The Godfather Page #14

MCCLUSKEY:

Is the Italian food good here?

SOLLOZZO:

Try the veal; it's the finest in

New York.

The solitary WAITER brings a bottle of wine to the table.

They watch him silently as he uncorks it and pours three

glasses. Then, when he leaves, SOLLOZZO turns to McCLUSKEY:

SOLLOZZO:

I am going to talk Italian to Mike.

MCCLUSKEY:

Sure, you two go right ahead; I'll

concentrate on my veal and my

spaghetti.

SOLLOZZO now begins in rapid Sicilian. MICHAEL listening

carefully and nodding every so often. Then MICHAEL answers

in Sicilian, and SOLLOZZO goes on. The WAITER occasionally

brings food; and they hesitate while he is there; then go on.

Then MICHAEL, having difficulty expressing himself in

Italian, accidentally lapses into English.

MICHAEL:

(using English for emphasis)

Most important...I want a sure

guarantee that no more attempts

will be made on my father's life.

SOLLOZZO:

What guarantees can I give you? I

am the hunted one. I've missed my

chance. You think too highly of

me, my friend...I am not so

clever...all I want if a truce...

MICHAEL looks long and hard at SOLLOZZO, who is smiling

holding his open hands up as if to say: "I have no tricks up

my sleeve". Then he looks away and makes a distressed look

on his face.

SOLLOZZO:

What is it?

MICHAEL:

Is it all right if I go to the

bathroom?

SOLLOZZO is intuitively suspicious. He studies MICHAEL with

his dark eyes. Then he thrusts his hand onto MICHAEL's

thigh feeling in and around, searching for a weapon.

MCCLUSKEY:

I frisked him; I've frisked

thousands of young punks; he's clean.

He looks at a MAN sitting at a table opposite them;

indicating the bathroom with his eyes. The MAN nods,

indicating no one is there.

SOLLOZZO:

Don't take too long.

MICHAEL gets up and calmly walks to the bathroom, and

disappears inside.

INT NITE:
LUNA AZURA TOILET (WINTER 1945)

MICHAEL steps into the small bathroom; he is breathing very

hard. He actually uses the urinal. Then he washes his

hands with the bar of pink soap; and dries them thoroughly.

Then he moves to the booth, up to the old-fashioned toilet.

Slowly he reaches behind the water tank; he panics when he

cannot feel the gun. We see behind the tank his hand is

just a few inches from the gun...he gropes

searchingly...finally coming to rest on the gun.

CLOSE ON MICHAEL; the feel of it reassures him. Then he

breaks it loose from the tape holding it; he takes a deep

breath and shoves it under his waistband. For some

unexplainable reason he hesitates once again, deliberately

washes his hands and dries them. Then he goes out.

INT NITE:
LUNA AZURA (WINTER 1945)

He hesitates by the bathroom door; and looks at his table.

McCLUSKEY is eating a plate of spaghetti and veal. SOLLOZZO

turns around upon hearing the door, and looks directly at

MICHAEL. MICHAEL looks back. Then he smiles and continues

back to the table. He sits down.

MICHAEL:

Now I can talk. I feel much better.

The MAN by the far wall had been stiff with attention; now

he too relaxes. SOLLOZZO leans toward MICHAEL who sits down

comfortably and his hands move under the table and unbutton

his jacket. SOLLOZZO begins to speak in Sicilian once again

but MICHAEL's heart is pounding so hard he can barely hear

him.

The WAITER comes to ask about the order, SOLLOZZO turns to

speak, and without warning, MICHAEL shoves the table away

from him with his left hand, and with his right hand puts

the gun right against SOLLOZZO's head, just touching his

temple. He pulls the trigger, and we see part of SOLLOZZO's

head blown away, and a spray of fine mist of blood cover the

entire area.

The WAITER looks in amazement; suddenly his white jacket is

sprayed and stained with blood.

SOLLOZZO seems in a perpetual fall to the floor; through he

seems to hang in space suspended.

MICHAEL pivots, and looks:

There is McCLUSKEY, frozen, the fork with a piece of veal

suspended in air before his gaping mouth.

MICHAEL fires; catching McCLUSKEY in his thick bulging

throat. He makes a horrible, gagging, choking sound. Then

coolly, and deliberately, MICHAEL fires again, fires right

through McCLUSKEY's white-topped skull.

The air is filled with pink mist.

MICHAEL swings toward the MAN standing by the bathroom wall.

He does not make a move, seemingly paralyzed.

Now he carefully shows his hands to be empty.

The WAITER steps backward through the mist of blood, an

expression of horror on his face.

MICHAEL looks at his two victims:

SOLLOZZO still in his chair, side of his body propped up by

the table.

McCLUSKEY finally falls from the chair to the table.

MICHAEL is wildly at a peak. He starts to move out. His

hand:
is frozen by his side, STILL GRIPPING THE GUN.

He moves, not letting the gun go.

MICHAEL's face; frozen in its expression.

His hand:
still holding the gun.

His face:
finally he closes his eyes.

His hand relaxes, the gun falls to the floor with a dull thud.

He walks quickly out of the restaurant, looks back.

He sees a frozen tableau of the murder; as though it had

been recreated in wax.

Then he leaves.

---------------------------------------FADE OUT---------

FADE IN:

INT DAY:
MATTRESS (WINTER 1945)

A MAN is his shirtsleeves plays a sentimental tune on an old

upright piano, while his cigarette burns on the edge.

ANOTHER stands nearby, listening quietly.

A little distance away, TEN MEN sit around a crude table,

quietly eating. They talk in low, relaxed voices, and there

is an occasional laugh.

ROCCO LAMPONE stands by a window, which has been covered

with a heavy-mesh wire grating, gazing out.

A large bowl of pasta is passed, and the MEN eat heartily.

The sentimental tune is continued over the following:

INT DAY:
BODIES IN CAR (WINTER 1945)

A MAN and a WOMAN, blood coming out of their noses, lie

still together in a bullet-riddled automobile.

INT DAY:
BODY IN BARBER SHOP (WINTER 1945)

A MAN is covered by a sheet on the floor of a barber shop.

INT DAY:
MATTRESS

Ten mattresses are spread out around the otherwise empty

living room of an apartment. THREE or FOUR MEN including

CLEMENZA, are taking naps.

An arsenal of hand guns are spread out on a card table.

The MEN at the table continue their dinner; passing and

pouring the wine.

Trash is thrown in 2 or 3 garbage cans kept in the apartment.

INT DAY:
BODY IN OFFICE (WINTER 1945)

A MAN, his clothes soaked in blood, lies on the floor of an

office building, dead, under an enormous portrait of Harry S.

Truman.

EXT DAY:
BODY ON STOOP (WINTER 1945)

ANOTHER MAN, his trousers soaked in blood, lies spanning

three steps of a front stoop.

INT NITE:
MATTRESS (WINTER 1945)

TESSIO, sits in a simple straight-backed chair, doing a

crossword puzzle.

A thin, boyish BUTTON MAN, writes a letter.

Six or seven empty mattresses, with tossed unmade blankets.

Coffee cans beside them serve as ash trays.

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