Michael Franzese: If a mob boss was ever
visiting a psychiatrist,
he'd be in the trunk of his
car by the end of the week.
Along with the psychiatrist.
That would never happen.
My name is Michael Franzese,
and I was a former capo in
the Colombo crime family,
one of the five New York
Mafia La Cosa Nostra families.
I'm now residing in the Los Angeles area,
and I'm here to be a movie critic.
This would never happen.
First of all, it's too much
work involved in this, you know?
You've got so many guys.
Usually mob hits are not done like that.
I mean, they're normally
done at close range,
small-caliber guns and
shotguns being used.
I never saw anything like this before.
I know back in the '20s
they used machine guns.
"Tommy guns" was the term back then.
But, to me, this scene
seems to be unrealistic.
Jelly: Oh. Oh,
che stai facendo?
Dr. Sobel: Hey, Easter weekend, eh?
Franzese: There was
always a guy of that size.
In every crew and every
family there was always
somebody that big that was around.
Italians eat a lot, and
some of them get real big.
You know, I doubt you'd
ever see this many people.
The last time something like this occurred
was Appalachia, back in New York,
when guys from all over
the country came in.
I think they probably modeled
this scene after that.
You know, ever since law enforcement
invaded that meeting,
it never happened again.
And that I know for a fact.
Michael: We're both part
of the same hypocrisy.
But never think it applies to my family.
Pat: All right. All right.
Some people have to play little games.
Franzese: We infiltrated
society on every level,
from the guy on the street,
the numbers business,
right up to the White House.
And you would never see a
politician talk to us like that
because most of them we supported.
And I'm wondering if I would've
been able to stay calm.
Which was the right thing to do.
Michael: I know it was you, Fredo.
Franzese: This kiss of death,
that was a Sicilian thing, I believe,
and certainly something that
might've happened in Italy.
This is a scene that, you know,
that became close to me
because I had a brother,
I have a brother that
actually turned informant.
Testified against my dad, and
actually tried to hurt me,
and went into the Witness
Protection Program.
Haven't seen him in 10 years.
It's very hard to bear, hard to deal with.
Since I walked away from that life
and basically, you know, violated my oath
just by walking away,
not that I ever hurt anybody,
but just by walking away,
contract on my life, the whole bit.
Did you ever worry about your family?
And my answer is no.
We didn't go after law enforcement.
We didn't bother anybody's
family, that was hands off.
In Italy, you know,
they go after your
family, law enforcement,
I mean, you know, there's no rules
when it comes to stuff like that.
Ace: Can you do it with your left hand?
Signaller: Well, I've never tried.
Ace: So you're a righty?
Signaller: Yeah.
Franzese: I can tell you this
scene is not unrealistic,
because, you know, in a mob-run casino,
we certainly wouldn't have tolerated
anybody cheating like that.
So it could've been this, I mean,
you break somebody's legs,
put them in a hospital.
Even though this is Lefty Rosenthal,
he wasn't a made member,
but he was an associate,
but he dressed the part.
De Niro and Gotti, and,
you know, even myself,
we dressed up pretty good.
At every weekend, I was
at weddings and funerals.
Half the time I didn't know who died
or who was getting married,
but we had to go as a matter of respect.
So we had to dress up quite a bit.
I mean, I probably had
50 suits at that time.
Donnie: Like Raquel Welch
is one great piece of ass,
forget about it.
But then, if you disagree,
like a Lincoln is better
than a Cadillac, forget about it.
Franzese: All right,
I gotta tell you this.
This is probably one of
the most realistic scenes
in all of mob moviedom.
You know, it's funny. I'm a speaker now,
and every time I say, "fuggedaboutit,"
which I say by habit,
people laugh, you know.
This scene made that word famous.
It applies to everything.
Just like the sit-down.
Anytime you had any kind of meeting,
it was always at a sit-down.
Had a sit-down, and discuss, you know,
a life-and-death matter.
We had a sit-down just to have dinner.
Everything was done at a sit-down.
Chili: You're an entry
in my book, that's all.
You're just a guy who owes me money.
Martin: All right.
How about this?
[Franzese laughs]
Franzese: It's, No. 1, it's the perception
that this person is a serious guy,
that can, you know, maybe hurt you,
and that intensifies that look.
'Cause I know a lot of times, you know,
people said, "Hey, all you've
got to do is look at somebody,
and they get nervous."
Travolta, I thought, killed this role.
You know, a lot of mob guys, I mean,
myself being one of them, got
involved in entertainment.
Travolta took it to another level,
wanting to be a director
and whatever it was.
We were more or less behind
the scenes, you know,
financing some of these things,
getting to know some of the people,
some of the perks involved with it.
Really, that was it.
Henry: Then you had Nicky Eyes...
Nicky: What's up, guy?
Henry: And Mikey Franzese.
Mikey: I saw that guy,
yeah, I wanna see him.
Franzese: Yeah, no, I don't
think he really looked like me.
I'll be honest with you,
I was in the theater.
I had just gotten out of prison,
and I went to see this with my wife.
And after a few minutes she
looked at me and she said,
you know: "Is this
really what you guys did?
Is that what your life was all about?"
And I said: "Honey, c'mon, it's a movie.
They make things up."
You know, "Don't pay attention."
No sooner do I say that
than they introduce my character,
and she looks at me,
and I say, "C'mon, we gotta go."
And I walked out, 'cause I
didn't know why they put me in.
It was a different crew.
Henry: Here's Frankie the Wop.
Frankie: Listen, are you out of trouble?
Henry: Freddie No Nose.
Freddie: Hey, how're ya doing?
Franzese: People say,
"Well, how did you come up
with those nicknames?" You know, like,
there was a guy that
we called Chicken Head.
And the reason we called him that
because he used to shoot
the head off of chickens
when he was practicing his marksmanship.
You know, we had Benny Eggs.
"Well, why'd you call him Benny Eggs?"
Well, he liked eggs.
He ate them all the time.
So we weren't really
original with the names.
We had Fat Tony Salerno.
"Why'd you call him Fat Tony?"
Well, he was fat.
Tommy: What do you mean, funny?
Funny how? How am I funny?
Henry: Just...
Franzese: You know, they
made Henry out to be
a lot more
significant in the life
than he really was.
He was just a lost soul.
He always had a drug
problem, alcohol problem.
For me, Joe Pesci is the best
portrayer of any mob guy.
You know, he was around street guys,
he knew guys out on the street.
And he just had it down so perfectly.
Police: Hey, put your eyes up.
Franzese: You know, most
of the local police,
they didn't bother us.
You know, it was really
the FBI and, you know,
investigative agencies like
that, especially the feds.
I doubt if anybody,
even though he was protecting his son,
would ever come right out front like that
and look to put people on
front street, so to speak.
Front street, in other words,
you're telling the police that, you know,
one of these guys might be
guilty of doing something.
So you're actually,
you know, in mob terms,
you're becoming a rat or a snitch.
And, you know, you pay a price for that.
Charlie: He has about $30.
It's all he's got on him, Michael.
Michael: Where's the rest?
Charlie: Yeah, where's the rest?
Johnny Boy: Well, I bought
a few rounds of drinks
over here while I was waiting.
Franzese: You know, this
whole shylocking scene,
you know, very accurate.
Shylocking, loan sharking, you know,
basically lending money at usurious rates.
And everybody that was in that life
was in that business. That had any money.
You know, he plays these roles good.
I think, today, you know,
the way De Niro's acting,
he thinks he really is a
mob guy, you know. [laughs]
It's kinda permeated his
whole being and his character.
Marge: Homer, where'd you get that truck?
Homer: Uh...it fell off a truck.
You know, a truck truck.
Franzese: A lot of
things fell off a truck.
I mean, that was the
expression that we used.
Whether it be clothing, a suit, you know,
electronics, cars, whatever.
You know, hijacking was a
big thing back in the day,
no question about it.
And there was some guys that
were professional hijackers.
Today, it's very difficult,
but it was a lot easier
to change the serial numbers
and make a new car out of it,
and nobody could ever find it, so.
Hoffa: Let's get outta
here, Frankie, c'mon.
Franzese: You know, I'm a little bit jaded
when I look at this film,
only because I know
that the Sheeran story is fiction.
I mean, he didn't kill Hoffa.
I didn't know Jimmy Hoffa personally,
but it was during my time.
But I do have insight into,
you know, what really happened there.
He was a hot-headed guy,
and he was one of the most powerful guys
in the country at that point.
Remember this, you control the teamsters,
in a big way, you control the country.
You know, No. 1, you
got zillions of dollars
in your pension funds.
You call a strike as a teamster, you know,
you've got 2 1/2 million people stopping,
nothing gets delivered, everything stops,
and that's a tremendous amount of power.
The Joey Gallo killing, that was,
'cause I know, you know, for
a fact, what happened there.
Like I said, that was our time.
And, you know, I was
in the middle of that.
I wasn't the shooter, don't get me wrong,
but I knew it was our family.
For him to be so, you know,
outspoken about doing
that, it was just so wrong.
I mean, the scene was accurate.
I mean, he did get killed in that way.
He did get out into the street,
and they did get him there,
and his family was there, the whole thing.
But Sheeran wasn't the shooter.
Reporter: You are in effect
the mayor of Chicago,
you've not simply been
appointed to that position.
Franzese: I mean, he
certainly looked the part.
You know, everybody looks
at Capone like he was
a 40, 50-year-old guy.
He was, like, 29 years old.
He was in his 30s when
he passed away, I think.
You know, Capone was bigger
than life in the movies.
He wasn't bigger than life with us.
I mean, nobody really regarded him.
You know, even my father said, you know:
"We chased him out of Brooklyn.
He went to Chicago."
And my father's 103,
so he was around all of these guys.
You know, unfortunately, I
get asked about all the time
is about murder in that life.
And I will tell you this.
Murder was taken very seriously, OK?
It can only be approved by the boss.
So I've been very, very
fortunate to be here,
where I am now, and not dead or in prison,
like just about all of my associates.
If a mob boss was ever
visiting a psychiatrist,
he'd be in the trunk of his
car by the end of the week,
along with the psychiatrist.
That would never happen.
Crowd: Don't do it.
No, no, no!
Don't do it!
My arm!
Franzese: There's no way in the world
if a mob boss hit anybody
that that guy would come back at him.
No way.
Especially in front of audience.
If he did,
you don't ever raise
your hand to a made guy.
No matter who you are, you raise your hand
to a made guy, you're dead,
and so, and they know that.
So this is not a realistic scene.
So David Chase gets in
touch with me through
a friend of mine, Jack
Gilardi at ICM, and he says:
"Look, I'm doing this series for Fox.
And we want you to be
involved as a consultant."
And I said, "You know, I'm on
parole and all this stuff."
So I turned it down.
That's how smart I am, right?
"The Sopranos."
But I always wondered why he contacted me.
In my house, back in the
'60s when it was being built,
the government, the FBI,
installed a bugging device.
They had it in the kitchen of our house,
and they picked up a lot of the
conversation on a daily basis.
And I am telling you
that Tony Soprano's mother
was so much like my mother.
You know, maybe he got the
Freedom of Information Act,
maybe he did something, but he got a hold
of that surveillance tapes,
and he patterned that woman
on my mother.
And I said, I would, I tell you,
I would almost stake my life.
I've never had a chance
to talk to him about it.
Carmine: One other thing, though.
John said he went to a
cookout at your house.
Tony: Yeah.
Carmine: A don doesn't wear shorts.
Franzese: That's not true at all.
I mean, I saw...[scoffs]
you know, on a hot summer
day in Harlem, you know,
guys would sit out in front
of their social clubs,
and they'd be in shorts.
Even the boss.
I mean, you know, that's not true.
I mean, you go on a
boat, you're in shorts.
Or maybe somebody told them that
that, you know, didn't know
what they were talking about.
But that's not true.
