earnest (well, I mean, not like they are now all OMGBFF, but you get the idea).
No, they haven’t ‘duped him’. They haven’t pulled the wool over his eyes, they straight up blackmailed him (with a great deal of help from Geary’s own corruptness). And the problem with Geary’s attitude being that Michael’s the bad guy so it’s ok to fleece him, like Michael said how is he any better? Was Geary going to give that money to charity to try and counter the mafia’s bad with his good? Hell no! He was just going to line his pockets with it and live a more extravagant lifestyle. Absolutely no different than what Michael was doing. Worse actually, because Geary is presenting a completely false image of being a public servant to constituents, when in fact he’s nothing but a criminal.
And Tom doesn’t present Geary with any other ‘options’ because they only want one thing from him, to be in their pocket. And they’re 100% guaranteed to get it because Geary has no other options and they both know it.
Geary conveys zero indication (as I recall) to the audience that he thinks the Corleones are behind the murder. No side glances, nothing he says. In fact, there’s that part where he tries to clean the blood off her. That’s the action of a guilty person, or at least a person who thinks he’s guilty. He’s been duped into thinking he’s killed a person.
And then in walks Tom with his calm and understanding tone and he practically absolves Geary of any sin. He doesn’t have to threaten or even cajole Geary, because he’s giving him exactly what he wants. He’s acting like a friend (again, friend being relative).
They set him up, yes, and he ends up in their pocket, yes, but in between that, through the duped eyes of Geary, the family comes to his rescue.