He even cries. Jelly gets Ben's card and later, Vitti pays Ben a call. Eventually, Vitti begins to treat Ben as a brain mechanic on 24-hour call. That's a terrific premise. That's a lot of horses for one movie.
Tone is everything here.
De Niro plays Vitti as only slightly a burlesque of his classic Mafioso roles. Indeed, if Billy Crystal weren't around smirking and double-taking, you might think De Niro was doing the whole movie straight. But there's a glint in his eye, a little extra roll behind the swagger. Hope is a good yardstick here for Crystal too. Like Woody Allen, who has always copied the nervous, phony bravado of Hope's early comedies, Crystal suggests a lot of Hope's old persona.