A Deleted Scene In ‘The Godfather Part II’ Would Have Made the Sequel’s Villain Much More Evil
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In The Godfather trilogy, Michael (Al Pacino) serves as both protagonist and antagonist as he both protects and drives away his family. Never is this clearer than in The Godfather Part II, which culminates in Michael and Kay’s (Diane Keaton) violent and explosive confrontation where she admits she aborted his child. Whilst Michael spends most of the film battling Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) and the potential betrayal from Frank Pentangili (Michael V. Gazzo) that could destroy his empire, it is really himself Michael is at war with. However, a deleted scene in The Godfather Part II would have made Hyman Roth a far greater antagonist for Michael, as it shows Roth’s history with Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) and mixes the idea of business and personal vendettas.
A Deleted Scene Showed Hyman Meeting a Young Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather Part II’
In this deleted scene, we see Vito Corleone in his study after he has met with the “slum landlord”, whom he intimidates into letting a woman stay in his apartment. Vito is then introduced to a young man who was then known as Hyman Suchowski (John Megna), who can fix their truck, but Clemenza (Bruno Kirby) suggests that Hyman drop the “Suchowski” name in favor of “Johnny Lips,” which seems like an example of how someone like Clemenza only wished to work with Italians, not outsiders. However, Vito asks Hyman who he considers the greatest man in the world, to which he replies, “Arnold Rothstein,” and Vito says he “likes that”, and so Hyman Roth was born, which seems to show Vito’s more inclusive nature to those he sees as outcasts, as Hyman seems broke and desperate when meeting Vito. This idea was alluded to in the final cut of the film, as when we first meet Roth in Miami, he tells Michael he has loved baseball “ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919,” but keeping this scene would have made his betrayal of Michael far more personal.
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Keeping the Deleted Scene Would Have Made Hyman Roth a More Manipulative Villain in ‘The Godfather Part II’
Image via Paramount Pictures
Image via Paramount Pictures- Image via Paramount Pictures
- Image via Paramount Pictures
- Image via Paramount Pictures
Image via Paramount Pictures
Image via Paramount Pictures
Image via Paramount Pictures
Image via Paramount Pictures 
Image via Paramount Pictures 
In the final cut, Roth and Vito’s relationship is only alluded to, and this makes him feel like more of a Barzini (Richard Conte) type villain. A natural threat in a world of power-hungry men. However, this scene shows Vito giving Roth his start in the business. It is also important to note that Vito gives Roth a lot more respect than we see others from his generation give Roth. Vito likes that Roth chose Arnold Rothstein, whilst Clemenza wanted to remove any sign of Hyman’s Jewish heritage and replace it with something more Italian. In the present day, others, like Frank Pentangili, are far more antisemitic, referring to him as “the Jew.”
Therefore, keeping the scene would have shown us how Vito and now Michael treat Roth with far more respect than anyone else, and he still betrays them. Furthermore, Roth implies that he and Vito are equals when he tells Michael that he and Vito “ran molasses” together, which would have been a clear manipulation of history, showing Roth’s growing arrogance. It also would have alluded to one of Michael’s most famous lines from the book that wasn’t included in The Godfather, when he notes that everything in business is personal while telling Sonny (James Caan) and Tom (Robert Duvall) how he will kill Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) and police chief McCluskey (Sterling Hayden). Doing so would have highlighted the hypocrisy of these criminals, who like to distance themselves from morality by arguing it is only business, not personal.
Perhaps the scene was deleted because it would have meant the audience would have a greater emotional connection to Michael’s battle with Hyman, and perhaps we would have seen Michael as too sympathetic in a narrative where we are supposed to hate him. However, it cannot be ignored that this is a fascinating scene that, like the book, does a lot to give a wider context to the supporting characters and muddles the idea of business mixing with personal grievances. In the end, including this scene would have fleshed out Roth’s character’s backstory and given us a more personal connection to him and his betrayal of Michael/Vito’s memory.
The Godfather: Part II is currently available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.