Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II (1974)
Vitals
Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci, ruthless Black Hand extortionist
New York City, Summer 1917
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 95 years ago today on June 8, 1929, Italian actor Gastone Moschin may be most recognizable to audiences around the world for his portrayal of the sinister Don Fanucci in The Godfather, Part II (1974), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Genco Abbandando (Frank Sivero) introduces the young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro)—and we the audience—to the sneering white-suited gangster as an enforcer for the “Black Hand”, the real-life extortion racket which preyed upon Italian-American immigrants in communities along the eastern seaboard from Boston to New Orleans, where it was linked to the 1890 assassination of police chief David Hennessy.
The Black Hand existed within the United States since at least the 1860s, though it operated primarily in the decades around the turn of the 20th century, violently threatening victims who ranged from simple shopkeepers to celebrities like tenor Enrico Caruso, who enlisted the help of crusading NYPD Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino. Though Petrosino arrested two men connected with the Caruso threats, he himself would become a victim of Mano Nera when he was fatally shot in March 1909 while undercover in Sicily, investigating the history of brutal criminals he hoped to banish from the United States. The Petrosino murder increased pressure from law enforcement that all but dissolved the Black Hand’s influence by the 1920s, around the time that Prohibition provided the opportunity for younger and more ambitious crooks like “Lucky” Luciano to organize the former Black Hand threads into a structure known alternately as La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”) or simply Mafia.
One of the most prominent Black Hand gangsters of this era was the Sicilian-born Ignazio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf” among the neighborhoods he terrorized in New York City’s Little Italy. Lupo was reportedly a direct inspiration for Mario Puzo to craft the character of Don Fanucci who first appeared in the 1969 novel The Godfather before he would be brought to life by Gastone Moschin in the cinematic sequel.
What’d He Wear?
A heavy-set, fierce looking Italian wearing an expensive light-colored suit and a cream colored fedora. This is FANUCCI…
… describes the screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, who would continue to make references to Fanucci’s all-white tailoring, even describing him as a “white blob” in the sequence before Vito corners him in his apartment building.
Don Fanucci’s impressive all-white suit and hat subverted the traditional “good guys wear white, bad buys wear black” trope and set a new sartorial standard for villainy that would be seen from the likes of Billy Drago’s frightening Frank Nitti in The Untouchables to Sorrell Booke’s buffoonish Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Fanucci intends his bleached tailoring to make an impression among the lower-income immigrants he regularly terrorizes, rubbing their faces in the fact that the wealth he extorts from them means that he doesn’t need to worry about the costs of laundering such an impractical suit. The bright white suit also ensures that his presence will always be noticed, whether he’s shaking down shopkeepers and stage actors in shadowy back rooms or striding down Mulberry Street during the the Feast of San Rocco.
In his bright white suit and hat, Fanucci’s distinctive sense of style ensures that there’s no mistaken him from any angle.
Rather than a plain white, the suiting is a cream-colored wool that looks imposing—if not totally flattering—on Fanucci’s hulking physique. The cream suiting also provides a severely contrasting ground for the thick black ribbon that he wears around his lapel, perhaps to signify his participation in the feared Black Hand, though I haven’t seen any historical record of this.
Fanucci also dresses his suit jacket with light-colored pocket squares, first a swath of light rose-pink silk when we—and Vito—first meet him during the all-Neapolitan performance of Senza Mamma, replaced by a beige silk kerchief during the events leading up to Vito assassinating him.
The single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that break high over the four-button front, which Fanucci always wears open. The ventless jacket has straight jetted hip pockets, the aforementioned welted breast pocket that he decorates with colorful kerchiefs, and three vestigial white buttons on each cuff that match the buttons on the front.
Fanucci wears all six white buttons fastened on his waistcoat (vest), with the threads keeping some of the buttons in place even after he rips the garment open after being shot. He keeps his gold pocket watch in one of the lower two of the waistcoat’s four welted pockets, wearing the gold chain stretched across his abdomen.
The suit’s matching flat-front trousers rise appropriately high enough to keep the waistband covered by the waistcoat, though we know he wears suspenders (braces) as we see the white strips of cloth—bisected by a beige stripe—sliding down his shoulders outside the armholes of his waistcoat after Vito murders him. The suspenders also have gold hardware, including the sliding adjusters.
The hell of it is that, even if he’d survived, Fanucci would have never been able to really get the blood out of that white suit.
Fanucci’s cream silk dress socks continue the leg-line from his trousers under the plain-hemmed bottoms into the low vamps of his beige leather low-vamp cap-toe slip-on shoes.
“It looks like there’s… $100 under my hat.”
Fanucci unites his bright white tailoring under a nearly matching off-white felt fedora, styled with a broad self-edged brim that he keeps turned up. The hat also has a white grosgrain silk band.
As was common practice during the early 20th century, Fanucci’s dress shirt appears designed to be worn with detachable collars. The body of the shirt is plain white cotton, designed with a front placket, button cuffs, and a collarless neckband to which Fanucci attaches a narrow stiff white spread collar with studs on the front and back.
Costume designer Theadora Van Runkle neatly represented neckwear from this era by dressing Fanucci in a taupe-brown silk cravat that looks more like the ties worn during the 1910s than more modern neckties often featured in period productions. Below the Windsor knot that fills the considerable tie space between the points of his spread collar, Fanucci holds the cravat in place with a pearl stickpin.
Fanucci drapes himself with a dark-navy pinstripe topcoat, typically worn like a cape rather than actually cover the white suit that makes him stand out among the streets of Little Italy. The knee-length coat has peak lapels that break high over a three-button front, a welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets, three-button cuffs, and a long single vent.
Fanucci typically drapes his coat over his suit like a dramatic cape, though he wears it properly—arms through the sleeves—when threatening Genco’s actress girlfriend and her father backstage.
Characteristic of many flashy gangsters from this era, Fanucci displays his wealth with a diamond-studded gold ring that gleams from his right pinky, shining as he stirs his espresso during a negotiation with Vito. He also wears a gold wedding band on his left ring finger.
How to Get the Look
Gastone Moschin as Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II (1974)
Whether you’re aiming to stand out in the neighborhood you’ve been terrorizing for years or simply embracing your post-Memorial Day “summer whites”, Don Fanucci makes a memorable impression in his off-white three-piece suit with a matching fedora, contrasting dark pinstripe coat draped like a cape, and sinister black ribbon on his lapel.
- Cream wool three-piece suit:
- Single-breasted 4-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and notched bottom
- Flat-front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
- White cotton dress shirt with narrow white stiff detachable spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
- Taupe-brown silk necktie
- Pearl stickpin
- Beige leather cap-toe low-vamp slip-on shoes
- Cream silk socks
- Cream felt wide-brimmed fedora with white grosgrain band
- Dark-navy pinstripe knee-length topcoat with single-breasted 3-button front, peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Diamond-studded gold pinky ring
- Gold wedding band
- Gold pocket watch on gold chain
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series.
The Quote
Oh, this is too violent for me!
Footnotes
To paraphrase super-fan Silvio Dante, when it comes to trying to specifically date the events depicted in The Godfather saga, you could often say the “timeline got fucked up.” For instance, Part II retcons Vito’s birthday to December 7, 1891 so that he would turn 50 on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, while his gravestone in Part I placed his birthday on April 29, 1887. Part I also places Michael’s execution of his rivals in 1955, while a senator’s questioning in Part II mentions these attacks being in 1950. (Though the latter could be a character error, as we’ve all misspoken in meetings before.)
The flashback portions of The Godfather Part II are arguably meant to be across the late 1910s and early 1920s. The screenplay starts the action in 1915 and positions Fanucci’s murder before 1920, when we see Vito has ascended to some degree of neighborhood power. Coppola’s notes state that the flashback ends in 1922 with Vito’s return to Sicily.
I’ve seen Fanucci’s murder said to be in either 1917 or 1920, though the earlier date could make more sense to allow Vito three years to rise to local power… and grow that mustache. The screenplay also describes the backdrop as the Feast of San Gennaro, which wasn’t formally celebrated annually on the streets of New York’s Little Italy until September 1926; the festival ultimately depicted on screen has been said to be the Feast of San Rocco, observed on August 16th. Thus, I theorize Vito’s assassination of Fanucci occurs on Friday, August 16, 1917.
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