The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay with Commentary on Every Scene, Interviews, and Little-Known Facts
Page 14
All is silent. The WOMEN and CHILDREN, dressed in Sunday clothes, wait.
EXT DAY: AMBULANCE
One ambulance, speeding along the Grand Central Parkway.
EXT DAY: MALL
The CORLEONE WOMEN and CHILDREN move toward the gate when they hear the sirens.
INT DAY: DON’S HALL
Inside the main CORLEONE house:
Hospital ORDERLIES carry THE DON on his stretcher carefully, under the watchful eyes of CLEMENZA, TESSIO, HAGEN, and various GUARDS and BUTTON MEN.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Makeup artist Dick Smith recalls the great practical joke from this scene: “They had two actors—pretty strong guys—to play the nurses. When the gurney was brought in with Brando, they wheeled it in just fine, but then they were confronted with those stairs, and they would have to carry him and the gurney up the stairs along a hallway. So these two guys dressed in their white suits tried to carry it up, just with Marlon in it, and it was too heavy for them and they had to stop. Francis Coppola said they had to get someone really strong, and looked over at the stage hands, who promptly brag, ‘Yeah, sure, piece of cake.’ They get taken off to wardrobe. At this point, Marlon says, ‘Hey, let’s have a little fun!’ He pulls up the gurney mattress and the crew loads in as many sandbags as possible. Once it was well loaded, Marlon got back on, lay down, and pulled the blankets up. Coppola, very businesslike, tells the crew men to pick up the gurney, go up the stairs, and ‘remember, don’t stop.’ ‘Yeah, sure,’ they say with bravado. We were all watching and holding our breath, while they’re exerting all the strength they have. Of course, they’re strong and they do it. But when the shot was completed, they yelled, ‘What in the hell did you put in here?!’ With both Brando and the sandbags, the stretcher weighed over five hundred pounds.”
BRANDO JOKES AFTER LOADING HIS STRETCHER WITH SANDBAGS.
All the CORLEONE Family is here today: MAMA, FREDO, SONNY, SANDRA, THERESA, CONNIE, CARLO; the various CORLEONE CHILDREN.
ORDERLY
Okay, you take over.
INT DAY: DON’S BEDROOM
THE DON is made comfortable in his room, which has all but been converted into a hospital room, complete with extensive equipment. The various CHILDREN get a turn to kiss the OLD MAN.
A LITTLE GIRL approaches the bed.
LITTLE GIRL
I love you, Grandpa.
SANDRA approaches the bed with a screaming BABY.
SANDRA
I’m sorry, Pa; he doesn’t know you yet.
MAMA kisses the BABY on the head. Then SONNY approaches, carrying a BOY with a piece of paper.
SONNY
All right. Hey, big guy, give it to Grandpa.
FRANKIE
(reading)
Okay. I hope you get well, Grandpa, and I wish I were to see you soon. Love, your grandson, Frank.
FRANKIE
(kisses THE DON)
MAMA
Ohhh! You …
SONNY indicates that all the CHILDREN, WOMEN, and CARLO should leave. They do; the door is closed.
SONNY
Go with your mother. Go ahead, take ‘em downstairs. Nah. Go on, Carlo, you too. Go on.
INT DAY: DON’S KITCHEN
The mood is quite happy downstairs as the WOMEN prepare the Sunday dinner.
SANDRA
(to CONNIE)
… do you want all of that chicken cacciatore for your … I know, but how much can you eat?
EXT DAY: MALL
SOME of the CORLEONE GRANDCHILDREN play in the enclosed MALL, in the proximity of the BUTTON MEN stationed liberally by the gate.
ONE CHILD misses a ball and it rolls by the gatehouse. A young BUTTON MAN scoops it up and throws it back, smiling.
INT DAY: DON’S DINING ROOM
CARLO sits alone, a frown on his face. Connie approaches him, eating a piece of bread.
CONNIE
What’s the matter with you, Carlo?
CARLO
Shut up and set the table.
“… I thought it would be an interesting contrast to play him as a gentle man, unlike Al Capone, who beat up people with baseball bats. … I saw him as a man of substance, tradition, dignity, refinement, a man of unerring instinct who just happened to live in a violent world and who had to protect himself and his family in this environment.”
—Marlon Brando, on playing Don Corleone, in his autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me
INT DAY: DON’S BEDROOM
SONNY, HAGEN, FREDO, TESSIO, and CLEMENZA stand around the hospital bed with grim faces, SONNY and HAGEN closest to the OLD MAN. THE DON holds the children’s get-well cards and presents. THE DON does not speak, yet he asks questions with his looks and glances as clearly as if they were verbalized. HAGEN is the spokesman for the family.
HAGEN
Since McCluskey’s killing, the police have been cracking down on most of our operations. And also the other Families. There’s been a lot of bad blood.
SONNY
They hit us, so we hit ‘em back.
HAGEN
Through our contacts in the newspapers, we’ve been able to put out a lot o’ material about McCluskey being linked with Sollozzo in the drug rackets. See, things are startin’ to loosen up.
SONNY
And I’m sending Fredo to Las Vegas, under the protection of Don Francesco of L.A.
(puts his hand on FREDO’s shoulder)
I want him to rest.
FREDO
I’m goin’ to learn the casino business.
SONNY
Yeah.
DON CORLEONE
(whispers)
Where’s Michael?
HAGEN hesitates, glances at SONNY, and then leans in to THE DON.
HAGEN
It was Michael who killed Sollozzo. But he’s safe. We’re starting to work to bring him back now.
THE DON is very angry. He shakes his head, closes his eyes, and then motions with a weak hand that they leave him alone.
The MEN exit.
“I remember when Marlon had been cast, he was doing a movie in England, and for some reason Francis and I had to go talk to him about something. He was on location in the countryside, staying at this house, and as we were walking into the house we started hearing that voice, speaking like the Don—the voice from the movie, with that accent. I don’t know if Marlon staged it for us, but he was in the bathtub just practicing his speech delivery. Francis had given him a lot of audio and videotapes of Senate hearings where these Godfather capos had been testifying, so Marlon took an amalgam of them and created his own version of a Mafia don.”
—Casting director Fred Roos, in a 2007 interview with the author
INT DAY: DON’S STAIRS AND HALL
HAGEN and SONNY come down the stairs. HAGEN seems upset and pensive, SONNY intense and angry.
SONNY
Did ya ever find out where that old pimp Tattaglia is hidin’? I want his ass now, right now!
HAGEN
(grabbing his hand to stop him)
Sonny—
SONNY
What?
HAGEN
Things are starting to loosen up a little bit. If you go after Tattaglia, all hell’s gonna break loose. Let—let the smoke clear. Pop can negotiate.
SONNY
(overlaps)
No, Pop can’t do nothing till he’s better! I’m gonna decide what’s gonna be done …
HAGEN
(overlaps)
All right, but your war is costing us a lot of money; nothing’s coming in! We can’t do business.
SONNY
Well, neither can they! Don’t worry about it.
HAGEN
(overlaps)
They don’t have our overhead!
SONNY
(overlaps)
Please don’t worry about it!
HAGEN
(overlaps; furiously)
We can’t afford a stalemate!
SONNY
&
nbsp; Well, then there ain’t no more stalemate! I’m gonna end it by killin’ that old bastard! I’m gonna …
HAGEN
Yeah, you’re getting a great reputation. I hope you’re enjoying it.
SONNY
(overlaps)
Will you just do what I tell you to do?! Goddamn it! If I had a wartime consigliere, a Sicilian, I wouldn’t be in this shape! Pop had Genco. Look what I got.
(exhales)
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. Ma made a little dinner, it’s Sunday …
HAGEN storms off. SONNY follows.
INT DAY: DON’S DINING ROOM
The FAMILY—WIVES, CHILDREN, and all—sit around the table over Sunday dinner. SONNY is at the head of the table.
SONNY
You know the niggers are havin’ a good time with our policy banks up there in Harlem—drivin’ them new Cadillacs, payin’ fifty percent on a bet.
CARLO
I knew that was gonna happen soon as they started makin’ big money.
SONNY
Yeah …
CONNIE
Well, Papa never talked business at the table in front of the kids.
CARLO
Hey, shut up, Connie, when Sonny’s talkin’ …
SONNY
(overlaps)
Hey! Don’t you ever tell her to shut up. You got that?
CHILD
… cake.
MAMA
(overlaps, puts a hand up)
Santino, don’t interfere.
CARLO
Look, Sonny, Tom, I’d like to talk to you maybe after dinner. I could be doin’ a lot more for the Family.
SONNY
We don’t discuss business at the table.
“I like the idea of starting the movie … with, ‘I believe in America,’ because it’s what the whole movie is about. It’s saying that our country should be our family in a way, that it should afford us the protection and the honor that, in a strange way, this Mafia Family does; but that we should look to our country in this way.”
—Coppola, in a preproduction meeting
INT: DON’S BEDROOM
FREDO slowly enters. He sits in a chair next to a fruit basket, watching his FATHER. THE DON still lies in his bed, holding the cards. His eyes move but he doesn’t speak.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT DAY: ESTABLISHING SICILY SHOT
“We are in Sicily in the Springtime. We consider the land itself; ancient, with beautiful views of the sea; in part arid, and now, in the Springtime, abundant. Most of all a feeling of its ancient rituals and roots.”
—Coppola’s notebook
LONG SHOT: In the distance are three MEN walking across the Sicilian countryside. Slightly more in the foreground, sheep are herded. A MEDIUM SHOT reveals MICHAEL, with two Sicilian SHEPHERDS, each carrying a shotgun slung over his shoulder—CALO, a squat and husky young man with a simple, honest quality, and FABRIZIO, slender and handsome, likable. A car pulls up and stops. FABRIZIO opens the door for a stout older man, DON TOMMASINO, who exits the car.
The men speak in Italian with SUBTITLES:
FABRIZIO
I kiss your hand, Don Tommasino.
DON TOMMASINO
Why are you so far from the house? You know I’m responsible to your father for your life.
MICHAEL
The bodyguards are here.
DON TOMMASINO
It’s still dangerous … We’ve heard from Santino in New York … Your enemies know you’re here.
MICHAEL
Did Santino say when I can go back?
DON TOMMASINO
Not yet. It’s out of the question.
MICHAEL
(pats his shoulder and turns to leave)
Grazie.
DON TOMMASINO
Where are you going now?
MICHAEL
Corleone.
DON TOMMASINO
Take my car.
MICHAEL
No. I want to walk.
DON TOMMASINO
Be careful.
NINO ROTA’S MUSIC FOR THE GODFATHER
Paramount executive Robert Evans was determined to have Henry Mancini, who had recently scored Paramount’s Darling Lili and The Molly Maguires, score The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola wanted Nino Rota, who had scored some of the greatest Italian films in history, from Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard to Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, but he was a totally unknown quantity in Hollywood.
Evans relented, but when the Rota score was cut into the film, he loathed it and demanded it be taken out. The snag caused a standoff, and neither party would give in. Over a period of a week or so, Coppola and postproduction consultant Walter Murch would show up at Evans’s house, sit by the pool (eating hot dogs served up by Evans’s wife, Ali MacGraw), and wait for a break in the impasse. Murch’s wife even egged them on, saying if they didn’t save their music, then they didn’t have a “pair of balls between them.” Coppola bluffed—insisting that Paramount would have to fire him and hire a new director in order to take the music out. Finally, he hit upon the idea of a private test screening of the film with a small group of the general public, suggesting that if the audience didn’t like the music, he would step back and let Paramount choose the score. Of course, the audience loved it—along with the movie as a whole.
The haunting Rota score was initially nominated for an Academy Award®. However, the Academy discovered that Rota had recycled about seven minutes of music from an obscure Italian film (Fortunella) for the love theme. According to producer Albert Ruddy, they got a tip from some jealous friends in Italy. Coppola blames the Hollywood establishment, “the Mafia of the Academy,” who had it in for Rota. The nomination was thrown out. Rota did, however, win a Grammy for the score.
The theme has been endlessly imitated and embraced. Slash of Guns N’ Roses is a big fan and plays his own version of the theme song at his live shows.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT DAY: COUNTRYSIDE
MICHAEL, CALO, and FABRIZIO are walking.
DISSOLVE TO:
The THREE walk up a hillside.
DISSOLVE TO:
They continue their long hike. CALO gestures to a grim Sicilian village, almost devoid of people, high on a promontory.
CALO
Michele, Corleone.
SHOOTING IN SICILY
Gray Frederickson, the assistant director for the Italy sequences, had lived on the eastern coast of Sicily and was familiar with Catania. The town of Corleone wasn’t picturesque enough, and he recommended Taormina. Production designer Dean Tavoularis looked at Corleone anyway, but it seemed to be somewhat of a gangster town. The locations the production used were Savoca, Forza d’Agro (used for village scenes), Francavilla, and Nunziata (villa scenes). The key personnel went to Sicily on July 22, with the cast following on the 24th. The Sicilian scenes were all shot in a sunny landscape, with different exposure levels and camera filters, meant to convey a gentler, more romantic look than the New York scenes. Although the Sicily scenes were scheduled for a ten-day shoot, with a wrap party at a pizza restaurant on August 5, the shoot took longer than originally planned because it was overcast. The crew had to wait for the sun to come out in order to get the look they needed.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT DAY: CORLEONE STREET
MICHAEL and his bodyguards move through the empty streets of the village. They move through a very narrow old street. MICHAEL looks at the doorways they pass. Each door has a plaque with a ribbon.
The men speak in Italian with SUBTITLES:
MICHAEL
Where have all the men gone?
CALO
They’re dead from vendettas.
CALO
(gesturing to a plaque next to a Communist banner)
There are the names of the dead.
They continue to walk through the barren town square.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT DAY: ROAD
The TRIO continu
es down a dirt road as an American military convoy speeds by. FABRIZIO waves and calls out to each of the U.S. drivers as they move by.
FABRIZIO
Hey, America! Take me to the America, GI! Hey! … Hey, hey, hey! Take me to the America, GI! Clark Gable, hey! America, America, take me to the America, GI! Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth! (SPEAKS SICILIAN)
DELETED SCENE
ADAPTATION AND THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Several Sicily scenes in the shooting script do not appear in the 1972 movie, such as: a procession of communist peasants carrying red banners; Michael looking for his father’s boyhood house in Corleone and discovering the place is deserted (both scenes were included in The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980); and a scene in which Michael and his bodyguards are eating lunch in an orange grove, and Fabrizio asks Michael about America. This scene was included in The Godfather 1902–1959: The Complete Epic and The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980. A similar scene appeared in the shooting script, at this juncture in the film.
Note: The men speak in Italian with SUBTITLES.
FABRIZIO
Tell us something about New York.
MICHAEL
How do you know I’m from New York?
FABRIZIO
We heard. Somebody told us you were real important—(in English) a big-a shot.
MICHAEL
I’m the son of a big shot.
FABRIZIO
Is America as rich as they say?
CALO
Stop bothering me with this rich America stuff!
FABRIZIO
(in English)
Hey, take me to the America! If you need a good lupara in America,
(pats his shotgun).
take me, I’ll be the best man you can got.
(SINGS) OH SAY, CAN YOU SEEE...BY DA STARS EARLY LIGHT...
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT DAY: SICILIAN COUNTRYSIDE
The MEN cross into a grove. There is a group of young village GIRLS accompanied by two stocky MATRONS, dressed in black. They have been gathering pink sulla and purple wisteria, and mixing them with orange and lemon blossoms. They are singing, off in the distance as they walk down the road.