Carlo Rizzi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlo Rizzi(1923-1955) is a fictional a character in Mario Puzo's The Godfather. In Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation, he was portrayed by Gianni Russo.

Rizzi married Connie Corleone. He was proud to be in the Corleone crime family, if only for its riches, but he abused Connie and regarded his father-in-law, Don Vito Corleone, as an old fool to exploit and replace. At the wedding, Vito instructs Tom Hagen not to allow Carlo significant knowledge of the Family's workings, but to "give him a living". Bitter at being kept out of the family business, he often thought of abusing Connie as a means of exerting his own power over the mighty Corleones in addition to cheating on her. The Don grudgingly tolerated this, but Connie's brother Sonny had to be forcibly restrained and kept away from Rizzi to prevent him from taking action.

Sonny visited Connie one day, and discovered his sister covered in bruises. She begged him not to do anything about it, and he gave her his word. However, he lost his temper and beat Rizzi mercilessly in the street and threatened to kill him if he ever hit Connie again. Afterward, Rizzi sought revenge by making a deal with the Corleones' rival Emilio Barzini to kill Sonny.

Rizzi set the plan in motion by setting up a call from one of his girlfriends, provoking Connie into an argument in which he beat her senseless. Connie called Sonny, who flew into a rage and set out to confront Rizzi. En route, Sonny was killed by Barzini's men in a hail of gunfire at a toll booth.

Vito Corleone forbade any investigations into his son's death, and concluded on his own that the Barzini family was responsible. After his retirement, his youngest son Michael took over the family and brought Rizzi in as his 'right-hand man' for the planned family move to Nevada. While Rizzi thought that he was ascending to the top of the family, it was merely a ploy to make him vulnerable. When Michael finally confronted Rizzi, he assured Rizzi that, while he would be exiled from the family, his life would be spared, which satisfied Rizzi enough to confess his involvement with Barzini. When Rizzi got into his car to leave, however, he was violently garroted by Pete Clemenza. Connie was enraged upon learning what Michael had done, and resented him for many years afterward.

In Puzo's original novel, Connie initially berates Michael for arranging the murder of her husband, but a week later apologizes for her outburst and assures Michael's wife, Kay, that Michael had nothing to do with Carlo's death. Connie marries again less than a year later.