John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
Vitals
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, insecure mob family sibling
Lake Tahoe, Fall 1958
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 89 years ago today on August 12, 1935, the late John Cazale racked up perhaps the most impressive screen batting average during his brief but significant film career. After more than a decade acting in theater, Cazale made his feature film debut as the weak-willed Corleone sibling Fredo in The Godfather (1972), a role he reprised to great acclaim two years later in The Godfather Part II (1974).
Cazale made one more film for Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation (1974), before he again teamed with Al Pacino as a pair of hapless bank robbers in Dog Day Afternoon (1975). The Deer Hunter (1978) was Cazale’s next film and his fifth and final big screen credit prior to his death from lung cancer in March 1978 at the age of 42.
As this is the 50th anniversary year of The Godfather Part II, considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, let’s use Cazale’s birthday as an opportunity to celebrate his remarkable performance as the doomed Fredo Corleone.
The movie chronicles parallel stories in the history of the Corleone family, beginning with young Vito (Robert De Niro) emigrating from Sicily after the turn of the 20th century and establishing what would become a criminal empire opposite a 1950s timeline centered around his enterprising son Michael (Al Pacino) leading the family while his older but less decisive brother Fredo watches jealously from the sidelines.
What’d He Wear?
The Godfather Part II continues its preceding film’s examples of starting with a family celebration, in this case a party for Michael’s son making his first Holy Communion. In the years since we last saw him, Fredo evidently started modeling his appearance after his late father by having grown a mustache and dressing in black tie… despite the soiree’s clearly less formal dress code that ranges from sport jackets to suits; even the ostensible host Michael wears a gray dupioni silk suit rather than a tuxedo.
A sartorial stride in his continued desire to be noticed (for better or worse), Fredo eschews the classic black, midnight, or off-white dinner jackets by dressing for the party in an eye-catching plaid dinner jacket. The style emerged in the United States at the end of the 1940s and raged through the ’50s as seen on the pages of Life and the newly launched Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine. Despite advocates as distinguished as King George VI (according to The Black Tie Blog), the delicacy of evening-wear tradition made plaid dinner jackets a sartorial gamble, lest the wearer look less like a gentleman and more like a tacky half-a-wiseguy who ran afoul for “banging cocktail waitresses two at a time!”
Made from a dupioni silk that shines in both the afternoon sun and evening lights, Fredo’s dinner jacket has a predominantly black ground, horizontally striped in rust-red stripes that alternate between sets of two narrow bar stripes and wider rust stripes bordered in beige bar stripes along the top and bottom. The faint white vertical bar stripes run perpendicular to this pattern, creating a checked effect.
Though the jacket’s plaid print may be too garish for some, it is handsomely cut with its self-faced shawl collar tapering to a single button positioned below John Cazale’s natural waist. Consistent with men’s evening-wear conventions, the jacket is ventless with a welted breast pocket and straight jetted hip pockets. The straight shoulders are structured with padding, framed by roped sleeve-heads to craft a profile that builds up Fredo’s chest and shoulders to give him an artificially stronger silhouette. The sleeves are finished with three recessed black cuff-buttons that match the single button on the front.
Creative black tie is typically considered tasteful when only one element differs from tradition, so Fredo balances the flash of his plaid dinner jacket with the typical white shirt, solid silk bow tie, and black formal trousers. His white evening shirt—as characterized by the broadly pleated front—has a semi-spread turndown collar, front placket presenting two gold-trimmed squared black studs, and double (French) cuffs fastened with gold squared links that frame center-mounted amber stones. The black silk bow tie is of the double-ended diamond-pointed style that was prevalent through the ’50s.
Fredo wears the classic black formal trousers prescribed for evening-wear, defined by the black satin silk braid running along each outer side seam. Though the triple-pleated black silk cummerbund appropriately covers his waistband, the full-fitting trousers appear to have single pleats in accordance with ’50s tailoring. The trousers’ side pockets have straight vertical openings positioned just behind each seam, and the bottoms are plain-hemmed.
The angles captured on screen never clearly show Fredo’s shoes, though we can at least see that they are appropriately black leather. Patent leather oxfords are an infallible accompaniment to black tie, so let’s give Freddie enough credit to assume he’s wearing those.
Fredo wears his usual pair of rings: an etched gold ring with a small ruby stone on his right pinky and a larger gold ring with a black-filled square face on his left ring finger. In later scenes, he wears a plain stainless steel watch with a simple round off-white dial and black leather strap, though the wristwatch spied under his left shirt cuff in these scenes appears to be flashier with a diamond-studded case encircling a black dial.
How to Get the Look
John Cazale as Fredo Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
Ever desirous to be noticed, Fredo dresses for attention at his nephew’s Communion party by not only wearing black tie (when all the other men are in suits and sport jackets) but a flashy black-and-rust plaid silk dinner jacket that shines in the Lake Tahoe sunlight.
- Black, rust, and white-checked dupioni silk single-button dinner jacket with self-faced shawl collar, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
- White cotton evening shirt with semi-spread collar, wide-pleated front, front placket, and double/French cuffs
- Gold-trimmed, black-filled square studs
- Gold square cuff links with amber stones
- Black silk diamond-pointed bow tie
- Black single-pleated formal evening trousers with on-seam side pockets, satin side braid, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black silk triple-pleated cummerbund
- Black patent leather oxford shoes
- Gold pinky ring with ruby stone
- Gold ring with large black-filled square surface
- Stainless steel wristwatch with diamond-studded case encircling black dial on black leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series, including the masterpiece sequel The Godfather Part II.
The post The Godfather, Part II: Fredo’s Plaid Dinner Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.