The blood effect was created using Karo corn syrup mixed with red food coloring. By the end of the four-hour shoot, the bed was a sea of blood. Months after production ended, John Marley admitted in Variety: “I still see it.”
Coppola recognized the importance of Woltz’s scream in this scene. He wrote in his notebook that it should be LOUD (underlined four times), and edited an abrupt cut from the scream to a calm shot of Don Corleone—very effectively illustrating the Don’s cold-bloodedness. In an effort to tone down the scene’s violent impact, when the film was broadcast on television, the network cut out Woltz’s slow awakening, although not the head or the scream.
The construction of this scene in the film was different from both the book and shooting script written prior to production. As with many violent scenes in The Godfather, the episode was originally structured as a flashback—in other words, the audience sees the impact of a situation before the situation itself is described. The book begins the scene with a frenzied and frantic Woltz phoning Hagen and piling on verbal abuse (e.g., “guinea fuck”). The horse-head-in-the-bed scene occurs subsequently. Similarly, the shooting script first has the scene of the Don receiving flowers from Johnny, announcing he got the movie part, which is followed by the scene in Woltz’s bed. Throughout Coppola’s notebook, he repeatedly comes back to this issue of overlaps and how to most effectively and coherently incorporate them into the film. The finished film, without these flashbacks, has a more direct, linear route to the denouement, which allows the tension to build systematically.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The Academy Award® on Woltz’s bedside table: merely a prop, or Coppola’s Best Screenplay Oscar®, awarded for Patton a month before the scene was shot?
GOOFS, GAFFES, AND BLOOPERS
Some viewers of The Godfather have assumed there is a continuity mistake in Woltz’s bedroom, as the white patch on the horse’s forehead is not clearly visible. However, this is more likely due to the amount of prop blood. There do seem to be a few continuity blunders, as patches of blood inexplicably appear in long shots. Coppola has admitted to misreading this scene in the book, and thought the head was right with Woltz in the bed. Actually, in the book Puzo had it written as “far down at the foot of his bed.” Coppola wanted to create the effect of Woltz (and the viewers) being unsure at first if it is Woltz himself who is injured.
ADAPTATION AND THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
A brief scene that was filmed but does not appear in the 1972 movie concerns Woltz deflowering a young starlet. The scene where Woltz presents the girl with a pony was included in The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980. The change meant that a subsequent scene referencing it, in which Hagen reports back to the Don about the Woltz episode, also had to be trimmed. The edited portion included dialogue about what it means to be a Sicilian. In Puzo’s novel, when Vito asks Hagen if Woltz “has real balls,” Hagen ponders what he means: “Did Jack Woltz have the balls to risk everything, to run the chance of losing all on a matter of principle, on a matter of honor; for revenge?” Hagen translates the question: “You’re asking if he is a Sicilian. No.”
A brief episode of Connie weeping, with Mama Corleone reporting that she and her spouse have had another fight, also doesn’t appear.
EXT DAY: WOLTZ ESTATE
DISSOLVE TO:
INT NIGHT: DON’S LIVING ROOM
CLOSE VIEW on THE DON, who raises his eyebrow and nods.
DON CORLEONE
You’re not too tired, are you, Tom?
HAGEN and SONNY sit on the couch. SONNY munches on nuts throughout.
HAGEN
Ah, no. I slept on the plane.
DON CORLEONE
Yeah?
HAGEN
I have the Sollozzo notes here. Now, Sollozzo is known as The Turk. He’s supposed to be very good with a knife …
EXT DAY: GENCO OLIVE OIL CO.
An unimposing little building on Mott Street in New York City, with a large old sign: “GENCO,” across from an open-faced fruit market.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS: PRODUCTION DETAIL
The Genco Olive Oil Company set was built at Filmways Studios, and then mounted on the fourth floor of an old loft building on Mott Street in Little Italy (now Chinatown).
A dark Buick pulls up and a single small man, who we cannot see well because of the distance, gets out and enters the building. This is VIRGIL SOLLOZZO.
HAGEN’S VOICE
… but only in matters of business, with some sort of reasonable complaint. His business is narcotics.
INT DAY: OLIVE OIL OFFICES
Looking toward the staircase, we can hear SOLLOZZO’s FOOTSTEPS before he actually comes into view. He is very dark, with black hair. But he’s wiry, and tight and hard, and obviously very dangerous. He is greeted at the head of the stairs by SONNY, who takes his hand and shakes it, introducing himself.
HAGEN’S VOICE
He has fields in Turkey where they grow the poppy. In Sicily he has the plants to process them into heroin. He needs cash—he needs protection from the police for which he gives a piece of the action. I couldn’t find out how much. The Tattaglia Family is behind him here in New York. Now, they have to be in it for something.
SONNY
(introducing himself to SOLLOZZO)
Santino Corleone.
CAST AND CREW: BRANDO ON CUE
Brando didn’t want to memorize his oft-changing lines. He would often get rewrites the day of the shoot, and Coppola would come to the set armed with cue cards. In his autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando discusses how he used to memorize lines early in his career, but stopped when he found that overrehearsing spoiled his effectiveness as an actor. So, rather than memorizing a line, he concentrated on its meaning. After The Godfather was released, Brando and Coppola appeared on The Mike Douglas Show. Brando said, “I found it helpful not to know one single line and to have lines written on the boards—”
“And on the pocket and the body of another actor,” interrupted Coppola. On one occasion, Coppola added, he wondered why Brando was handling a melon in such a strange way. Then he noticed that the fruit actually had some dialogue written on it.
ROBERT DUVALL POSITIONS MARLON BRANDO’S CUE CARDS FOR THE SCENE.
INT NIGHT: DON’S LIVING ROOM
DON CORLEONE
How about his prison record?
HAGEN
Two terms: one in Italy, one here. He’s known as a top narcotics man.
DON CORLEONE
Santino, what do you think?
SONNY
There’s a lot of money in that white powder.
DON CORLEONE
Tom?
INT DAY: OLIVE OIL OFFICES
SOLLOZZO enters, followed by SONNY. He is introduced all around—first shaking hands with HAGEN. They enter THE DON’s glass-paneled office, where CLEMENZA, TESSIO, and FREDO formally shake SOLLOZZO’s hand.
HAGEN’S VOICE
Well, I say yes. There’s more money potential in narcotics than anything else we’re looking at. Now if we don’t get into it, somebody else will—maybe one of the Five Families, maybe all of them. Now, with the money they earn …
INT NIGHT: DON’S LIVING ROOM
HAGEN
… they can buy more police and political power. Then they come after us. Now we have the unions, we have the gambling—and they’re the best things to have—but narcotics is the thing of the future. Now if we don’t get a piece of that action, we risk everything we have, I mean, not now, but in ten years from now.
SONNY
So? What’s your answer gonna be, Pop?
“This scene should play like a poker game between the Cincinnati Kid and the old man.”
—Coppola’s notebook, setting up this scene to play to the audience’s fascination with being on the “inside” of a big deal
INT DAY: OLIVE OIL OFFICES
Sitting around in a circle: THE DON, SOLLOZZO, SONNY, HAGEN, FREDO, CLEMENZA, and TESSIO. THE DON is the slig
htest bit foolish with all his compatriots, whereas SOLLOZZO has brought no one. Throughout all that transpires, however, it is clear that this scene is between two men: SOLLOZZO and DON CORLEONE.
SOLLOZZO
There, Don Corleone, I need a man who has powerful friends. I need a million dollars in cash. I need, Don Corleone, those politicians that you carry in your pocket—like so many nickels and dimes.
DON CORLEONE
What is the interest for my Family?
SOLLOZZO
Thirty percent. In the first year your end should be three, four million dollars, and then it would go up.
DON CORLEONE
(sipping anisette)
And what is the interest for the Tattaglia Family?
SOLLOZZO nods toward HAGEN, who nods back.
SOLLOZZO
(to HAGEN)
My compliments.
(to THE DON)
I’ll take care of the Tattaglias. Outta my share.
DON CORLEONE
So, I receive thirty percent for finance, political influence, and legal protection. That’s what you’re telling me?
SOLLOZZO
That’s right.
DON CORLEONE
(shrugging his shoulders)
Why do you come to me? Why do I deserve this … generosity?
SOLLOZZO
If you consider a million dollars in cash just finance, te salud, Don Corleone.
SOLLOZZO raises his glass, smiling.
There is a long silence, in which each person present feels the tension. THE DON is about to give his answer.
THE DON rises and pours SOLLOZZO another glass of anisette, hands the bottle to SONNY, and sits back down.
ITALIANISMS
The anisette appearing in this scene was made by Francis Ford Coppola. In his childhood, his father made similar such bottles, and Coppola knew it had to be homemade because, to look authentic, it had to appear cloudy—this is what happens to anisette if a little water gets into it.
DON CORLEONE
I said that I would see you because I heard that you were a serious man, to be treated with respect.
(sits down)
But I must say no to you.
We feel this around the room.
DON CORLEONE
And I’ll give you my reasons: It’s true, I have a lot of friends in politics, but they wouldn’t be friendly very long if they knew my business was drugs instead of gambling, which they regard as a—a harmless vice; but drugs is a dirty business.
SOLLOZZO
Oh, Don Corleone …
DON CORLEONE
(interrupting)
It makes—it doesn’t make any difference to me what a man does for a living, understand. But your business is … a little dangerous.
SOLLOZZO
If you’re worried about security for your million, the Tattaglias’ll guarantee it.
This startles SONNY.
SONNY
(blurting out)
Oh, are you tellin’ me that the Tattaglias guarantee our invest—
THE DON raises his hand to stop SONNY.
DON CORLEONE
(interrupting)
Wait a minute.
Everyone in the room knows that SONNY has stepped out of line. THE DON gives him a withering glance. CLEMENZA, HAGEN, and SOLLOZZO’s eyes flicker.
DON CORLEONE
I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I’ve spoiled them, as you can see. They talk when they should listen. But, anyway, Signore Sollozzo, my no is final. And I wish to congratulate you on your new business; I know you’ll do very well. And good luck to me, especially since your interests don’t conflict with mine. Thank you.
SOLLOZZO nods, understands that this is the dismissal. He rises, as do the others. He bows to THE DON, shakes his hand, and formally takes his leave. As everyone else exits, THE DON turns to SONNY.
DON CORLEONE
Santino, come here. What’s the matter with you? I think your brain is goin’ soft from all that comedy you’re playin’ with that young girl. Never tell anybody outside the Family what you’re thinking again. Go on.
An enormous floral display is carried in.
DON CORLEONE
Tom, what—what is this nonsense?
HAGEN
It’s from Johnny—he’s starring in that new film.
DON CORLEONE
Ah. Take it away.
HAGEN
(to SOMEONE offscreen)
Take it over there.
The flowers are removed.
DON CORLEONE
And tell Luca Brasi to come in.
LUCA enters and sits down.
DON CORLEONE
I’m a little worried about this Sollozzo fellow. I want you to find out what he’s got under his fingernails, y’know? Go to the Tattaglias, make them think that you’re not too happy with our Family, and well, find out what you can.
LUCA nods and exits.
FADE OUT.
ADAPTATION AND THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
A scene was shot on June 28 at the St. Regis Hotel that doesn’t appear in the 1972 movie. Kay and Michael are in a hotel bed together; they call Hagen, pretending to still be in New Hampshire. The scene was included in The Godfather 1902–1959: The Complete Epic and The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980. In the shooting script written prior to filming, this scene includes a discussion of their impending wedding, a contrast to Connie’s lavish and traditional one: “quiet, civil ceremony at City Hall, no big fuss, no family, just a couple of friends as witnesses.” Michael also tells Tom that there’s something important he wants to tell his father before Christmas.
“I left the movie stunned, I mean, I floated out of the theater. Maybe it was fiction, but for me, then, that was our life … And not only the mob end, not just the mobsters and the killing and all that bullshit, but that wedding in the beginning, the music and the dancing, it was us, the Italian people!”
—Salvatore Gravano, in Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia
BEHIND THE SCENES:
THE LEAGUE
Soon after an Italian-American Unity Day rally at Columbus Circle in New York protested the representations of Italians as mobsters, Attorney General John Mitchell ordered that official Justice Department documents would not use the words Mafia or Cosa Nostra (translation: “Our Thing”). New York governor Nelson Rockefeller had a similar policy for state releases. Newspapers, movies, and TV often used alternative terminology as well, such as “the organization” or “underworld.”
The New York–based Italian-American Civil Rights League (aka the “League”) was the fastest-growing Italian-American organization in the United States. Before a Godfather director was even hired, the League, as well as other Italian associations, began campaigning against the film. Their concern was the defamation of their entire ethnic group.
In July of 1970, the League held a rally in Madison Square Garden. They raised $600,000 to stop the film and instituted a call to action.
The League, run by Joseph Colombo Sr., a self-titled real estate salesman, threatened Paramount with union trouble, economic boycotts, and pressure on government authorities to not cooperate. The executives—mostly Robert Evans and Charles Bluhdorn—received letters of complaint from the likes of the “Grand Venerable of the Grand Council of the Grand Lodge of New York State’s Sons of Italy.” Close to one hundred letters of protest came in to Paramount from senators, congressmen, and New York State legislators. The New York offices of Gulf+Western received bomb threats. Albert Ruddy, the Godfather producer, had the windows of his car blown out by a shotgun blast. It is ironic that such hardball tactics were used in an attempt to steer the studio away from stereotypical gangster images.
The League efforts began hindering production. Long Island’s Manhasset community was originally selected for the Corleone Mall location, but the township stonewalled. They refused permission for the property wall, and residents made impossible demands. In
essence, the location was sabotaged, and it cost the production $100,000 to change locations, as construction had already begun. Enough was enough. Albert Ruddy initiated a sit-down.
JOSEPH ANTHONY COLUMBO SR., HEAD OF THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEAGUE, IN 1971.
Ruddy met with Anthony Colombo (Joe’s son) at La Scala Restaurant on West 54th Street. He explained that the filmmakers were not going to defame Italian Americans, and even suggested Colombo read the script. Several League representatives showed up at his office, but none of them wanted to slog through the long screenplay. In the process of these meetings, the good-natured producer made a positive impression on them, so much so that they decided to go along with him—albeit not before first asking for numerous concessions, including that the film change Italian-sounding names to Americanized ones. Ruddy agreed to two of the demands: that all uses of the terms Mafia and Cosa Nostra be eliminated from the picture, and that proceeds from the premiere be designated to the League’s favorite charity. Ruddy asserts that the word Mafia was only in the script once anyway (during Jack Woltz’s tirade): “It didn’t mitigate the quality of the movie and was an easy thing to give up.” Obviously, the film was about the Mafia. As James Caan has said, “Nobody’s gonna think it’s a picture about the Irish Republican Army, that’s for sure.”
The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay with Commentary on Every Scene, Interviews, and Little-Known Facts Page 7