The Godfather/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • A real-life mob-boss was recently apprehended while he was playing the videogame adaptation.
  • Breakthrough Hit: Because of the original, you know who Francis Ford Coppola is.
  • Dawson Casting: An unusual 'reverse Dawson' - by the third film Mary Corleone should be in her mid to late twenties (she is about 5 in Part II which is 21 years before the start of Part III') but Sophia Coppala was still a teenager when she played her.
  • Easter Egg: In the 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 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.
  • Executive Meddling:
    • 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 "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.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
    • Luca Brasi may sleep with the fishes, but Sal Tessio (Abe Vigoda) is Fish.
    • For the younger audiences Joey Zasa is Rossi and also Fat Tony.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Coppola's reason for making all three films. He was head of a very unprofitable film company when he was offered the first one (offered purely on the grounds that he was Italian), and thought it was a stupid genre movie that he didn't want to waste his time on... but he really needed the money. Coppola wanted to now move away from the studio and focus on his personal film projects The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, which he could get finance for... Providing he made another Godfather film. Then many years later he was struggling with debts from failed projects... people went to see my Godfather movies, didn't they? Yeah, let's make another one of those. People sometimes cite this trope as a reason the third one sucked, but it was there the whole time.
  • 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.
  • Star-Making Role:
    • Al Pacino (Michael), Diane Keaton (Kay), John Cazale (Fredo), who sadly didn't get much time to enjoy it due to his early death from cancer.
    • Robert DeNiro (Young Vito) in Part II.
  • Troubled Production: Paramount was not helpful to Coppola at all.
  • What Could Have Been: Supposedly, Winona Ryder was cast as Mary but she opted instead to film Mermaids. Rebecca Schaeffer had an audition for the part of Mary scheduled for the day she was murdered.
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