Trivia

Cinematographer Gordon Willis earned himself the nickname "The Prince of Darkness," since his sets were so underlit. "Paramount Pictures" executives initially thought that the footage was too dark, until persuaded otherwise by Willis and Francis Ford Coppola that it was to emphasize the shadiness of the Corleone family's dealings.

Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone "look like a bulldog," so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the audition. For the actual filming, he wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist. This appliance is on display in the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

James Caan improvised the part where he throws the FBI photographer's camera to the ground. The actor's frightened reaction is genuine. Caan also came up with the idea of throwing money at the man to make up for breaking his camera. As he put it, "Where I came from, you broke something, you replaced it or repaid the owner."

The smack that Vito gives Johnny Fontane was not in the script. Marlon Brando improvised the smack and Al Martino's confused reaction was real. According to James Caan, "Martino didn't know whether to laugh or cry."

There was intense friction between Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Pictures, in which Paramount Pictures frequently tried to have Coppola replaced, citing his inability to stay on schedule, unnecessary expenses, and production and casting errors (Coppola actually completed the film ahead of schedule and under budget).

Note the attention to detail: most of the cars have wooden bumpers. Bumpers were removed by car owners during World War II, and replaced with wooden ones. The chrome ones were turned in to help with the war effort. After the war, it took several years for them to be replaced.

Francis Ford Coppola turned in an initial Director's Cut running two hours and six minutes. "Paramount Pictures" production chief Robert Evans rejected this version, and demanded a longer cut with more scenes about the family. The final release version was nearly fifty minutes longer than Coppola's initial cut.

According to Al Pacino, the tears in Marlon Brando's eyes were real, in the hospital scene when Michael pledges himself to his father.

Orson Welles lobbied to get the part of Don Vito Corleone, even offering to lose a good deal of weight in order to get the role. Francis Ford Coppola, a Welles fan, had to turn him down because he already had Marlon Brando in mind for the role and felt Welles wouldn't be right for it.

Don Vito Corleone's distinctive voice was based on real-life mobster Frank Costello. Marlon Brando had seen him on television during the Estes Kefauver hearings in 1951, and imitated his husky whisper in the film.

Marlon Brando and James Caan had to wear lifts for the movie.

George Lucas put together the "Mattress Sequence" (the montage of crime scene photos and headlines about the war between the five families) as a favor to Francis Ford Coppola for helping him fund American Graffiti (1973). He asked not to be credited. Lucas used photos from real crime scenes. The corpse on the ground near a chain link fence is Frank Nitti (aka "The Enforcer"), Al Capone's right-hand man who had not been murdered, but actually shot himself. During the scene, Coppola's father, Carmine, is the piano player.

For the scene where Clemenza is cooking, Francis Ford Coppola originally wrote in the script, "Clemenza browns some sausage." Upon seeing this, Mario Puzo crossed out "browns" and replaced it with "fries", writing in the margin, "gangsters don't brown."

According to Francis Ford Coppola, the film took 62 days to shoot from March 23, 1971 to May 24, 1971.

Gianni Russo used his organized crime connections to secure the role of Carlo Rizzi, going so far as to get a camera crew to film his own audition and send it to the producers. However, Marlon Brando was initially against having Russo, who had never acted before, in the film. This made Russo furious, and he went to threaten Brando. However, this reckless act proved to be a blessing in disguise, because Brando thought Russo was acting, and was convinced he would be good for the role.

Francis Ford Coppola was reluctant to let his sister, Talia Shire, audition for the role of Connie. He felt she was too pretty for the part, and did not want to be accused of nepotism. Only at Mario Puzo's request did Shire get a chance to audition.

The scenes of Michael and Kay at the wedding at the beginning were shot at night. Due to the rushed schedule, Francis Ford Coppola had to get their scenes in the bag. Cinematographer Gordon Willis was furious at having to rig up so many lights.

Michael's speech to Apollonia's father was originally written to be in Sicilian, as it was in the novel. Al Pacino, however, did not speak Sicilian fluently, and could not learn such a lengthy speech. Francis Ford Coppola re-wrote the scene at the last minute to have Michael speak English, and have Fabrizio translate for him.

While filming the scene in which Carlo beats her, Talia Shire lost a shoe. Not wanting to have to restore the set and wait for the camera to be set up for a second time, she simply continued to play through the scene, even at the risk of cutting her foot on all the ceramics she had just destroyed.

James Caan originally heard the phrase "bada-bing!" from his acquaintance, the real-life mobster Carmine Persico, and improvised its use in the film.

Despite lead billing, Marlon Brando's total screentime is less than one hour.

The relationship between Francis Ford Coppola and Gordon Willis was highly combustible. They would often have screaming rows, with a few broken props as a result. After one incident, such a loud noise exploded from Coppola's office that the crew thought that Coppola had shot himself (he had only broken a door). They also conflicted because Willis was very hard on the actors and actresses about hitting their marks, with his low lighting scheme, if they missed, they would be filmed in total darkness. Coppola, on the other hand, considered himself a protector of actors and actresses. He felt that he could get the most out of them by nurturing them.

Paramount executive Peter Bart bought the film rights to Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" before it was even finished. It was still only a 20-page outline.

To add a sense of reality to the wedding scene (and because he only had two days to shoot it), Francis Ford Coppola had the cast freely act out and improvise in the background of the wedding scene. He then shot specific vignettes amongst the action.

A young Sylvester Stallone auditioned for the roles of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi, but was not cast for either. Stallone instead decided to try his hand at writing, first completing the screenplay for the modestly successful The Lords of Flatbush (1974). He would later get his break in Rocky (1976), alongside Talia Shire, who portrayed Connie Corleone in this film.

Radio personality Howard Stern has said that he would gladly have any cast member of this film as his guest, and they can show up at his studio unannounced. Though over the years, cast members such as Robert Duvall and James Caan were pre-scheduled guests, his "just show up" policy was never taken up until Gianni Russo arrived one day. Stern immediately had him escorted into his studio, even though he was in the midst of other guests at the time, and interviewed him.

When Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for this movie, he sent Sacheen Littlefeather (Marie Louise Cruz) to represent him at the awards ceremonies. The presenters of the award were Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann. When Moore offered the statuette to Littlefeather, she snubbed him and proceeded with her speech about the film industry's mistreatment of Native Americans.

The only comment Robert Duvall made about his performance was that he wished "they would have made a better hairpiece" for his character.

Paramount Pictures senior management, dissatisfied with the early rushes, considered replacing Francis Ford Coppola with Elia Kazan, with the hope that Kazan would be able to work with the notoriously difficult Marlon Brando. Brando announced that he would quit the film if Coppola was fired, and the studio backed down. Paramount Pictures brass apparently did not know of Brando's dismay with Kazan over his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

During pre-production, Francis Ford Coppola shot his own unofficial screentests with Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton at his house in San Francisco. Robert Evans was unimpressed by them, and insisted that official screentests be held. The studio spent four hundred twenty thousand dollars on the screentests, but in the end, the actors and actresses Coppola originally wanted were hired.

Paramount Pictures wanted the film to appeal to a wide audience, and threatened Francis Ford Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting. Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy. The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason.

Despite having his Oscar nomination withdrawn by the Academy upon discovery that he had reused the same theme from his previous score for Fortunella (1958), composer Nino Rota was still awarded the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Grammy for Best Original Score. Oddly enough, Rota won the Oscar for Best Original Score for the sequel The Godfather: Part II (1974), even though the score used the same love theme from the original film.

The film was set and shot in New York City, at over one hundred locations. Originally, the entire film was to be shot in the Hollywood backlots, in order to save production costs. However, production designer Dean Tavoularis threatened to add two stories to each backlot building in order to replicate the look of New York City, and the studio relented, and allowed for shooting in New York City.

Although the dark photography of Gordon Willis was eventually copied by many other films, when the developed film came back from the lab, Paramount Pictures executives thought the look was a mistake. They ordered a different look, but Willis and Francis Ford Coppola refused.

Mario Puzo was very proud of one particular line from the novel, "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns". He was adamant that it be used in the film, but Marlon Brando felt it was too preachy, and it was excised.

Originally, Francis Ford Coppola was against directing the film, as he felt it glorified the Mafia and violence, and it would reflect poorly on his Italian-Sicilian heritage. However, he eagerly took the job, once he thought of making it an allegory of American capitalism.

James Caan hung out with various disreputable characters, in order to better understand the underworld lifestyle.

The first of four successive years that Al Pacino was nominated for an acting Academy Award. A Best Supporting Actor nomination for this film was followed by Best Actor nominations for Serpico (1973), The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

James Caan was at first considered to play first Tom Hagen (for what he actually auditioned), and then Michael Corleone, before being eventually being cast as Sonny Corleone.

Martin Sheen and Dean Stockwell auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone. Oscar winner Rod Steiger campaigned hard for the role of Michael, even though he was too old for the part. Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Dustin Hoffman were all offered the part of Michael Corleone, but all refused. (Beatty was also offered directing and producing duties.) Suggestions of Alain Delon and Burt Reynolds were rejected by Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount Pictures production chief Robert Evans wanted Robert Redford to be cast in the part, but Coppola demurred, as he was too WASP-y. Evans explained that Redford could fit the role, as he could be perceived as "northern Italian". Evans eventually lost the struggle over the actor he derided as "The Midget". The Irish-American Ryan O'Neal then became the front-runner for the part, though it eventually devolved onto James Caan. Before being cast as Michael, Al Pacino was committed to starring in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971). Coppola, in a 2003 "Cigar Aficionado" interview, said that Paramount Pictures pulled some strings and managed to get Pacino released. The Paramount brass, particularly Evans, were adamantly opposed to casting Pacino, who did poorly in screentests, until they saw his excellent performance in The Panic in Needle Park (1971). Caan went back to his original role of Sonny when Pacino came on-board. Robert De Niro tested for Michael and Sonny, and was almost cast as Carlo, before being cast as Paulie. Then, De Niro was offered Pacino's former role in "Gang". With Coppola's blessing, De Niro backed out to take the part. This, in turn, enabled De Niro to star as a young Vito in the sequel, which won him an Oscar, and made his career.

When Sonny beats up Carlo, a truck in the background and a wooden box on the sidewalk are strategically placed to hide anachronistic objects in the background.

Francis Ford Coppola had a background in theater, and used it to prepare the script. He would take pages out of the book and paste them into a notebook, which gave him enough room to make detailed notes on the scenes he wanted to use, what he had to do to make them work, and what pitfalls to avoid. (One example: "Italians who-a talk-a like-a dis.")

Before the film was in production, Paramount Pictures had been going through an unsuccessful period. Their latest mafia based movie, The Brotherhood (1968), had been a box-office bomb. In addition, the studio had usurped their budget for their recent films: Darling Lili (1970), Paint Your Wagon (1969), and Waterloo (1970). The budget for the film was originally two and a half million dollars, but as the book grew in popularity, and Coppola argued for a larger budget, the budget was raised to six million dollars.

The name of the traditional Sicilian hat (worn, for instance, by Michael's bodyguards) is "coppola".

According to Ardell Sheridan, Mafia Captain (and future boss) Paul Castellano visited the set and spoke with Richard S. Castellano. It was not until after Paul was killed in 1985, did Richard reveal to her that Paul was his uncle.

Mario Puzo gave Vito's eldest son the nickname of "Sonny" after the nickname given to the son of Al Capone. The similarities end there. Sonny Capone did not enter his father's business.

After Marlon Brando's death, his own annotated script for the film fetched $12,800 at a New York City auction, the highest amount ever paid for a film script.

The opening wedding celebrations were filmed over a period of a week, and employed over seven hundred fifty extras.

The meeting between the heads of the Mafioso was filmed in the boardroom of the Penn-Central Railroad. This explains the train mural seen behind Don Barzini (Richard Conte).

Marlon Brando wanted Al Martino replaced, as he felt the singer's acting was wooden.

Along with Mario Puzo's source novel, Francis Ford Coppola based many of the characters on members of his own family.

According to Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando considered Salvatore Corsitto's performance to be the best in the film, because it was the most genuine.

According to Francis Ford Coppola, it was George Lucas who helped him solve the lack of filmed empty corridors in the hospital scene by using the ends of shots that had been filmed after Coppola had called, "Cut".

In his 1994 autobiography "Songs My Mother Taught Me", Marlon Brando said he turned the film down repeatedly because he did not want to glamorize the Mafia.

While filming the hospital scenes, doctors and nurses kept sneaking through for a peek at Marlon Brando.

Abe Vigoda got the part of Tessio by answering an open casting call and beat out hundreds of other actors.

In the novel, Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto) is the last person who is allowed to see Don Corleone (Marlon Brando), while Nazorine, The Baker (Vito Scotti), was first. The change to Bonasera being first for the film was to show the way that Nazorine requests a favor is the more appropriate and to suggest that Nazorine heard about Bonasera's lack of respect.

In 1990, this film was selected for the National Film Registry, Library of Congress.

This was Richard Conte's final American studio film before his death on April 15, 1975 at the age of 65.

The film took seventy-seven days to shoot, six days less than the original schedule of eighty-three days.

The casting of Richard Conte was an idea by the mother of Martin Scorsese, who asked Francis Ford Coppola if he could be in the movie.

According to associate producer Gary Fredrickson, Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi) had worked as a Mafia bodyguard, and had also bragged to Frederickson about working for the Mafia as an arsonist.

Francis Ford Coppola inserted the detail of people eating Chinese food out of white takeout containers, a memory from his childhood.

Though Francis Ford Coppola wanted to portray Italians authentically, he cast many actors in the Corleone family who were not Italian: Marlon Brando was of Dutch ancestry, James Caan is German and Jewish, and Abe Vigoda was Russian-Jewish. Nevertheless, he wanted someone with Sicilian looks to play Michael, which is why he fought for Al Pacino, despite a strong desire on Paramount Pictures' part to cast a "name", like Ryan O'Neal or Robert Redford, and Coppola's own concession that many Italians are blonde-haired and blue eyed, like Redford and O'Neal.

In April 1972, Paramount Pictures took out an ad in the trade papers which read, "In less than four weeks of national distribution, The Godfather, is already the twelfth highest grossing film, domestically, of all time. No motion picture has grossed so much in such a short period of time."

Fred Roos cast John Cazale after seeing him in an off-Broadway play called "Life", which co-starred Richard Dreyfuss (who invited Roos). Roos recalled, "We were looking for a Fredo at that time, and I had no idea who John Cazale was. He knocked me out. First chance I got, I brought him in and I said, 'Francis, this is Fredo, we don't need to look any further, this is him'".

The producers offered Burt Reynolds the Michael Corleone role before they offered it to Al Pacino. When Marlon Brando got wind of this he threatened to quit if Burt Reynolds was part of the project. Hearing this made Reynolds back out of the project too. "I was flattered he was upset," said Reynolds, later.

Elvis Presley, an avid fan of the book, auditioned for the role of Tom Hagen, though he really wanted to play Vito Corleone.

No cannolis are mentioned in the novel or the shooting script. Francis Ford Coppola included this detail from his memories of the particular white boxes of cannolis that his father would bring home from work.

The wedding scene, due to its size, was filmed on several locations on the same street that the house used for the exterior shots of the Corleone Family compound, which is located on Longfellow Avenue, Todt Hill, Staten Island, New York. The house had a low stone perimeter fence, which was enlarged to give the impression of a "family compound". The famous gate that marks the entrance to the Corleone compound was built for the film, and was torn down after shooting.

The scene of Michael and Kay Christmas shopping required 143 extras, in addition to period cars. The streetlights were replaced to match the period at $1,000 a pop, as well as street signs. 60 crew members were present.

This is the fourth of five films as of 2014 in which three actors were competing for the same Oscar for the same film, which were Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. The other films were: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), in which Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone competed for Best Actor, On the Waterfront (1954), in which Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger competed for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Tom Jones (1963), in which Diane Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman competed for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and The Godfather: Part II (1974), in which Robert De Niro, Michael V. Gazzo, and Lee Strasberg competed for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (which De Niro won).

Frank Albanese, who played Uncle Pat Blundetto in The Sopranos (1999) and the smiling lawyer for a young Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990), was one of the two hitmen (with a machine gun) who jumps into the bedroom, rubbing out one of the Dons with his mistress, while Michael eliminates the other Dons during the baptismal scene.

The Mount Loretto Church in Staten Island, where the exteriors for the baptism scene were filmed, burned down in 1973.

Francis Ford Coppola hired production designer Dean Tavoularis having been impressed with his work on Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Little Big Man (1970).

Exterior shots of the Woltz estate are actually Harold Lloyd's house. Interior scenes were shot at the Guggenheim estate in Long Island. Guards had to be hired for the priceless art, and the bed was a rental.

Burt Reynolds was considered for the part of Sonny Corleone by Coppola, but Marlon Brando refused to work with him, considering him a second-rate actor. Also, there was supposed animosity dating back to when Reynolds did an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) years earlier, in which he spoofed Brando's persona. Brando reportedly was not amused by the episode, and had never liked Reynolds since.

In the scene where Carlo is beaten by Sonny, a poster bearing the name "Thomas Dewey" can be seen on a wall. Thomas E. Dewey was first the appointed Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and later elected District Attorney of New York County in 1937. Dewey successfully pursued gangsters in both jobs. He was elected Governor of New York in 1942, and was serving as Governor during the period portrayed in this film. Dewey lost the elections for President of the United States in 1944 and 1948.

In the wedding scene, when they are singing "C'è la luna mezzo mare" the camera cuts to a man with his arms around two young girls this is Louis Prima, one of the artists who has recorded the song.

Robert Evans told the story that Puzo owed the mob $10,000 or so and he had the beginning of a novel called "Mafia". Evans basically optioned it for the amount of money that Puzo owed the mob.

The series of murders committed during the film starts and ends with a strangulation.

Al Lettierri who played the Turk was a very powerfully built man. Francis Ford Coppola said that shaking hands with him was like putting your hand in a vice.

Simonetta Stefanelli who played Michael Corleone's first wife, Apollonia, in Sicily who also appears topless in the film was only 16. Her birth date is November 30, 1954 and principal photography for the film took place from March to July 1971, making Simonetta age 16.

Producer Albert S. Ruddy later said that "It was the most miserable film I can think of to make. Nobody enjoyed one day of it."

This is the second Best Picture Oscar winner in which Marlon Brando won the Academy Award for Best Actor, also in which three of Brando's co-stars were nominated for Best Supporting Actor but none of whom received the award. The first film was On the Waterfront (1954). Coincidentally, the story of both films is about organized crime set in the New York City-Hoboken area. A key difference between the two however is that Brando's character (Terry Malloy) in the earlier film fights against organized crime. Whereas in the latter film, Brando's character (Vito Corleone) is the head of a major organized crime family.

According to a production assistant, between takes of the restaurant scene, Sterling Hayden snacked on fruit and milk, as he only ate natural foods. He read "Dear Theo", a collection of letters from Vincent van Gogh to his brother. He then mysteriously disappeared. He had taken a stroll, fallen asleep down by the river, and was awakened by boys throwing rocks at him.

According to a 1982 interview done for the U.K., Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Michael Corleone because he felt the lead should be Italian and also because the draft of the script given to him did not include scenes with him and Marlon Brando.

Six cameras were used to shoot the wedding sequences, including four in the garden to capture cinema verite shots, as well as a soundman wandering around to record improvised dialogue. There was also a camera in a helicopter, but many of these shots were too jumpy, and weren't used.

The first day of shooting was brought forward a week to March 24 due to the weather forcast promising snow flurries but with no sign of snow large snow blowers were brought in to create fake snow in front of Best and Company on Fifth Avenue with the store's windows being suitably dressed with a Xmas look.

When Michael goes to Las Vegas to see Moe Greene, if you look carefully in the car at the beginning of the scene, the guy in the front seat is dressed like and is supposed to be Fredo, but you can clearly see that it's not John Cazale. Then in the next moment in the hallway leading to the hotel room it's clearly John Cazale again.

The Woltz International Pictures lot is actually Paramount's lot in Hollywood. This was not production designer Dean Tavoularis' choice, he detested the look of it, and even suggested the Warner Brothers lot as an alternative, but it was used for budgetary reasons. It was also the location for the Paramount Pictures backlot scenes in Sunset Blvd. (1950).

Film debut for Joe Spinell, in the uncredited role of Willi Cicci.

A diary about the film's production, "The Godfather Journal" by Ira Zuckerman, was published as a mass market paperback by Manor in 1972.

Marlon Brando had to lose weight in order to play Don Vito Corleone.

When the phone rings and Connie answers it In the scene where Connie is beat up by Carlo, the voice on the other end of the phone is that of Talia Shire who plays the role of Connie. So she's speaking to herself

While the novel names Santino as the eldest son of Vito and Carmela, The Godfather trilogy indicates Fredo is the eldest. Edited in chronological order, the first child of the two is shown as Fredo being treated for pneumonia. Santino is later shown once the stolen rug is in the Corleone flat. In addition, Coppola is quoted in The Godfather trilogy as depicting Fredo is the eldest.

Sterling Hayden wandered off set between takes of the restaurant scene. He was found asleep by a river where children were throwing rocks at him.

James Caan dismissed the rumor that he butted heads with co-star Gianni Russo on set. Russo claimed in 2017 that a physical altercation between their characters became elevated after Caan allegedly took out real-life frustrations. "Jimmy got a little aggressive," Russo said back in 2017. "He improvised a few things like that little billy club he threw at me when I came off the stoop. He hit me right in the head with that, and then he throws me over the railing and he's biting my hands when I crawl out, he literally lifted me up with his kick none of that was supposed to happen." Russo continued, "Jimmy and I are not friends at all, believe me. The guy's nuts." Now, Caan cleared up the altercation, telling THR that Russo was mistaken. "He had a fight with someone else. Not me," Caan said. "I did the fight scene with stuntman Paul Baxley. He came in, and we made up the whole fight. And everything you saw in there is something that Paul and I created the day before."

Don Corleone's (Marlon Brando) slap on his godson (Al Martino) at Connie Corleone's (Talia Shire) wedding wasn't originally in the script, but Francis Ford Coppola kept it in the film.

Frank Sivero appears as an extra in the scene where Santino 'Sonny' Corleone beats up Carlo Rizzi. He would later appear in The Godfather: Part II (1974) as young Genco Abbandando.

In one scene, Sonny makes the expression "Going to the mattresses". This would become a popular phrase that is still being used a half century later.

Robert Evans originally wanted Henry Mancini to do the music.

Public Enemy sampled the line, "They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls" for their song "1 Million Bottlebags" on their 1991 album "Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black".

In the novel, as well as in the sequel/prequel, before there was Cosa Nostra in America there was the Black Hand in the early 20th century. The Black Hand in Italian/Sicilian-American communities in major cities was not a gang but an extortion method that was often perpetrated by freelance criminals against prominent Italian-Americans. Vito Corleone (after killing the neighborhood extortionist Don Fanucci) became a Black Hander but not nearly as predatory as was his predecessor. This was before the formation of Cosa Nostra "crime families" that came decades later.

James Caan is only one month older than Al Pacino.

Al Pacino revealed he never had a choice to play Michael Corleone. "At that time in my life, I didn't have a choice. Francis wanted me. I had made the one film. And I wasn't as interested in film to the extent that I became interested. My head was in another space. I felt out of place in the early films that I made. I remember saying to my friend Charlie [his mentor, the acting teacher Charlie Laughton]: Wow, they talk about it being real, but meanwhile it's not. Because there are wires all over you. And also, you've got to do it again! [Laughs] You do it and they say, well, go again, do it again. It's real and not real at the same time. Which takes some getting used to." In a separate interview, director Francis Ford Coppola said that when he read The Godfather book, he kept imagining Al Pacino in the part--he never had a second choice for who to cast. As Pacino recalls, "I got a call from Francis Coppola -- a name from the past. First, he says he's going to be directing The Godfather. I thought, well, he might be going through a mini-breakdown or something. How did they give him The Godfather?" He continues, "I've got to tell you, it was a big deal already. It was a big book. When you're an actor, you don't even put your eyes on those things. They don't exist for you. You're in a certain place in your life where you're not going to be accepted in those big films -- not yet, at least." But back to Coppola, Pacino tells the Times, laughing, "He said, not only was he directing it, but he wanted me to do it. I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh here. It just seemed so outrageous. Here I am, talking to somebody who I think is flipped out. I said, what train am I on? OK. Humor the guy. And he wanted me to do Michael. I thought, OK, I'll go along with this. I said, yes, Francis, good. You know how they talk to you when you're slipping? They say, 'Yes! Of course! Yes!' But he wasn't. It was the truth. And then I was given the part."

When Marlon Brando, as Don Corleone, purchases some oranges on the street (just before the gunmen attack him) a storefront sign advertises a fight featuring Jake LaMotta. Robert DeNiro, who will go on to play the young Corleone in The Godfather Part II will go on to play Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. Of course DeNiro will earn Oscars for both The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull.

Olivia Hussey was considered by casting director Fred Roos for the role of Apollonia. Francis Ford Coppola originally wanted Stefania Sandrelli, but she turned it down.

When Paramount Pictures approached Otto Preminger to direct, he wanted Frank Sinatra to play Don Corleone.

Sidney J. Furie was originally in line to direct. Producer Albert S. Ruddy had just come off Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) with Furie, and was handed the task of producing after that film had been brought in under budget and under schedule. Ruddy personally requested Furie to direct the picture, but Francis Ford Coppola's Italian heritage won the day.

David Carradine and Dean Stockwell screentested for the role of Michael Corleone.

Francis Ford Coppola invited Italian superstar singer Mina to play Kay Adams. She turned down the offer as she was not interested in an acting career. The role ultimately went to Diane Keaton.

William Devane was in the running for the part of Moe Greene.

Peter Donat, Martin Sheen, Roy Thinnes, Barry Primus, Robert Vaughn, Richard Mulligan, Keir Dullea, Dean Stockwell, Jack Nicholson, and James Caan were considered for the role of Tom Hagen. John Cassavetes and Peter Falk also sought the role. Of those actors, only Donat ultimately appeared in The Godfather: Part II (1974), in the role of Questadt.

Al Martino, who plays Johnny Fontane in the movie, was not director Francis Ford Coppola's first choice for the role. However, Martino used his connections with organized crime boss Russell Bufalino to get the role. Bufalino would later be portrayed by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's movie The Irishman (2019), which also stars Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa.

William Reynolds edited the first half of the film, Peter Zinner the second.

Ten percent of the film was shot on soundstages at Filmways Studio lot in New York City.

Just like in the movie, James Caan (Sonny) is older than Al Pacino (Michael) though it was only for a month ( both actors were born in 1940). Also, Marlon Brando ( born 1924 ) who played their on-screen father is only 16 years older than both of them and only 11 years older than John Cazale, who also played one of his on-screen son Fredo.

It was revealed in the novel that Appolonia was one month pregnant by the time she was killed in the car bombing meant for Michael.

During casting there was an attempt to fill most of the main and supporting roles with ethic Italians, but eventually of the five main characters cast only Al Pacino fit the bill. However, the majority of the supporting players were of Italian origin.

In the exterior scene at the Las Vegas Hotel (before Michael Corleone meets with Moe Greene), Fredo Corleone, Michael, Tom Hagen, and Al Neri are seen briefly exiting the car at the Hotel entrance. The man wearing the yellow jacket and who appears to be Fredo, is not actually actor John Cazale. Similarly, the scene also shows a stand-in for Tom emerging from the vehicle, as the man has gray hair and is clearly not Robert Duvall. For some reason, when this exterior scene was scheduled to be shot, John Cazale and Robert Duvall either weren't available or stand-ins were used to save costs. Director Francis Ford Coppola or the Assistant Director wisely shot the scene with the focus on Al Pacino as Michael, and avoided frontal camera views of Fredo and Tom to maintain the illusion that the original actors were appearing in the scene.

Frank Puglia was originally cast as Bonasera, but had to back out due to illness.

Aram Avakian was originally hired as the film's editor, but was fired after disagreements with Coppola.

Sofia Coppola's debut as an actress.

Salvatore Corsitto was hired from an open casting call.

Franco Nero met with Francis Ford Coppola in London over playing Sollozzo.

Charlie Bluhdorn, the President of Gulf + Western, wanted Charles Bronson to play Michael Corleone.

Ben Key and Eddy Westcott are both huge fans, and have even said in interviews that they based their characters in The Two Of Us (2018) on Al Pacino and Marlon Brando in this movie, respectively.

James Caan says that he walked out of an initial screening after realizing director Francis Ford Coppola cut a key scene involving Robert Duvall and him. He stated: "When Michael [Al Pacino] tells me he is going to take care of the cop and Sollozzo [Al Lettieri], I say, 'You'll get brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.' There was a scene before in the same room that I had with Bobby [Duvall] that was like 10 pages long -- and Francis cut all of it out!" Caan told The Hollywood Reporter in honor of "The Godfather"'s 50th anniversary. "I was so pissed off, I couldn't watch the rest of the film." Caan added, "But otherwise, [Coppola] gave me a great honor."

Aldo Ray was considered for the role of Sonny Corleone.

In the Godfather, Vito Corleone played by the legend Marlon Brando picked up a cat but it was actually a stray and was not supposed to be in the film. Director Francis Ford Coppola found the cat roaming in the studio lot of Paramount and he decided to put the cat in one of the scenes. It was never in the script or anywhere, to include the cat but it was later included by Coppola. The only downside, though, was that the cat was purring so loudly that you could not hear the actors' dialogues, especially Brando's. His lines had to be looped or basically dubbed. Otherwise, the cat was both a great and a subtle addition to the scene. It has really good symbolism attached to it. At first, Corleone happily plays with the cat and also listens to its requests and offers and gives everything to the cat but then there comes a point when all the fun is over.... This is compared to what he does with the human beings around him. Don Vito Corleone is someone who has POWER.

Italia Coppola's debut.

The church baptism scene was filmed in two locations on Staten Island, NY. The interior scenes were filmed inside of St Patrick's church in the Richmond Town section. The exterior scene was shot at The Old Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne on the grounds of Mount Lorretto in the Pleasant Plains section of Staten Island. This church burned down in 1973 and a new church was rebuilt in its place in 1976 using the old facade.

Gray Frederickson: The film's associate producer as the cowboy in the studio when Tom Hagen encounters Studio Head Woltz for the first time.

Because Corleone, Sicily, was too developed, even in the early 1970s, the Sicilian town of Savoca, outside Taormina, was used for shooting the scenes where Michael is in exile in Italy.

Animal rights activists protested the horse's head scene. Francis Ford Coppola told Variety, "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."

Gordon Willis insisted that every shot represent a point of view, usually setting his camera about four feet off the ground, keeping the angle flat and even. Francis Ford Coppola managed to get him to do one aerial shot in the scene when Don Vito Corleone is gunned down, telling Willis that the overhead shot represented God's point of view.

Don Corleone's death scene, while it featured in the novel, was originally not to appear in the film because studio executives felt that the audience would see the funeral and know what had happened. Francis Ford Coppola shot the scene with three cameras in a private residence on Long Island (the makeshift garden itself was created from scratch and torn down immediately after shooting), with Marlon Brando ad-libbing his lines.

According to interviews in the Coppola Restoration DVD set, the film was originally planned with an intermission due to its three-hour length. The intermission would have happened immediately after Michael murders Solozzo and McClusky, which explains the operatic instrumental that begins playing when Michael is shown fleeing the restaurant, as well as the ensuing "newspaper" montage, which would have been the first scene post-intermission.

James Caan was angry that scenes giving Sonny more depth (such as his reaction to his father's shooting) were cut from the film. He confronted Robert Evans at the premiere and yelled at him, "Hey, you cut my whole fuckin' part out". Caan claimed that forty-five minutes of his character were cut.

According to Francis Ford Coppola on the DVD commentary, the intercutting of the baptism scene with the gang killings during the movie's climax did not really work until editor Peter Zinner added the organ soundtrack.

Moe Greene was modelled after Jewish mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, although Siegel was not known for wearing glasses. Both were assassinated with a shot through the eye, with the glasses worn by Greene being necessary in order to accomplish the special effect eye shot.

Al Pacino wore a foam latex facial appliance that covered his entire left cheek and was made up with colors to match his skin tone and give the effect of bruising, to simulate the effect of having his jaw broken by Captain McCluskey.

According to Albert S. Ruddy, Marlon Brando "loved the people on Mott Street and they loved him". An enormous crowd gathered to witness the scene of the Don's attempted assassination. When he collapsed, those assembled gasped, then cheered wildly. Reports suggest that the scene had to be re-shot numerous times, as the audience couldn't control their applause at Brando's performance. When it was completed, Brando bowed to a cheering crowd.

According to Al Pacino in The Godfather Family: A Look Inside (1990), he nearly got fired midway through filming. At the time, Paramount Pictures executives only saw the early scenes of Michael at the wedding and were exclaiming, "When is he going to do something?" When they finally saw the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant, they changed their minds, and Pacino got to keep his job.

McCluskey's death was achieved by building a fake forehead onto Sterling Hayden's head. A gap was cut in the center and filled with fake blood, then capped off with a plug of prosthetic flesh. When the scene was being filmed, the plug was quickly yanked out using monofilament fishing line which doesn't show up on film. The effect was to make it look like a bloody hole suddenly appeared on Hayden's head.

Each of the weddings guests who makes a request of Vito Corleone is called upon later in the film to return the favor. Nazorine the Baker asks for help arranging for Enzo to stay in America and marry his daughter. Enzo himself later arrives at the hospital, first with flowers, and then helps Michael to bluff McCluskey's assassination attempt. Johnny Fontaine, in return for a film role that revives his career, is signed to appear at Michael's casinos. Bonasera, who comes to avenge the attempted rape and beating of his daughter, is called upon to prepare Sonny's body for his funeral.

Sonny's death scene offers up a clue to the fact that Carlo set him up. When Sonny beat up Carlo, he finished by kicking him in the face. After Sonny has been shot dead, one of his killers kicks him across the face.

Sonny Corleone's death scene at a highway toll booth was to take place on the Jones Beach Causeway, but was filmed on a small airport runway at Mitchell Field on Long Island. The scene was the most expensive in the movie to set up and film, for it cost over $100,000 to set up, and was finished in just one take from multiple camera angles. The large billboard next to the toll booth was set up to hide the appearance of a modern high-rise building in the background. According to Joe Gelmis, one hundred ten squibs and sacks of blood were deployed all over James Caan's body. Plus there were over two hundred drilled holes in his car, a 1941 Lincoln, filled with squibs to simulate the ambush attack.

When writing the novel, Mario Puzo either directly or indirectly borrowed ideas from real-life Mafia stories. Specifically, he borrowed a lot of from the life of New York City gangster "Crazy" Joe Gallo, including the dynamics of he and his brothers. In the movie, Sonny is the "hot head" (Like Crazy Joe), Michael is the thoughtful and intelligent one (Like Larry Gallo), and Fredo is the dimwit (Like Michael Gallo). Also, terms like "Sleeping with the fishes" and "Hitting the mattresses" came from the lives of the Gallos. An associate of the Gallos was killed while on a fishing trip with friends, and the Gallos were sent a fish wrapped in a box just as when Sonny gets Luca Brasi's bulletproof vest with a fish. When the Gallos revolted against their boss, Joe Profaci, they went to war and rented apartments stocked with mattresses. In real-life, after Joe Gallo saw the movie, he actually considered suing Mario Puzo and Paramount Pictures for ripping off details of his life for their story. However, this never came to pass, as "Crazy" Joe Gallo was murdered on April 7, 1972, almost a full month after the movie's New York City premiere.

Francis Ford Coppola cast Simonetta Stefanelli after skipping away from her screentest like a young girl. She summed up her part, "I met him, I married him, I died."

While filming in Little Italy, Marlon Brando developed a taste for the spicy squid with marinara sauce from Vincent's. In the scene where Vito leans over Sonny's dead body, Brando is holding a carton of the delicacy out of range.

Michael Corleone continually drinks water in the first two films, hinting that he is diabetic. He later suffers a diabetic coma in the third film.

After Michael does the assassination, they originally planned an intermission, but director Francis Ford Coppola thought that it would just slow down the pace of the film.

For the Don's funeral, twenty limos and 150 extras were used, with flowers costing over $1,000 each.

During the famous restaurant scene in which Michael Corleone shoots Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, the screeching sound of an elevated train can be heard throughout the sequence. The sound effect was added in post-production by Francis Ford Coppola and film editor Walter Murch in order to heighten the scene's tension. Unbeknownst to them, there is an actual set of elevated train tracks right in front of the filming location, 3531 White Plains Road in the Bronx.

Ryan O'Neal was considered briefly for the role of Michael Corleone.

The most troublesome scenes were shot on the very narrow Mott Street with sidewalks jammed with merchant's wares. This was where Don Corleone exits his olive oil factory and is gunned down.

In the novel and the screenplay, Sonny's death was a flashback. Sonny drives to the tollbooth, then Tom calls Bonasera to reclaim the Don's favor, and then the assassination occurs.

As the Corleones prepare for the hit on Sollozzo and McCluskey, they face a problem because they don't know where the meeting between them and Michael will be held, and they won't know where to plant the gun. Sonny then suggests they "just blast whoever's in the car." Which foreshadows his death later in the movie.