The Godfather Journal

by Ira Zuckerman

  36th DAY OF SHOOTING: FRIDAY MAY 14

  While he waits for camera and lighting to be set up for the first shot of the day, Coppola talks with his assistant cameraman and his script girl about what to name his new daughter. The names Mia, Francesca and Giulietta are all being considered; at the moment Francesca is favored. Coppola is in excellent spirits. He videotaped the delivery with his portable Sony equipment. “I’ll give her the tape for her Sweet 16 party,” he says, laughing. “That’ll make a great gift!”

  The remaining scenes scheduled for Brando are the wedding sequence, but as the weather is predicted to be rainy for the next few days these must be postponed. The producers and the star agree that Brando will take off a week or 10 days at this point. The actor seems relieved at this unexpected break and immediately makes plans to fly to Tahiti.

  38th DAY OF SHOOTING: TUESDAY MAY 18

  The day begins with Coppola’s announcement that his daughter is to be named Sofia Carmina.

  Although the director has been in unusually good spirits for the past few days, feeling against him on the part of some of the production personnel is increasing. “Coppola will never make another big picture,” a DGA trainee remarks. “Everyone agrees he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s overwhelmed by the job!”

  And a photographer assigned to the production adds: “I’ve never seen such an incompetent director. This is almost as bad as You’re a Big Boy Now. I worked on that for a few days. It was his first picture.”

  The only new development is a steady stream of little girls, of various ages and sizes, pouring into the lobby of Filmways. They are candidates for the roles of members of the wedding party, and one of them will be chosen to play the child-star girlfriend of movie producer Jack Woltz.

  39th DAY OF SHOOTING: WEDNESDAY MAY 19

  Around noon, after a routine morning, Coppola suddenly decides to restore a scene that was cut from the script: the birthday party of the Shirley Temple–type child star at the Woltz Brothers studio in Hollywood. At one point in this scene, the nymphet is presented with a pony from her “admirer,” producer Jack Woltz.

  Within an hour, in consequence of this sudden decision, there appear dozens of extras, racks of musical-comedy costumes and a small pony, which was transported in the back seat of a car. The reverse side of the Corleone house set on the soundstage has been transformed into a Hollywood studio lot, and Woltz Bros. Productions has been stenciled on everything in sight. The prop-crew sets up a large buffet table, dressing it with punch-bowls, glasses and an enormous cake that has just been delivered. Soon the extras begin to drift back onto the set dressed as showgirls and chorus boys, newspaper photographers and assorted studio personnel. Gray Frederickson and his pretty blonde wife are commandeered into appearing as “background” for the scene. Frederickson is dressed in a cowboy outfit, his modishly long blond hair concealed by a 10-gallon hat. Coppola gives him the special business of presenting the pony to the child star, and the Oklahoma-born associate producer looks very much at home in his new role.

  40th DAY OF SHOOTING: THURSDAY MAY 20

  The Guggenheim estate, Sands Point, Long Island, recently taken over by the county to be used as a museum and recreation area, includes acres of woods and formal gardens, hothouses, stables, a pool and a private beach on the sound. Wild rabbits and pheasants roam freely. The old housekeeper says that in 1925 the staff of gardeners alone numbered 120.

  The main house contains a priceless collection of paintings, sculptures and furniture. Because of one painting attributed to Michelangelo, which is continually watched over by a private guard, the authorities were reluctant to give permission for the house to be used by Paramount for filming. They have insisted that the two-day shooting schedule finally agreed on be strictly adhered to, so everyone is under pressure to work quickly.

  The location is to represent the Hollywood home of movie czar Jack Woltz. (Since filming has gone over budget Paramount has insisted on canceling locations in Hollywood and Las Vegas, and suitable sites in the New York area have had to be found.)

  The morning is overcast, so the exterior scenes scheduled are changed for others that take place indoors. According to the weather bureau, tomorrow will be sunny.

  Six horses were brought in at 3 A.M. as background in the stables, and their trainer is napping on a pile of straw in his trailer truck. Some members of the crew talk of riding them later in the day if there is some free time.

  Behind the house, makeup man Dick Smith is experimenting with the horse’s head—a stuffed one—that will be found in Woltz’s bed. For many readers this is the most sensational scene in the novel, and in preparation two gallons of prop blood made from Karo syrup, red food coloring and white frosting have been mixed in plastic pails.

  It looks as if the entire day will be taken up filming the dinner scene between Woltz (John Marley) and Tom Hagen (Bob Duvall).

  Coppola handles Marley with unusual attention and concentration. The actor has had much stage and film experience and tries out the director’s suggestions with professional ability. By the time the scene is ready to film, it has developed into an exciting one.

  A silver plate filled with matzos on the dinner table raises many questions and objections from the crew. Coppola explains that he remembers them on the private dining-room table of Jack Warner at Warner Brothers’ studio when he worked there as a writer. He thinks it’s a good character touch.

  “In those days I was the fair-haired boy at Warners’. I was one of a select group that was regularly invited to lunch with Warner. I even got away with bringing Petula Clark to lunch one day in that room where women were never invited. I topped it off by driving off with her on the back of my motorscooter.”

  By noon the day has cleared up, but as it’s too late to start setting up outside the work continues indoors.

  41st DAY OF SHOOTING: FRIDAY MAY 21

  Contrary to the weather bureau prediction, today is overcast and rainy.

  The exterior scenes must be rewritten slightly to be played indoors.

  The scene of the discovery of the horse’s head is prepared to be filmed. The stuffed head was rejected as looking exactly like what it is and so a freshly severed head has been obtained from a slaughterhouse in New Jersey. Prop blood is poured over the gaping neck, the eyes and the mouth, as well as over the satin sheets of the bed and the silk pajamas worn by Marley.

  Some of the more squeamish members of production remain in the adjoining room, but they cannot help hearing on each take Woltz’s blood-curdling scream. After the first few takes the bed is literally a pool of blood, and bedclothes and pajamas have to be changed many times. Marley must be sent to shower before his next scene.

  In the afternoon the company moves into the stables for the scene of Woltz showing Hagen his prize racehorse Khartoum, whose head was represented in the bedroom scene. The crew works quietly so as not to upset the horses. Filming goes smoothly with the full cooperation of the handsome animal playing Khartoum.

  As preparation for the last shot of the day is in progress, Coppola’s voice rings out, “I’ll call Charlie Bluhdorn myself and tell him I want Jack Ballard taken off the picture. I’m tired of having him on my back all the time.”

  The director is in a group that includes Ruddy, Frederickson and Gallo. The outburst is followed by a hushed conversation about the need to rewrite over the weekend a scene to be shot on Monday. Gray and Al quiet Francis down and say they will work things out with Ballard.

  “It’s a wrap.” End of the week.

  42nd DAY OF SHOOTING: MONDAY MAY 24

  Back to the mall location on Staten Island.

  Because rain is predicted for the next two days, filming of the wedding sequence has been postponed until Thursday or Friday. The production is trying to avoid the expense of hiring 350 extras who can’t be used because of the weather.

  The schedule for the day changes three or four times as the sun goes in or out. The wardrobe department is going crazy getting
principals and extras in and out of costumes according to the weather conditions of the moment. Finally it begins to rain.

  43rd DAY OF SHOOTING: TUESDAY MAY 25

  The possibility of rain tomorrow, according to the forecast, is now only 10 percent, so the big decision is made and all departments work feverishly in preparation for the wedding scene.

  But today’s shooting is delayed until four o’clock, and the waiting, in the hot and muggy weather and under the studio lights, becomes almost intolerable. Typical overheard complaint: “This is my last movie. I say that every time. I’ve got a wife and two kids. What else can I do? The money’s hard to walk away from but, my God—it’s so boring! It’s so stupid!”

  Bob Duvall blows a line in the middle of a long take and the director yells “Cut!” The actor flings his prop, a yellow legal pad, across the set and yells, “Fuck this shitty scene!” No one pays any attention. By six o’clock, after only two hours of actual filming, everyone is almost totally exhausted.

  The company doctor appears at the request of 1st A.D. Fred Gallo to give Caan, Coppola and Gallo energy shots of vitamin B-12. Between takes he gives the injections, as each goes behind the set and pulls down his pants.

  44th DAY OF SHOOTING: WEDNESDAY MAY 26

  Finally the day has arrived to start the wedding-party sequences. The weather is bright and sunny. Those first to arrive on location at the Staten Island mall find the director’s father, Carmine Coppola, already conducting a six-piece Italian band in a romantic song called “Sofia,” which he has composed in honor of his new granddaughter. It is going to be used as background music during the wedding reception, and an Italian tenor is on hand to sing the words.

  In addition to the regular 35mm camera there are four others set up around the garden area, not counting the one in the helicopter. The plan is to take cinéma vérité footage, which later will be edited to a few minutes’ running time, during the loosely staged wedding party. A soundman carrying a portable recorder will circulate through the crowd to catch improvised dialogue from the “wedding guests.”

  Eight busloads of extras were picked up in Manhattan at 6 A.M. and are being dressed and made up at the college gymnasiums about half a mile away.

  Thirty cars, circa 1945, are jammed together in the driveway leading to the entrance of the mall, each of them manned by a driver. To help pass the long day, the men read, play cards, eat, sleep and enthusiastically answer questions from the onlookers about their automobiles.

  Coppola has already briefed the principals on how the improvised part of the sequence is to be filmed today. Now he and his assistants shout orders through bullhorns to the 350 extras who have arrived at the mall, dispersing them and arranging them into groups.

  “Really have a party, but remember where you started from,” he tells the crowd, many of whom pay little attention or can’t hear him. “You’ll be sent back to that section after each take.”

  Morale is high and the excitement mounts as the helicopter makes a few practice runs over the area.

  Finally “Action” is shouted over the horns, the band strikes up, the party begins and the cameras roll. Since most of the sound for the sequence will be dubbed in later, the director and his assistants shout orders freely and loudly to the throng. Every few minutes the director shouts “Cut,” gives some directions and starts the activity again.

  Between takes some of the extras drift off the set and end up eating, drinking and sunning themselves out of the range of the camera and the eyes of assistant directors.

  The mothers of the 50 children who are being used today have crowded together earlier, watching through a space in the wall at the far side of the garden while Coppola was setting up the action. This space was filled in before the cameras started so that no trace of it is visible. Now, between takes, a little girl in pink taffeta dress and hair ribbon returns to the spot to look for her mother. She bursts out crying when she finds that the opening in the 10-foot-high wall has somehow disappeared.

  Brando and Duvall work out their entrance into the garden several times. Then, while business with a wedding-party photo is being set up, they joke with each other in what seems to be some sort of dare. Jimmy Caan, who can hear what they are saying, shouts, “No. No. Not here!” and starts to run away from them. Suddenly Brando and Duvall are undoing their tuxedo pants while those around them laugh and call out in shocked glee. Brando and Duvall turn their backs to the wedding guests, pull down pants and undershorts and flash naked backsides to the crowd.

  All hell breaks loose. Everyone on the production crew breaks up completely and most of the crowd roar with delight. Some of those who didn’t see the big moment ask, “What’s happening?” and a chorus replies, “Marlon Brando just stuck out his bare ass.”

  Some of the more staid older ladies in the party quickly walk away from the excitement. A mother of one of the children, who has just returned to the set after missing the great event, rushes over and asks, “Is it true that Brando showed his naked behind to everybody? Even with the children here?”

  Jimmy Caan, who started the “mooning” fad, is so embarrassed that for several minutes he keeps his distance from Brando and Duvall.

  It takes a while for everyone to calm down, but the excitement has made the day. Everyone is more relaxed and work seems to go faster.

  But late in the afternoon the weather begins to change, the sun going behind the clouds just when it is needed.

  Gray Frederickson is on the phone talking to Jack Ballard at the Paramount offices in Manhattan.

  “But Jack, Francis is ready, Gordy is ready, but the weather is against us. The sun keeps going in and out every few seconds and they don’t want to shoot under those conditions. Yes, I know Jack, but it’s like turning the lights in the studio on and off. Hold on, I’ll get Francis to talk to you.”

  Frederickson goes through the concealed doorway in the garden wall while the entire cast and crew wait for a decision to be made. The time is 4:30.

  Five minutes later Francis emerges from the doorway, white with anger.

  “I’ve been ordered to shoot in spite of the weather,” he announces to Willis and the camera crews.

  “They don’t give a fuck about anything but their damn schedules and money. It means we can’t shoot from the angle we want because we can’t light the party crowd. Only the area where Michael and Kay are seated.

  Willis immediately puts the light crew to work, setting up the portable equipment from the Cinemobile. Coppola sits on the sidelines bemoaning the studio system. “The people who make the decisions and control the money are the ones who know least about the actual work of making pictures.”

  By the time the lights are ready the natural daylight will be too dim for the scene to be filmed, but everyone goes through the motions of preparing the shot.

  Frederickson has gone to the phone again, to try and get the okay to wrap for the day. He comes back again and calls the director to the phone. Coppola returns 10 minutes later and announces with disgust: “They don’t care if the footage isn’t any good. They say we’ve got to shoot.” So the preparations continue until the light is far too dim for filming and the cry “It’s a wrap” rings out to everyone’s relief.

  47th DAY OF SHOOTING: TUESDAY JUNE 1

  Back at the mall after the Memorial Day weekend, the weather is perfect: bright and sunny all day.

  Gray Frederickson was hurt riding his motorcycle over the weekend and limps around the set.

  The filming of the dance sequences at the wedding is in progress. Coppola is angry because one couple he selected for comic relief (a tall girl and a short man) was not called for today. At one point some of the extras are alarmed by an incident in the scene they weren’t told about: a fistfight among the gangsters. Later, while the music and dancing are still going on, two trucks, loaded with tomato plants for the Don’s death scene in his garden, pull up in the mall driveway, adding to the confusion.

  Toward the end of the day Coppola make
s another attempt to film the Kay-and-Michael scene, using artificial light in a “day-for-night” shot. Not that the sun is going down, the air has turned cold and Diane Keaton is shivering in her light party dress, but she is able to control herself while the cameras roll. Between takes a costume assistant covers her shoulders with a borrowed corduroy jacket while other assistants touch up her hands, face and hair. Coppola paces on the sidelines, railing against Paramount. “I’ll bet any amount these scenes’ll have to be reshot. None of them will match in light quality.” By 7 P.M. the crew has gone overtime into meal penalties. Marilyn Putnam, wardrobe mistress, hands Keaton a mug of hot tea and offers to bring her a shot of whiskey. “Those people have no idea how to spend money,” the director grumbles. “They don’t mind going into meal penalties and overtime, so long as they think they’re keeping to their schedule. It’s so unrealistic. All this will have to be reshot. I’ll just bet Bob Evans asks me to reshoot it after he sees the rushes.”

  The scene is completed by 8:30 P.M.

  48th DAY OF SHOOTING: WEDNESDAY JUNE 2

  While waiting for Brando to come on the set, Coppola talks to Frederickson. He is complaining about the lousy quality of the footage that was filmed on the first day of the wedding sequence. Most of the helicopter and second-unit camera shots are unusable. They are either out of focus or wobbly, or else they caught 2nd assistant directors running around the edges of the crowd.

  Ruddy joins them and begins making jokes to keep Francis in good humor. He seems never to be perturbed by the daily crises. Francis frets and Ruddy makes jokes.

  For the first time, Brando is being difficult. He arrived three and a half hours late for his call this morning and has sent excuses, via a 2nd A.D., for not being ready. He doesn’t like the scene Coppola has already rewritten for him. It’s the one between the Don and his son Michael, just after the latter has returned from his exile in Sicily. Coppola is getting desperate and finally sends 1st A.D. Gallo to tell the actor that the scene must be shot immediately because the light is perfect. This is far from the truth.