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Frederico "Fredo"
Corleone he is the middle brother to oldest brother Santino Corleone and
younger brother Michael Corleone, and son of Vito Corleone, head of a
powerful Mafia family. Fredo burn in New York 1929.
Fredo was always thought of in the Corleone crime Family as the weakest of
the three Corleone brothers, and therefore was given its unimportant
businesses to run. He is, however, the most obedient and dutiful of the
Corleone children.
In a pivotal scene in the novel and film, Fredo attempts to immediately
retaliate after the attempted assassination of his father on a New York
street by men working for drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo. However, he fumbles
with the gun, drops it, and is unable to return fire. He then sits on the
street curb next to his unconscious father and weeps.
After Sonny's assassination and Vito's death, the younger Michael is
appointed head of the family over Fredo, causing a deep rift between the two
brothers which is expanded upon in Coppola's later sequels to the first film
adaptation.
In the films, Fredo's lack of intelligence plays a greater role than it does
in the novel. He is seen as far less mentally acute than his younger brother
Michael. Michael even uses the word "stupid" when discussing his brother
with family consigliere Tom Hagen.
At the Lake Tahoe party at the beginning of The Godfather Part II, Fredo is
unable to control his intoxicated wife, Deanna. After she danced with
another man, he furiously drags her off the dance floor and threatens to hit
her. Deanna mocks him by saying that he "couldn't belt [his] momma," and
that he's jealous because he's not "a real man."
In a flashback to the early days of the Corleone family, there is a scene
where an infant Fredo is being treated for pneumonia.
Fredo betrays Michael when approached by Johnny Ola, an agent of rival
gangster Hyman Roth. This betrayal ultimately results in an assassination
attempt on Michael at his Lake Tahoe home. The film leaves unclear the
details of Fredo's deal with Ola and Roth. Fredo ambiguously claimed that
his goal in that deal is simply to get something for himself, on his own,
and swears that he did not realize he was being used as part of a larger
plot to kill his brother.
Michael discovers Fredo's role in the plot during his trip to Havana when
Fredo lets it slip out that he and Johnny Ola had been in Havana together.
Michael confronts Fredo later and tells his older brother, "You broke my
heart." Later, when Michael is being pursued by a Congressional Committee
investigating organized crime, he has a talk with Fredo and realizes that
Fredo had both withheld important information from him about Roth's
connection with the Committee's lawyer and is deeply resentful and jealous
of Michael's role in the family business. Michael disowns and banishes Fredo
from the family. Upon their mother's death, and at the urging of their
sister Connie, Michael relents toward Fredo and seemingly offers
reconciliation. However, it is only to draw Fredo in so as to have him
murdered, something Michael did not permit while their mother was alive.
Towards the end of The Godfather Part II, Fredo and his nephew, Michael's
son Anthony, develop a friendship and are to go fishing on Lake Tahoe.
However, Anthony is called away by Connie, who tells him that his father
wants to take him to Reno. Fredo is left alone in the fishing boat with Al
Neri and he takes the boat far out onto the lake. As Fredo prays the Hail
Mary, Neri shoots him in the back of the head. It is implied that Fredo's
body is thrown overboard after being chained to weights. Family members
outside of Michael's inner circle are told that Fredo drowned in a boating
accident.
Ordering Fredo's death would haunt Michael for the rest of his life, and
further alienates him from his wife Kay and son Anthony. In The Godfather
Part III, Michael expresses deep remorse at ordering his brother's death
years later while confessing his sins to Cardinal Lamberto who, in the film,
later becomes Pope John Paul I.
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