The Godfather/Trivia: Difference between revisions

* [[Easter Egg]]: In the [[The Godfather (video game)|videogame]], on the mission where you help protect Vito in the hospital, if you go up to Vito's room while Michael is talking to him and listen in, the conversation is one of [[Marlon Brando]]'s last recorded performances. A [[The Other Darrin|Marlon Brando soundalike]] was used for Vito's other scenes.

* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: In the "Woltz's bedroom" scene, John Marley (who played Woltz) was not told that they would be using an actual horse head for the scene, as they had used various props in rehearsals.

** According to Coppola & Puzo, ''The Godfather Part III'' was meant to be titled ''The Death of Michael Corleone'' to highlight the fact that it did not follow on directly from ''Part II'', but rather was meant to be "[[Distant Finale|an epilogue]]." They were overruled, with executives saying "You can't make a Godfather movie without 'The Godfather' in the title!" This after Coppola had to '''demand''' the second film be titled ''The Godfather Part II'' instead of something else.

** This also occurred during the first film as well. Stanley R. Jaffe, who was then Paramount's executive vice president and chief operations officer, along with producer Robert Evans, frequently fought with Coppola over creative matters during the film, from his decision to cast Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in the main roles, to his editing of the final product. It got so bad, that Coppola had to have the film's on-set physician prescribe him sleeping pills in order to combat his stress related insomnia.

** Luca Brasi may sleep with the fishes, but Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) ''is'' [[Barney Miller|Fish]].

** For the younger audiences Joey Zasa is [[Criminal Minds|Rossi]] and also [[The Simpsons|Fat Tony]].

* [[Playing Against Type]]: Michael (especially in Part Two) is a more subdued and quieter role than what [[Al Pacino]] usually plays. This, ironically, was also Pacino's first major role. It could be considered an actor-specific and positive example of [[Early Installment Weirdness]].

* [[Refitted for Sequel]]: Vito's backstory in ''Part II'' is taken from scenes left out of the original novel.

** Robert DeNiro (Young Vito) in ''Part II''.

* [[Throw It In]]:

** Clemenza's famous "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli" was ad-libbed by Richard Castellano.

** In the "You can act like a man!" scene, Vito suddenly jumping, shaking and slapping Johnny Fontane was an improvisation by Brando. Fontane's surprised face was unusable and is never shown, only his back.

** Originally Clemenza was to return in ''Part II'' but the actor made too many demands and he was replaced with Pentangeli. Given the scenes of Clemenza bonding with Michael and {{spoiler|advising him on his first hit}} in the first film it would have made the events of the second even more tragic.

** Brando was supposed to appear in the birthday party flashback at the end of ''Part II''. But due to a dispute with Paramount he never turned up for the shoot, forcing Coppola to rewrite the scene on the spot.

*** Actually not as crazy as thought, in the book Michael is described as looking rather un-Italian with fair hair.

** Coppola wanted to make a fourth movie similar to Part II but focusing on the Corleones' rise to power under Vito and Sonny's leadership, and the fall of the Corleone empire under Vincent, but many of the actors were disinterested and it was abandoned with the [[Author Existence Failure|death of Mario Puzo]].