He stops, and then laughs good-naturedly.
SONNY
Okay. What’s the matter with you? What’m I gonna do? I’m gonna make that baby an orphan before he’s born?
She, half crying, laughs with him, shaking her head.
SONNY
Hah? Hmm? All right?
CAST AND CREW: FRED ROOS
Francis Ford Coppola had a relationship with casting director Fred Roos prior to The Godfather, but only by telephone; Coppola would often call Roos to discuss various actors. Roos, who previously had cast such counterculture films as Five Easy Pieces and Two Lane Blacktop, recalls: “I guess he thought I was his kind of sensibility, so we had this bond on the phone. When he got the movie, he called up and said, ‘I just got this big movie.’” When they finally met face-to-face, the chemistry was great, and they embarked on a relationship that would span decades.
In an interview with the author in 2007, Roos reflected on his experience working with Coppola. “The Godfather was a longer casting process than most films I’ve done, but not to my annoyance. I’ve always believed that all films should take a long time in casting, and that you should be thorough. So, I was all for it. The casting process with Francis is always a lot of fun because we both like actors and therefore enjoy talking with them. These days, so many directors just look at videotape and never even meet the actors—but we like the real people. We would have long conversations with them, and it’s a fun time for us. Sometimes we get to talking to the actors for so long that we get backed up, and the other actors have to wait for an hour for their audition. They get all steamed up, but ultimately they get their time to talk as well.”
Roos had started his career in film as a producer in the 1960s, and after working as a casting director for several years, he took up the producing mantle once again. Since casting The Godfather, Roos has been a producer or consultant on nearly all of Coppola’s films, and he has carried on the tradition to the next generation as well, producing all of daughter Sofia Coppola’s feature films.
EXT DAY: CONNIE’S STREET
CARLO sits on the railing of the front steps of the 112th Street building with three business associates. The ball game is blaring from the radio, and the kids on the street are playing in water spraying from a fire hydrant.
CARLO
Those fat slobs still betting Yankees pretty heavy? Tell ‘em to stop taking action, all right? We lost enough money last week on the game.
A car comes screeching up the block and halts in front of the steps. A MAN comes hurtling out of the driver’s seat. It is SONNY. As soon as CARLO recognizes him, he takes off running. SONNY hurls a sawed-off wooden broom handle at CARLO.
SONNY
Carlo, c’mere, c’mere, c’mere!
SONNY chases CARLO across the street. He catches CARLO by the shoulders and throws him over an iron railing. CARLO crashes into trash cans. SONNY picks him up and throws him against a brick wall.
The kids who have been playing in the hydrant move up, watching in fascination. SONNY’S BODYGUARDS push them and other spectators out of the way.
SONNY is pounding the cowered CARLO with all his strength in a continuous monologue of indistinguishable cursing.
JAMES CAAN AND FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA REHEARSE THE SCENE OF SONNY BATTERING CARLO.
SONNY
You bastard!
As CARLO falls, he reaches out for the iron railing and hangs on, his hands in a lock. He cringes while SONNY repeatedly kicks him. SONNY’s tight fists are going down like hammers into CARLO’s face and body. CARLO’s nose is bleeding profusely, but still he does nothing, other than hang on to the railing. SONNY tries loosening CARLO’s locked hands, even biting them. CARLO screams but does not let go.
CARLO
Ahhhhhh!
SONNY grabs hold of CARLO’s leg and tries to drag him off the hold on the railing, his teeth clenched in the effort. It’s clear that CARLO is stronger than he is and will not be moved. SONNY picks up a trash can and throws it down on CARLO, then, holding him by the hair, smashes him in the face repeatedly with the lid until CARLO lets go and starts crawling into the street. SONNY kicks him three more times, until CARLO is right under the gushing fire hydrant. Totally out of breath, he stammers haltingly to the bleeding CARLO.
SONNY
Touch my sister again, I’ll kill ya.
SONNY gives CARLO one last kick, and CARLO rolls over on his back into the gutter. SONNY and the BODYGUARDS walk back to the car as the children stand looking at CARLO.
“We must really think that Sonny’s going to kill Carlo until here.”
—Coppola’s notebook, referring to the line “Touch my sister again …”
BEHIND THE SCENES
This scene was filmed at 118th Street and Pleasant Avenue, Manhattan. Caan asked the prop master to cut an industrial broom handle and put it in his car; it was his idea to throw it at Carlo. Caan must have performed the scene with gusto—even though much of it was shot with a stand-in and a stuntman, actor Gianni Russo, who played Carlo, received two cracked ribs and a chipped elbow for his efforts.
GOOFS, GAFFES, AND BLOOPERS
In the most famous technical mistake of the movie, now known as The Miss, one of Sonny’s punches misses Carlo by a mile—despite the clear audio of contact. Coppola laments that the gaffe was due to the film’s squeezed budget: “At that point we were just rushing, and it turned out that the best take had this one miss. Today they could fix it with digital effects.” The mistake is often parodied: in The Simpsons Marge beats up a mugger in the same style and sequence; Jay and Silent Bob do the same to Charles Barkley in an episode of Clerks: The Animated Series.
EXT DAY: VITELLI VILLAGE CHURCH
Church bells in an ancient belfry ring out. As the wedding ceremony between MICHAEL and APOLLONIA concludes, MUSIC plays, old and dissonant.
There is a bridal procession in the street of the village, the same in feeling and texture as it might have been five hundred years ago. First, a brass band; followed by FABRIZIO and CALO with their luparas; the wedding party, including a child wearing a white confirmation gown; women throwing rice; the men of the family, and DON TOMMASINO in a wheelchair; and countless townspeople. We present the entire bridal procession and ceremony with all the ritual and pageantry, as it has always been, in Sicily.
OVERHEAD SHOT of the procession through the town.
APOLLONIA is radiant as the bride; MICHAEL is handsome despite the grotesque jaw.
EXT DAY: VITELLI VILLAGE SQUARE
MICHAEL and APOLLONIA walk around the wide circle of guests. Then they dance in the great wedding celebration, smiling.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS: PRODUCTION DETAIL
Carmine Coppola composed the wedding music.
CAST AND CREW: GORDON WILLIS
According to Coppola, cinematographer Gordon Willis’s favorite shot was an overhead shot of the Sicilian countryside.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT NIGHT: MICHAEL’S ROOM IN VILLA
MICHAEL opens the shutters in his darkened room. He turns and there, in her wedding slip, is APOLLONIA—a little frightened, but lovely. MICHAEL moves to her, and for a moment just stands before her—looking at her incredible face, her lovely hair and body. Slowly and tenderly he kisses her. She lets her bridal slip fall to the floor. They kiss again, embracing.
ADAPTATION AND THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
Scenes that appear in the shooting script, but not in the 1972 movie:
The morning after the wedding, Michael watches his bride asleep in their bed.
When Kay visits the Corleone Mall, she encounters a sympathetic Mama Corleone, who accepts her letter. She then tells Kay to give up hope: “You listen to me. You go home to your family, and you find a good young man and get married. Forget about Mikey; he’s no good for you anymore.” She looks directly into Kay’s eyes, and Kay understands what she means. The novel is very explicit as to how Kay interprets this: “She was trying to get used to the fact that the young
man she loved was a cold-blooded murderer. And that she had been told by the most unimpeachable source: his mother.”
Scenes involving Kay’s parents are in the book, but not the film.
The fight between Carlo and Connie was edited somewhat, with additional dialogue about the lady caller and dinner cut. A brief part of the scene of Carlo in the shower after Connie gets the call was filmed but not used in the movie. It was included in The Godfather Trilogy: 1901–1980.
EXT DAY: MALL
It is a gray, rainy day. Young BUTTON MEN in coats stand in quiet groups of various points around the main house and compound. A taxi arrives; KAY ADAMS steps out, huddled in a bright orange raincoat; she lets the cab go, walks through the gate, and speaks to a BUTTON MAN inside. TOM HAGEN exits the main house and hurries toward her.
HAGEN
(shakes her hand)
Hey! We weren’t expecting you, Kay. You should call.
KAY
Yes. Well, I have. I mean I’ve tried writing and calling. Now, I want to reach Michael.
HAGEN
Nobody knows where he is. We know that he’s all right, but that’s all.
KAY looks in the direction of a car with smashed windows and doors.
KAY
Uh, what was that?
HAGEN
(nonchalantly)
Well, that’s an accident, but nobody was hurt.
KAY
Tom, will you give this letter to Michael, please? Please.
HAGEN
(refusing the letter)
Well, if I accepted that, in a court of law they could prove that I have knowledge of his whereabouts. Now just be patient, Kay. He’ll get in touch with you, all right?
KAY
I let my cab go, so can I come in to call another one, please?
HAGEN
Come on, I’m sorry. Come on.
HAGEN takes her by the elbow and leads her into the main house.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
INT DAY: CONNIE AND CARLO’S APPARTMENT
A phone rings. CONNIE, pregnant and wearing a slip and bathrobe, answers it.
CONNIE
Hello. Hello?
GIRL’S VOICE
(on phone)
Is Carlo there?
CONNIE
Who’s this?
GIRL’S VOICE
(on phone)
This is a friend of Carlo’s. Would you tell him that I can’t make it tonight until later.
CONNIE hangs up the phone.
CONNIE
(under her breath)
… Bitch.
CONNIE moves into the bedroom and speaks to CARLO, who is dressing.
CONNIE
Dinner’s on the table.
CARLO
I’m not hungry yet.
CONNIE
The food is on the table; it’s getting cold.
CARLO
I’ll eat out later.
CONNIE
You just told me to make you dinner!
CARLO
Hey, Ba fa’ gul ‘, eh?
CONNIE
Ah, Ba fa’ gul ‘, you!
ITALIANISMS
The epithet ba fa’ gul’ translates as “fuck you.”
BEHIND THE SCENES
According to Coppola, Robert Evans had told him to make a real “movie movie.” When asked what that meant, Evans explained that it should have a lot of action. At this point in the filming, Evans didn’t think the movie was violent enough, and there was a suggestion that an action director would take over. In an effort to work out the logistics of the Connie and Carlo fight scene and pack in as much action as possible, Coppola rehearsed it with Talia Shire and, funnily enough, his nine-year-old son, who played the part of Carlo. In retrospect, Coppola calls the scene “overdone.”
CAST AND CREW: GIANNI RUSSO
Gianni Russo had quite an unusual background—although not as an actor—and had held various jobs as a radio personality, an emcee in a Las Vegas nightclub, and a jewelry tycoon. He also had a stint on the Las Vegas TV show Welcome to My Lifestyle, for which he interviewed various people on the strip. Russo was determined to get a part in The Godfather.
He produced his own thirty-seven-minute screen test and sent it to the producers. According to Russo, he wrote his own script from the book, lost over eighty pounds, and played all the parts he thought would fit his personality: Carlo, Michael, and Sonny.
Months later, he showed up at the studio in a Bentley, chauffeured by a miniskirt-clad driver, demanding a test. For the test, he was asked to beat up an office secretary who had volunteered to stand in for the scene. As he characterized it in The Hollywood Reporter, he worked in as much Italian as he could, and really went to town on the terrified woman: “At one point she went flying over a coffee table, and Evans almost had an orgasm and yelled, ‘Cut!’ Then they said I had the part.” Russo reunited with Marlon Brando in a small cameo in The Freshman (1991) and with Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday (1999).
She turns deliberately and runs out into the kitchen. A moment later we begin to hear the sound of DISHES BREAKING.
CARLO
You filthy little guinea brat.
CARLO slowly walks out, where we see CONNIE systematically smashing all the dishes on the floor.
CARLO
That’s it, break it all, you spoiled guinea brat. Break it all.
CONNIE screams and he follows her into the dining room, where she continues breaking dishes and throwing the dinner on the floor, sobbing.
CONNIE
Why don’t you bring your whore home for dinner?
CARLO
Maybe I will … Now clean it up!
CONNIE
Aw, like hell I will!
He slides his belt out of his trousers and doubles it in his hand.
CARLO
Clean it up, you skinny little brat. Clean it up, I say. Clean it up! Clean it up! Clean that up, you … Clean it! Clean it up!
He swings the belt against her hips. She runs through the living room, pelting him with knickknacks, and then moves into the kitchen, gets a kitchen knife, and holds it ready.
CARLO
Yeah, yeah, come on now, kill me. Be a murderer like your father. Come on, all you Corleones are murderers anyway.
CONNIE
I will! I will! I hate you!
CARLO
Come on, kill me. Get out here! Get out here!
She makes a sudden thrust at his groin, which he avoids. He pulls the knife away. She breaks away from him and rushes into the bedroom.
CONNIE
I hate you!
CARLO
Now go ahead, now I’ll kill ya! You guinea brat, you! Get out here!
He pursues her as she runs into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. CARLO follows, kicking in the door. We hear him beating her as she screams.
INT DAY: DON’S KITCHEN
In the kitchen at the MALL, MAMA holds a screaming BABY in one arm, the phone in her other hand.
MAMA
Connie, whatsa matter? I can’t hear you. What is it? Connie, talk louder, the baby’s crying.
(handing the phone off to SONNY)
Santino, I can’t understand … I don’t know … I don’t understand.
SONNY
(to BABY)
Shhhh.
(into phone)
Yeah, Connie.
CONNIE’S VOICE
(on phone)
Don’t you come …
SONNY
Listen, you wait there. No, no, you just wait there.
He hangs up the phone and just stands there for a moment.
SONNY
Sonofabitch!
MAMA
Sonny, what’s the matter?
SONNY
Sonofabitch!
MAMA
What’s the matter?
SONNY slams his fist against the wall as he runs out.
EXT DAY: MALL
SONNY moves swif
tly from the house to a car.
SONNY
(to MAN seated by gatehouse)
Open the goddamn gate. Get off your ass!
HAGEN moves to the outside MALL just as SONNY’s car is driving off.
HAGEN
Sonny! Sonny, come on!
SONNY
(to HAGEN)
Get outta here!
HAGEN moves to a group of BUTTON MEN.
HAGEN
Go after him, go on!
THREE BUTTON MEN get into a car.
EXT DAY: CAUSEWAY AND TOLLBOOTHS
SONNY’s car drives on the Jones Beach Causeway to the tollbooths and pulls up behind another car. SONNY pulls up to the booth and hands the TOLL COLLECTOR a bill. The car in front of him has stopped, trapping SONNY in the booth. SONNY honks at the car.
SONNY
Sonofabitch! Come on! Come on!
SONNY turns back to the booth. The TOLL COLLECTOR drops his change and bends down to pick it up, sliding the door shut between them. SONNY looks over at the toll-booth on his right. FOUR MEN appear in the windows with machine guns. MEN exit the car in front and an incredible rally of machine-gun fire greets him, coming through and smashing the windows of the tollbooths on both sides of him, and from the MEN in front. The windows of his car are shot out. Bullet holes puncture the doors of his car. His arms and shoulders are riddled by the gunfire, and still it continues, as though the ASSASSINS cannot take a chance that he will survive it.
SONNY actually opens the door and steps out of the car, under fire. He lets out an enormous ROAR, like a bull, and falls to the ground. An ASSASSIN shoots him a few more times at close range, for good measure, and then kicks his face. The ASSASSINS scramble for their cars and make off in the distance.
SONNY’S BODYGUARDS stop their car a safe distance away, realizing they are too late.
JAMES CAAN AND PRODUCER ALBERT S. RUDDY.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS: PRODUCTION DETAIL
The scene of Sonny’s demise was filmed at Floyd Bennett airfield, Brooklyn. The plot indicates that the scene takes place on the Jones Beach Causeway, on the road to Long Beach.
The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay with Commentary on Every Scene, Interviews, and Little-Known Facts Page 16