#Feech La Manna

[jbk405]

Tony Soprano and Feech La Manna’s card game

The robbery of the protected card game run by Feech La Manna was part of the background mythology of The Sopranos.  Its details were teased out over the course of four seasons, first introduced by Richie Aprile in season two and with the last info given by Feech himself in season five.

As we can piece together from the disparate stories, when Tony Soprano, Jackie Aprile, and Silvio Dante were young petty criminals -- not yet Made men in the Mafia -- they decided to make their first big score and rob a card game.  The card game was run by Feech La Manna, a capo (Captain) in the DiMeo Crime Family, which made it against the rules for anybody to rob it, but they decided to do it anyway.  Despite being against the rules they did it the ‘right way’: Nobody got hurt and nobody Made was at the game when it got robbed, which meant that vengeance wasn’t required by the Mafia code.  Once Feech figured out who did the robbery, Tony, Jackie, and Silvio were able to pay off the right people (Including Feech himself) to forestall any revenge.  Their skill at the robbery, their bravery to do it even at the risk of angering Feech, and their willingness to pay up afterwards gained them all significant respect in the Mafia and marked them for future greatness.  Indeed, Jackie and Tony both eventually became Bosses, and Silvio became consigliere.

As an aside, when telling his part of the story Ralph Cifaretto claims he was supposed to go and was only absent because he was sick, but personally I think that was a self-aggrandizing lie and he would never have been invited.

This story is often told to show Tony’s natural greatness within the Mafia society -- how even when he was a kid he was smart and brave and everybody knew he was Going Places -- and also to show how poorly the current young generation of criminals fails to live up to his example.  The last is of critical importance with Jackie Aprile Jr., the son of the Jackie Aprile who went with Tony that night.  Despite his father’s own wishes and Tony’s best efforts, Jackie Jr. is determined to become a bigshot mafioso just like his father and resents how Tony and the other leadership belittle and look down on him.

Eager to live up to his father’s legacy after he passed away from cancer, Jackie Jr. decides to replicate the robbery that got his father his start.  He recruits some of his fellow ne'er-do-well young punks and tries to rob a game run by Eugene Pontecorvo, a Made man in the DiMeo (Soprano) family.  But unlike his father, Jackie Jr. fucks everything up.  He and his friends were high on crystal meth so they were twitchy and jumpy.  They hadn’t done any prep work so were surprised to find out that Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta, two very dangerous Made men, were at the game.  Worst of all, during the robbery Jackie lost control and shot the dealer, which sparked a larger gunfight.  His two accomplices were killed, and Furio was injured.

Now Jackie Jr. is a dead man, because robbing Made men, let alone actually shooting one, requires vengeance. Eugene, Chris, and Furio couldn’t give him a pass even if they wanted to, since they would look weak to the rest of the Mafia (Sidenote: In the original The Godfather this is exactly what tells Vito Corleone that he can kill Don Fanucci without fear of reprisals.  Fanucci had been beaten up and robbed by some kids, and then accepted a payoff from their families instead of taking revenge.  Vito knew that if he was actually in the Mafia, like he claimed, then he would have taken revenge no matter what).  Jackie Jr.’s only hope is that Tony gives him a pass, since as Boss his word is final.  But Tony doesn’t want to give Jackie a pass, because despite being the son of his best friend, Jackie Jr. is a little shit who cheated on Tony’s daughter and has been a headache in general for over a year.  So Tony passes the buck to Ralph Cifaretto, who is dating Jackie’s mother, and says that he will go along with whatever Ralph decides.  Despite Ralph saying that he wants to give Jackie a pass, he doesn’t have the fortitude to back that up and make an enemy of so many other members of the Family.  So, at the end of it, he has Jackie Jr. killed and moves on.

Perfect ending to Jackie Jr.’s story, and the perfect parallel to highlight that despite his massive ego he was never comparable to Tony Soprano.....except....

Well, except for the fact that as the series went along, some of the details that were teased out said that Tony, Silvio and Jackie weren’t quite as highly regarded for their stunt as it now seems.  In fact, Feech wasn’t happy to let bygones be bygones, he did want revenge.  Maybe not to go so far as to kill them, but certainly at least rough them up badly, and maybe even oppose their later induction into the Mafia.  And the only thing that stopped him was the fact that these three had big, powerful protection.  Richie Aprile, Jackie’s older brother, was already a Made man.  Tony’s father and uncle, Johnny Soprano and Junior Soprano, were capos themselves.  They had the respect, and the muscle, and most importantly the will to back down Feech.  It wasn’t that the kids did the robbery the Right Way, it was that they had protection to skate on the consequences.  Protection that Jackie Jr. didn’t have.  Ralph Cifaretto only cared about Jackie Jr. because he was screwing his mother, so when push came to shove he caved and let him get whacked.

Now obviously Jackie Jr. did screw up big time -- come on, people died -- but even if he had done it the ‘right way’ after all it still may have turned out badly for him.  Because it turns out the original robbery wasn’t a story of three up-and-coming kids impressing the old timers with their spunk, it was the story of three privileged assholes screwing around and getting bailed out by their family.  Just the same as if they were rich kids who tried the same thing for kicks and their parents got them off with fancy lawyers.

It’s not a testament to them at all, and is only viewed as such now because Tony (And Jackie and Silvio) are too powerful to question.  It may not be that Jackie Jr. was as big a screw-up as he seemed, maybe they’re just comparing him to a fantasy that wasn’t true in the first place.

[cowriot]

How It All Led To This retort...

Feech La Manna:

Benny Fazio and Christopher Moltisanti explain their situation. After Feech asks what about the street, Christopher smoothly responds..

Christopher Moltisanti:

Hook, line and sinker like a motherfucker!

[thevividgreenmoss]

The Feech La Manna storyline always depresses the absolute shit out of me like especially so like obviously these are p much all violent and cruel men and on top of that Feech just seems like an annoying guy to be around a lot of the time and like within his circle of violent organized criminals he's probably not a safe/stable person to be around and you also get that despite all that Tony's like the much worse much more cruel and callous person in the entire situation and that it's fucked up to send an old man to prison especially after he just got out from a decades long sentence where he probably spent the entire time dreaming of being free to be back on his smalltime mobster bullshit and eat his peaches and wine and just like to remain part of the in crowd of like the guys who hang around the bing like when Paulie gaultieri and Christopher and that Benny guy are laughing at your jokes what more do you need out of life and like at the end of it once you realize exactly what's going to happen to him and you see him end up on that bus taking him back to jail watching ugly ass suburban new Jersey pass him by through the barred windows like it's all so fucking stupid and heartbreaking

[drugstorecowgirlss]

I feel like I’m turning into feech la manna

[aion-rsa]

Will Tony Rob Feech La Manna’s Card Game in The Many Saints of Newark?

https://ift.tt/3kQCxCc

David Chase hates it when sloppy pop journalists tag The Many Saints of Newark as a “Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) origin story.” This is a gangster movie about Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), the father of Christopher (Michael Imperioli) on The Sopranos. But we will get to see the first steps the future boss of the DiMeo family takes towards crime. We know young Tony (Michael Gandolfini) made his bones on the murder of Willy Overall on Labor Day of 1982, from the episode “Remember When,” but it’s doubtful the film will go that far in the timeline. That being said, it doesn’t mean Tony didn’t have to pop someone as a tax on past misdeeds.

There is no mention of the character Feech La Manna in the Many Saints of Newark IMDb page, but there are enough wise guys listed as characters to fill in the blanks. There is honor among thieves, at least when gambling, and the first thing the young punk Tony did which got him noticed was rob a room of criminals. Not just any game, either. It was run by one of the most respected standup guys in the Tri-State area, and parts of Sicily: Freech LaManna. He was so much of a legend he had to be played by a legend.

Robert Loggia is cinematic gangster royalty, and it goes way beyond telling Al Pacino not to get high on his own supply in Brian DePalma’s Scarface. He followed that one with the lesser-known mob masterpiece Prizzi’s Honor (1985), made by the iconic director John Huston. Loggia’s first film role was as street level mob associate Frankie Peppo in Somebody Up there Likes Me. That 1956 film, which starred Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano, was based on a book the middleweight boxing legend himself wrote, and was fairly accurate on street crime. Loggia personally was so tough, when Bill Maher said he thought Independence Day was stupid, on his old show Politically Incorrect, the actor convinced him to change his opinion. All it took were the words “what do you mean?”

Michele “Feech” La Manna was equally mythic. Tony says it himself. The old-school gangster was made in Italy, came to America in the 1950s, and settled in on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. The DiMeo crime family was under the leadership of Ercoli “Eckley” DiMeo at the time. Feech ran gambling and bookmaking joints, and was in the same class, but in a slightly better league, as Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano and Corrado “Junior” Soprano (Dominic Chianese). He also had a bakery and catering company on the side which did so well that Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri (Tony Sirico) calls him “The King of Breadsticks.” Feech quickly became a caporegime and had a fearsome reputation. But his real street cred came from his friendly Saturday night card game. It was a high-stakes, VIP event, and he ran it with style and humor, and was very hands on.

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Jackie Sr. and Tony would have robbed Feech game’s sometime between 1978 and 1979. According to the myth, sticking up the venerated game proved Tony and Jackie had balls, and solidified their status as rising stars. By all rights, Feech could have had them killed. Jackie’s older brother, Richie Aprile (David Proval), was a good earner, and a high-ranking soldier in the family. He intervened on his brother and Tony’s behalf. Tony’s father and uncle were capos in the DiMeo family. Johnny Boy probably had to go into his own pocket to make things right with Feech.

The major takeaway of the card game stickup was that nobody died, and Feech was repaid at least some of his money. But the point had been made. These were street legends in the making. It doesn’t go the same way when Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) tells the story to the future generation of mob wannabes. Ralph thinks he never moved up the ranks because he wasn’t part of robbing La Manna’s card game. When Ralph tells Jackie Jr. (Jason Cerbone) and Dino about it, he makes it sound like such an easy entrance to mob life they try to make history repeat itself.

They target a card game run by Eugene Pontecorvo, a member of Ralph’s crew. They smoke crank before the stickup to get up the nerve, and go through with it even though Christopher and Furio Giunta (Federico Castelluccio) are at the table, and the card dealer, Sunshine, gives them a chance to get out before they get in trouble. Jackie kills Sunshine and shoots Furio in the leg. Christopher and Albert Barese kill Jackie Jr.’s small crew. Furio’s leg wound is treated by urologist Dr. Ira Fried.

It’s a hanging offense for Jackie Jr. Even though he is the son of a former boss. On behalf of Jackie Jr.’s mother, Ralphie asks for a pass for Jackie Jr. But he does have Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli) do the job on the kid. It might have come closer to that for Tony and Jackie than the word on the street. In season 2, episode 3, “Toodle-fucking-Oo,” Richie Aprile tells Tony: “I’m the guy who saved you from the hit parade.” He fills in the details. “Feech was a made man. If it wasn’t for me, you would’ve got a vicious beating, to say the least.”

The legend says Tony and Jackie were on a fast track to being made because of the robbery. It is possible the Willie Overall hit was part of the tax Freech put on the clemency. Aprile’s details might explain why Feech wasn’t so hot to take orders from Don Tony Soprano.

Feech was convicted of RICO in 1984, and sentenced to 20 years. When he gets out in 2004, La Manna returns to North Jersey to find the guy who robbed his gang is now the boss of the family he owes allegiance to. He wants to “get back in the game,” and that includes getting his card game back. Tony agrees, just so long as Feech doesn’t step on anybody’s toes. Feech swears he is a great dancer, and to be fair, nobody’s got moves like his. First, he trims the limbs from under the landscaper who pays Paulie for protection. Then he jacks every car parked for Dr. Fried’s daughter’s wedding, even after being told the doctor was not to be touched.

Tony had already gone through this when Richie got out of jail and pulled a power play. Feech La Manna is loosely based on Bonanno crime family capo Carmine Galante, who tried to overthrow Phillip Rastelli after getting out of prison. Tony nips it in the bud, sending Christopher and Benny Fazio over to Feech’s place with a garage full of hot plasma screen TVs. They are there when his parole officer comes by and Feech goes back to prison.

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The Many Saints of Newark will be released in theaters on October 1, and will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from the theatrical release.

The post Will Tony Rob Feech La Manna’s Card Game in The Many Saints of Newark? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[deepartnature]

The Sopranos - Season 5

"The fifth season of The Sopranos aired on HBO from March 7 to June 6, 2004. The fifth season was released on DVD in region 1 on June 7, 2005. The story of season five focuses on the return of two prominent  members of the DiMeo family, Tony Blundetto and Feech La Manna, who are released from lengthy stays in prison and struggle to reintegrate  themselves back within the family and the life of crime. Several prominent members of the Lupertazzi family also return from prison, and the subsequent power vacuum caused by the death of Boss Carmine creates a growing rift between the New York and New Jersey crime families. Tony and Carmela adjust to their new lives and each other following their separation, which greatly   affects their son, A.J. Uncle Junior's mental health continues to deteriorate, and Adriana's guilt over her role as an FBI informant grows. ..."

Wikipedia

W - List of The Sopranos characters

RecapGuide

Top 5 Episodes: The Sopranos – Season 5 (Video)

The Sopranos: 10 Best Episodes Of Season 5, According To IMDb

The Closing Credits Song For Every Episode of The Sopranos (Season 5)(Video)

YouTube: The Sopranos Season 5, Tony owns Phil, Tony sees his painting at Paulies, Tony's Terrible Things, Ohs and Hos!

2020 July: The Sopranos - Season 1, 2020 July: Season 2, 2020 August: Season 3, 2020 August: Season 4

[grupomiranda]

Los Soprano: 5x3

Los Soprano: 5×3

Un enfermo tío Junior se preocupa por la muerte. El plan de Tony para compartir el poder en Nueva York no le sienta bien a Johnny Sack. Paulie y Feech La Manna chocan por un asunto territorial.

[artiebuccofanclub]

The Sopranos cast so many great actors from the spectrum of gangster films. Feech La Manna's story line was short lived, but he was one of the few who survived, even if he did live in the can. Rip Robert Loggia.

[fuckyeahsopranos]

That's another thing. I don't want to hear anymore "how it was in your day." From now on, keep your anecdotes to local color, like Dinoflow or Maguire sisters. Otherwise, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Tony Soprano to Feech LaManna, Season 5, All Happy Families

[artiebuccofanclub]

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RIP Robert Loggia, beloved Feech La Manna.