1- Marlon Brando did not memorise most of his lines and instead read
them off cue cards that were placed around the set or on actor’s bodies.
2- There was a ferocious amount of mooning on set – actors showing their bare asses,
which is thought to have been initiated by James Caan and Robert Duvall in order to break
tension. Caan said in an interview “My best moon was on Second Avenue. Bob Duvall and I were in
one car and Brando was in another, so we drove up beside him and I pulled down my pants and stuck
my ass out the window. Brando fell down in the car with laughter.” Al Pacino also got involved,
saying “In a scene where I sit behind a desk, wardrobe made a big fuss about getting me a
shirt with a smaller collar. So while everyone was looking at the shirt, I took off my pants. When
I came out from behind the desk, I got a laugh, even though we had to do the scene over”. It got
so bad that Richard Bright, who played Al Neri, said that it got to a point where everytime you
turned open a door, you expected to see someone’s be-hind on the other side. The ultimate moon came
when Brando and Duvall mooned 400 cast and crew members during filming of the wedding scene.
Marlon Brando was crowned with a heavyweight style leather belt with the title Moon Champion
3- According to Francis Ford Coppola, due to the movie’s length, an intermission was planned
which would have taken place immediately after Michael murders Solozzo and McClusky.
This is why operatic music begins to play when Michael leaves the restaurant and why
a newspaper montage ensures, which would have been the first scene after the intermission
4- The studio executives did not feel Don Corleone’s death scene was necessary
seeing as though his funeral would let audiences know he died.
Coppola was adamant that the scene be included, so he took three cameras and
Marlon Brando and shot the scene at a private residence with Brando ab libbing his lines
5- Fabrizio, Michael’s treacherous bodyguard who plants the bomb that kills Michael’s wife
Appolonia, actually has revenge enacted on him by Michael. In a scene that was shot, Michael finds
Fabrizio at a pizza parlour the latter opens in America, and he is blown away by Michael. This
scene was ultimately cut, and various reasons have been cited, such as there being so much fake blood
used that the scene looked ridiculous. Fabrizio’s death was filmed again for The Godfather part II,
this time the traitor being blown up in a car bomb as a form of poetic justice.
This death scene was also cut from the theatrical version of the film, but can be found online.
6- According to Richard S Castellano, he defended cinematographer Gordon Willis during
a disagreement between Willis and Francis Ford Coppola, and Coppola got his revenge
by making Castellano do 20 tkes of the shot of Clemenza walking up four flights of stairs
7- During rehearsals, a fake horse’s head was used for the scene where Jack Woltz wakes up to
find his prized horse’s decapitated head in his bed. However, for the actual film shot,
a real horse’s head was used. John Marley who played Woltz says his screaming was real and not
acting, as he was not told a real head was going to be used.
Animal rights activists protested this scene, and Francis Ford Coppola has commented on this,
saying, “There were many people killed in that movie, but everyone worries about the horse.
It was the same on the set. When the head arrived, it upset many crew members who are animal lovers,
who like little doggies. What they don't know is that we got the head from a pet
food manufacturer who slaughters two hundred horses a day just to feed those little doggies.”
8- Sonny’s death scene was shot in one take with numerous cameras positioned at different places.
This was due to the fact that Caan’s body was taped with 149 squibs and it would take
too long to repeat the shot. The scene cost more than $100,000 to set up
9- Marlon Brando, a known prankster,
put weights under his body for the scene where he is carried upstairs on his bed
10- Many of the ideas from the film were borrowed from real life mob stories,
in particular gangster Crazy Joe Gallo. Terms like “hitting the mattresses” and “sleeping with the
fishes” came from the life of Gallo, the latter coming from an incident where a Gallo associate
was killed on a fishing trip and the Gallo brothers were sent a fish wrapped in a box.
Sonny, the hothead, is thought to be modelled on Crazy Joe, the thought ful and intelligent
Michael on Larry Gallow, and the dimwit Fredo on Michael Gallo. Jo Gallo is reportedly thought to
have considered suing the film makers and book author Mario Puzo after watching the movie,
though this never ended up happening as Gallo was murdered around a month after the film’s release
11- Francis Ford Coppola has said that the film’s climax, with the baptism scene intercut with the
murders, did not really work until editor Peter Zinner added the organ soundtrack
12- The famous line “leave the gun, take the cannoli” was improvised by Richard Castellano
13- Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi,
was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that he flubbed some of his lines. Francis Ford
Coppola liked the genuineness of it and then filmed a scene of Brasi practising his speech,
which had the effect of highlighting the respect and fear Don Corleone commands
14- The studio was not convinced of Al Pacino’s casting. Coppola fought to keep him,
and Pacino felt that he could be fired at any moment. In fact, according to one interview,
Pacino says he was going to be fired midway through filming, with the studio execs only
having seen early shots of Michael at the wedding, exclaiming “when is he going to do something”.
It was only until Michael shoots Solozzo that they changed their minds about Pacino
15- At the meeting in the restaurant between Michael and Solozzo,
you don’t see subtitles for Solozzo’s dialogue in Sicilian because the actor was speaking so fast.
What he said was "I am sorry. What happened to your father was business. I have much respect
for your father. But your father, his thinking is old-fashioned. You must understand why I had to
do that. Now let's work through where we go from here." And when Michael returns from the bathroom,
he continues with his monologue, "Everything all right? I respect myself, understand,
and cannot allow another man to hold me back. What happened was unavoidable.
I had the unspoken support of the other family dons. If your father were in better health,
without his eldest son running things, no disrespect intended, we wouldn't have this
nonsense. We will stop fighting until your father is well and can resume bargaining. No
vengeance will be taken. We will have peace. But your family should interfere no longer."
16- If only upfront salaries are taken into consideration,
Richard S Castellano, who played Peter Clemenza, was the highest paid actor in the film
17- James Caan and Gianni Russo did not get along during filming, and during the famous scene
where Sonny beats up Carlo in the streets, Caan broke two of Russo’s ribs and chipped his elbow
18- Director Francis Ford Coppola and the studio clashed heavily, with Coppola coming
very close to losing his job. Reasons cited included his inability to stay on schedule,
unnecessary expenses and casting decisions the studio did not like.
Funnily enough, the film came in under budget and was completed ahead of schedule.
However, Coppola has such a bad experience he refused to direct the second film,
instead suggesting Martin Scorsese, and only signed on after Paramount Pictures offered
him an abundance of money and clauses which made the shoot easier for him
19- Marlon Brando stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for his audition because he wanted Don
Corleone to look like a bulldog. For the actual film, he wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist,
20- Reportedly, the assassination attempt on Don Corleone had to be re-shot
numerous times, as a crowd of onlookers gasped when Marlon Brando would fall and then cheer
wildly and loudly at his performance. When It was done, Brando bowed to the cheering crowd.
21- Michael’s son Anthony is named Anthony because the 3 year old child actor Anthony
Gounaris responded best when his real name was used during shooting
22- The Godfather novel explains that the reason why Michael wipes his nose with
a handkerchief is because McClusky’s punch did damage to Michael’s sinuses
23- The cat held by Brando in the opening scene was not in the script,
and instead a stray that was found on the filming lot. Reportedly,
the cats purring muffled some of Brando’s dialogue, meaning his lines had to be looped
24- Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Michael Corleone,
feeling that the role should be played by an actor of Italian descent, and due to the fact
that the script draft he was sent contained no scenes between him and Marlon Brando
25- Marlon Brando rejected his Oscar for Best Actor for the film,
instead sending Sacheen Littlefeather to represent him at the academy
awards ceremony and give a speech about the industry’s mistreatment of Native Americans
26- The production of the film had heavy real life mob presence, with actors such as Al Martino and
Lenny Montana being connected to crime families. A studio executive was even summoned to a meeting by
Colombo family boss Joe Colombo where the gangeter made several demands, such as the word Mafia being
removed from the script. I have a more detailed 10 minute video on this which you can check out
27- Each of the wedding guests who asks for a favour from Don Corleone
on his daughter’s wedding day is asked to return it, in a manner of speaking.
Nazorine the baker asks for help arranging his son Enzio’s stay in America, and Enzio
himself arrives at the hospital later to visit the Don and helps Michael to ward off
would be assassins. Johnny Fontaine, after being given a film role that revives his career, agrees
to appear at Michael’s casinos towards the end of the film and Bonasera, who sought revenge after
the beating of his daughter, is called upon by Don Vito to prepare Sonny’s body for his funeral
28- Frank Sinatra was furious at the character of Johnny Fontaine,
as it was supposedly based on him. When he met Mario Puzo at a restaurant,
he screamed vulgar terms and threats at him. Puzo denies the character was based on Sinatra.
29- At Connie’s wedding, Sonny copulates with the maid of honour
Lucy Mancini, played by Jeannie Linero. The same actress is seen
again briefly during a celebration in The Godfather Part III, and Vincent,
Michael’s nephew who eventually becomes the don of the Corleone family, is her bastard son
30- The movie is called Mario Puzo’s The Godfather at Francis Ford Coppola’s insistence,
who felt his and Puzo’s screenplay was almost completely faithful to Puzo’s original novel
31- In the 2015 documentary Listen To Me Marlon, Brando’s archival tapes tell of times, when
a young boy, his mother would take her teeth out and make faces to make Marlon laugh,
very similar to what Brando does just before he dies in the film
32- Marlon Brando was against having Gianni Russo in the film, as he hadn’t acted before.
This made Russo furious, and he marched to Brando to threaten him – however, during the verbal
abuse Brando thought Russo was acting, and it convinced him that he would be good for the role.
33- The highly quoted phrase “bada-bing!” said by James Caan, is something the actor
heard from his aqquaintance, the real life mobster Carmine Persico
34- The part where James Caan throws the FBI photographer’s camera on the ground,
and when he throws money at the man to make up for it, was improvised by the actor
35- Marlon Brando slapping Johnny Fontaine was not in the script. Al Martino’s reaction was genuine,
with James Caan saying “Martino didn’t know whether to laugh or cry”
36- Francis Ford Coppola initially did not want to direct the project,
but was persuaded to do so as he was in debt to Warner Brothers
37- Sergio Leone was approached to direct the film, but he turned it down,
a decision he later regretted, which spurred him to make his own gangster movie years later,
Once Upon a Time in America
38- One of Mario Puzo’s favourite lines from the book was “a lawyer with a briefcase can
steal more than a hundred men with guns” was was adamant it be used in the film,
but Marlon Brando felt it was too preachy, and it was removed
39- Nina Rota’s Oscar nomination for the score was removed as he reused the same
theem from a previous film called Fortunella. He won the Oscar for The Godfather Part II,
even though the sequel uses the same love theme as the first film
40- Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to win separate Oscars for playing the
exact same character as Don Vito Corleone. Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix would later
both win Oscars for playing two different versions of the same character in the Joker