The Godfather, 1972

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The Godfather, 1972, as Don Vito Corleone
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall,
Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte and Diane Keaton
Director: Francis Ford Coppola

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Factoid

• Al Pacino‘s greatest moment as an actor came when he got to do his first scene opposite Marlon Brando in The Godfather. Pacino, who idolises Brando, says the experience of acting with him was one he’ll never forget. He says, “Have you any idea what it was like to be doing a scene with him? I sat in the theatres when I was a kid just watching him. Now I’m playing a scene with him. He’s God man.” He adds, “There’s no doubt every time I see Brando that I’m looking at a great actor. Whether he’s doing great acting or not, you’re seeing somebody who is in the tradition of the great actor. “What he does with it, that’s something else, but he’s got it all, the talent, the instrument is there, that’s why he endured.” And Pacino, who was a virtual unknown when Francis Ford Coppola cast him in the role as Michael Corleone, says the studios were convinced he’d be a disaster. He says, “They said I was too meek and mild for the part. But when we finished the movie, the same people who were against me and put me down whenever they could were all for me.”
• The phone number Michael calls to find out news about his father is Long Beach 4-5620.
• Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Dustin Hoffman were all offered the part of Michael Corleone, but all refused. Robert Redford and Ryan ‘ONeal were also considered.
• Robert De Niro read for the parts of both Sonny and Michael Corleone. Director Francis Coppola decided that he wasn’t right for the role of Sonny, and already had Pacino in mind for Michael.
• There is a rumour that Burt Reynolds was originally cast as Michael Corleone but Marlon Brando wouldn’t act with him, considering him more a TV star.
• Laurence Olivier was considered for the role of Vito Corleone.
• Frank Sinatra was considered for the role of Johnny, but this role went to Al Martino when it became apparent that there were too many similarities between Johnny and Sinatra himself.
• Brando wanted to make Don Corleone look “like a bulldog“, so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the screen test. For actual filming, he wore an appliance made by a dentist. Al Pacino also wore a dental appliance. This was to hold his jaw out of alignment, to appear as though it had been broken by Captain McCluskey and not reset. Brando’s mouthpiece is on display at the prop and costume museum at Universal Studios.
• During rehearsals, a false horse’s head was used for the bedroom scene. For the actual shot, a real horse’s head was used.
• During the scene where Sonny (James Caan) beats up Carlo (Gianni Russo), Caan actually broke some of Russo’s ribs.
• Author Mario Puzo and director Coppola deliberately avoided using the word “Mafia” in their screenplay.
• Screenwriter Robert Towne wrote the scene on the patio in which Vito warns Michael of the assassination attempt that will be made on him.
• The presence of oranges in all three “Godfather” movies indicates that a death or a close call will soon happen. Vito Corleone is shot after buying oranges, and dies with an orange in his mouth. Tessio is tossed an orange at the wedding reception and later is executed as a traitor.
• The scene of Don Corleone’s death in the tomato garden was ad-libbed.
• Sofia Coppola (daughter of director) appears as Michael Corleone’s nephew in the christening scenes.
• Sergio Leone was offered the job of direction, but refused, wanting to make his own gangster film, which eventually became Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Leone later regretted the decision.
• The name of the traditional sicilian hat (worn, for instance, by Michael’s bodyguards) is “coppola.”
• The actor playing Luca Brasi, Lenny Montana, was so nervous about working with Marlon Brando that, in the first take of their scene together, he flubbed some lines. Coppola liked the genuine nervousness and used it in the final cut. The scenes of Luca Brasi practicing his speech were added later.
• Just before Sonny is shot, he’s listening to the 3 October 1951 radio broadcast of Russ Hodges calling the Dodgers-Giants playoff — a half-inning before Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”
• Before being cast as Michael, Al Pacino was committed to starring in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). Coppola pulled some strings and managed to get Pacino released. Pacino was replaced on Bang the Drum Slowly by Robert De Niro, who had to give up the small role he’d had in The Godfather: that of Paulie (“won’t see him no more”) Gatto. This, in turn, cleared the way for De Niro to star as a young Vito in the sequel.

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Quotes

“I know a lot of people in Hollywood say I’m washed up,” Brando told the film’s producer Robert Evans, “and I know you’ve heard a lot of stories about me, and some are true. But I can play this part, and I can do a good job.”

Quotes from the movie

Bonasera: I believe in America. America has made my fortune.

Corleone: Why did you go to the police? Why didn’t you come to me first?
Bonasera: What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do.
Corleone: What is that? (Bonasera whispers his request in the Don’s ear.) That I cannot do.
Bonasera: I will give you anything you ask.
Corleone: We’ve known each other many years, but this is the first time you ever came to me for counsel or for help. I can’t remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let’s be frank here. You never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt.
Bonasera: I didn’t want to get into trouble.
Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. And you didn’t need a friend like me. But uh, now you come to me and you say – ‘Don Corleone, give me justice.’ But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you, uh, ask me to do murder for money.
Bonasera: I ask you for justice.
Corleone: That is not justice. Your daughter is still alive.
Bonasera: Let them suffer then, as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
Corleone (after standing and turning his back): Bonasera, Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you’d come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.
Bonasera: Be my friend – – Godfather. (The Don shrugs. Bonasera bows toward the Don and kisses the Don’s hand.)
Corleone: Good. (The Don puts his hand on Bonasera’s shoulder.) Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day – accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.
Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.
Corleone: Prego.

Michael Corleone: So the next day, my father went to see him; only this time with Luca Brasi. And within an hour, he signed a release, for a certified check for $1000.
Kay: How’d he do that?
Michael Corleone: My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Kay: What was that?
Michael Corleone: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head and my father assured him that either his brains, or his signature, would be on the contract. That’s a true story. That’s my family, Kay, it’s not me.

Michael Corleone: My father is no different than any other powerful man – any man who’s responsible for other people, like a senator or president.
Kay: You know how naive you sound…senators and presidents don’t have men killed.
Michael Corleone: Oh, who’s being naive, Kay?

[Rehearsing a speech.]
Luca Brasi: Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your house on the day of your daughter’s wedding.

[Delivering his rehearsed speech.]
Luca Brasi: Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter… ‘s wedding… on the day of your daughter’s wedding. And I hope their first child will be a masculine child. I pledge my ever-ending allegiance.

Johnny: A month ago, he bought the movie rights to this book. A best seller – and the main character, it’s a guy just like me, I, uh, I wouldn’t even have to act, just be myself. Oh godfather, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.
Corleone: You can act like a man. (The Don slaps Johnny in the face.) What’s the matter with you? Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood finochio [a demeaning Italian word meaning homosexual] that, uh, cries like a woman? (He imitates Johnny’s whining.) ‘What can I do? What can I do?’ What is that nonsense? Ridiculous. You spend time with your family? (The Don glances toward Sonny and speaks more to him than Johnny.)
Johnny: Sure I do.
Corleone: Good. ‘Cause a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. (To Johnny) Come here…You look terrible. I want you to eat. I want you to rest a while. And in a month from now, this Hollywood bigshot’s gonna give you what you want.
Johnny: It’s too late, they start shooting in a week.
Corleone: I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse. Now, you just go outside and enjoy yourself, and uh, forget about all this nonsense. I want you, I want you to leave it all to me.

Sonny: Damn FBI don’t respect nothin’.

Hagen: Uh, I was sent by a friend of Johnny Fontane’s – his friend is my client, who’d give his undying friendship to Mr. Woltz, if Mr. Woltz would grant us a small favor…Give Johnny the part in that new war film you’re starting next week.
Woltz (after laughing): And, uh, what favor would, uh, your friend, uh, grant Mr. Woltz?
Hagen: You’re gonna have some union problems, my client could make them disappear. Also, one of your top stars has just moved from, uh, marijuana to heroin…
Woltz: Are you trying to muscle me?
Hagen: Absolutely not.
Woltz: Now listen to me, you smooth-talking SOB! Let me lay it on the line for you and your boss, whoever he is. Johnny Fontane will never get that movie! I don’t care how many – daigo, guinea, WOP, greaseball, gumbahs come out of the woodwork!
Hagen: I’m German-Irish…
Woltz: Well, let me tell you something, my Kraut Mick friend. I’m gonna make so much trouble for you, you won’t know what hit you!
Hagen: Mr. Woltz, I’m a lawyer, I have not threatened you.
Woltz: I know almost every big lawyer in New York, who da hell are you?
Hagen: I have a special practice. I handle one client. Now you have my number. I’ll wait for your call. By the way, I admire your pictures very much. (Hagen shakes Woltz’s hand, then leaves.)

Tom Hagen (to Woltz): Mr. Corleone is Johnny’s godfather. To the Italian people, that is a very religious, sacred, close relationship.

Woltz: …just tell him he should ask me anything else. But this is one favor I can’t give him.
Hagen: He never asks a second favor when he’s been refused the first, understood?
Woltz: Johnny Fontane never gets that movie! That part is perfect for him, it’ll make him a big star, and I’m gonna run him out of the business, and let me tell you why. Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International’s most valuable proteges. For five years we had her under training. Singing lessons, acting lessons, dancing lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her, I was gonna make her a big star! And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I’m not a hard-hearted man, and that it’s not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful! She was young! She was innocent! She was the greatest piece of ass I’ve ever had, and I’ve had ’em all over the world! And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm, and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous! And a man in my position can’t afford to be made to look ridiculous!

Tom Hagen (to Woltz): Mr. Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news immediately.

[Vito Corleone to Sollozzo refering to Sonny]
Vito Corleone: I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them, as you can see. They talk when they should be listening.

Don Corleone: Whatsa matter with you? I think your brain’s goin’ soft …Never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again.

Don Vito Corleone (to Sonny): Never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again.

[Don Vito to Luca Brasi referring Solozzo]
Don Vito Corleone: I want you to see what he’s got under his fingernails.”

[Luca Brasi’s bulletproof vest is delivered, wrapped around a fish.]
Sal Tessio: It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.

Solozzo: I’m a businessman, Tom. I don’t like violence. Blood is a big expense.

[After Michael gets off the phone with Kay, clearly too embarrassed to tell her “I love you too.”]
Clemenza: Mikey, why don’t you tell that nice girl you love her? “I love you with all-a my heart, if I don’t see-a you again soon, I’m-a gonna die…”

Sollozzo: Sonny was hot for my deal, wasn’t he? And you knew it was the right thing to do…you gotta talk some sense into him. The Tattaglia family is behind me with all their people. The other New York families will go along with anything that will prevent a full-scale war. Let’s face it Tom, and all due respect. The Don, rest in peace, was slippin’. Ten years ago could I have gotten to him? Well, now he’s dead. He’s dead Tom, and nothing can bring him back. So you gotta talk to Sonny, you gotta talk to the ‘capo’ regimes [meaning heads of a department], that Tessio and Fat Clemenza. It’s good business Tom.

Tom Hagen: If we lose the old man, we lose our political contacts and half our strength. The other New York families might wind up supporting Sollozzo just to avoid a long, destructive war. This is almost 1946. Nobody wants bloodshed anymore. If your father dies, you make the deal, Sonny.

Michael (whispering to Don Corleone): Just lie here, Pop. I’ll take care of you now. I’m with you now. I’m with you.

Michael: They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me – McCluskey – and Sollozzo. Let’s set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it’s gonna be held. Now, we insist it’s a public place, a bar, a restaurant, some place where there’s people so I feel safe. They’re gonna search me when I first meet them, right? So I can’t have a weapon on me then. But if Clemenza can figure a way, to have a weapon planted there for me, then I’ll kill ’em both.
Sonny (laughing, along with the others): Hey, what are ya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little bit? Hah? What do you think this is, the Army? Where you shoot ’em a mile away? You’ve gotta get up close like this and bada-bing! You blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit…(He kisses Michael’s head.) You’re taking this very personal…
Michael: Where does it say that you can’t kill a cop?…I’m talking about a cop that’s mixed up in drugs. I’m talking about a dishonest cop and a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was coming to him…It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.

Clemenza: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

Sonny: I want you to find out where that ol’ pimp Tattaglia is hiding – I want his ass now, right now.
Tom: …Things are starting to loosen up a bit. If you go after Tattaglia, all hell’s gonna break…
Sonny: Oh, Tom.
Tom: …loose. Let, let the smoke clear. Pop can negotiate.
Sonny: No, Pop can’t do nothin’ till he’s better. I’m going to decide what’s going to be done.
Tom: 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.
Tom: They don’t have our overhead…We can’t afford a stalemate.
Sonny: Well, then, there ain’t no more stalemate – I’m gonna end it by killin’ that ol’ bastard! I’m gonna…kill…
Tom: Yeah, well, you’re getting a great reputation. I hope you’re enjoying it.
Sonny: Well, 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!…

Sonny: I want someone good, I mean very good, to plant that gun. I don’t want my brother coming out of the bathroom with just his dick in his hands.

Tom Hagen: Now we have the unions, we have the gambling; and they’re the best things to have. But narcotics is a thing of the future. And if we don’t get a piece of that action, we risk everything we have. I mean not now, but, ah, ten years from now.

[McCluskey granting Michael permission to go to the bathroom]
McCluskey: You gotta go, you gotta go.

Fabrizio: In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

[Speaking with the father of the girl he plans to marry, and after telling him that he’s in hiding from some gangsters]
Michael (to Vitelli – Apollonia’s father): I apologize if I offended you. I am a stranger in this country. And I meant no disrespect to you, or your daughter. I am an American, hiding in Sicily. My name is Michael Corleone. There are people who’d pay a lot of money for that information. But then your daughter would lose a father instead of gaining a husband. I wanna meet your daughter with your permission and under the supervision of your family with all respect.

Don Corleone: My wife is crying upstairs. I hear cars coming to the house. Consiglieri of mine, I think you should tell your Don what everyone seems to know.
Tom: I didn’t tell Mama anything. I was about to come up and wake just now and tell you.
Don Corleone: But you needed a drink first.
[Tom nods]
Don Corleone: And now you’ve had your drink.
Tom: They shot Sonny on the causeway. He’s dead.

[Don Corleone after hearing about Sunny’s assasination, from Tom Hagen]
I want no inquiries made. I want no acts of vengeance. I want you to arrange a meeting, with the heads of the Five Families. This war stops now.

Barzini (to the other Dons): Certainly, he can present a bill for such services. After all, we’re not Communists. But he must let us draw the water from the well.

Corleone: How did things ever get so far? I don’t know. It was so unfortunate, so unnecessary. Tattaglia lost a son and I lost a son. We’re quits. And if Tattaglia agrees, then I’m willing to let things go on the way they were before.
Barzini: We’re all grateful to Don Corleone for calling this meeting. We all know him as a man of his word. A modest man who will always listen to reason.
Tattaglia: Yes, Barzini, he is too modest. He had all the judges and politicians in his pocket and refused to share them.
Corleone: When, when did I ever refuse an accommodation? All of you know me here. When did I ever refuse, except one time? And why? Because I believe this drug business is gonna destroy us in the years to come. I mean, it’s not like gambling or liquor, even women, which is something that most people want nowadays and it’s forbidden to them…by the church. Even the police departments have helped us in the past with gambling and other things. They’re gonna refuse to help us when it comes to narcotics. And I believe that then – and I believe that now.
Barzini: Times have changed. It’s not like the old days when we could do anything we want. A refusal is not the act of a friend. Don Corleone had all the judges and the politicians in New York and he must share them…He must let us draw the water from the well. Certainly, he can present a bill for such services. After all, we are not Communists…
Corleone: I hoped that we would come here and reason together. And as a reasonable man, I’m willing to do whatever’s necessary to find a peaceful solution to these problems.
Barzini: Then we are agreed. The traffic in drugs will be permitted, but controlled, and Don Corleone will give up protection in the East – and there will be the peace.
Tattaglia: But I must have strict assurance from Corleone. As time goes by and his position becomes stronger, will he attempt any individual vendetta?
Barzini: Look, we are all reasonable men here. We don’t have to give assurances as if we were lawyers.
Corleone: You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance gonna bring your son back to you and my boy to me? I forgot all the vengeance in my son. But I have selfish reasons.
[Corleone also announces his intention to make arrangements to bring his youngest son Michael back safely, but warns]
I’m a superstitious man, and if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if he should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he’s struck by a bolt of lightning, then I’m going to blame some of the people in this room. And that, I do not forgive. But that aside, let me say that I swear on the souls of my grandchildren, that I will not be the one to break the peace that we have made here today.

Don Vito Corleone (to Tom Hagen): Tattaglia’s a pimp. He never coulda outfought Santino. But I didn’t know until this day, that it was Barzini all along.

Michael (to Clemenza): …and if I ever need any guidance, who’s a better consiglieri than my father?

Vito Corleone: I never thought you were a bad consiglieri, Tom. I thought Santino was a bad don, rest in peace.

Michael: The Corleone Family is thinking of giving up all its interests in the olive oil business and settling out here. Now Moe Greene will sell us his share of the casino and the hotel so it could be completely owned by the Family…I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Moe Greene: You god-damn guineas really make me laugh…Yeah, let’s talk business, Mike. First of all, you’re all done. The Corleone Family don’t even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather’s sick, right? You’re getting chased out of New York by Barzini and the other Families. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my hotel and take over? I talked to Barzini. I can make a deal with him and still keep my hotel…Sonofabitch, do you know who I am? I’m Moe Greene. I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!

Fredo: Mike! You don’t come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that!
Michael: Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.

Vito Corleone: I like to drink wine more than I used to.
Michael: It’s good for ya, Pop.
Vito Corleone: Anyway I’m drinkin’ more.

Vito Corleone: I never wanted this for you. I work my whole life–I don’t apologize–to take care of my family, and I refused to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those bigshots. I don’t apologize–that’s my life–but I thought that, that when it was your time, that you would be the one to hold the string. Senator Corleone; Governor Corleone.
Michael Corleone: Another pezzonovante
Vito Corleone: Well, this wasn’t enough time, Michael. It wasn’t enough time.
Michael Corleone: We’ll get there, pop. We’ll get there.

Don Corleone (talking to Michael in the garden): Barzini will move against you first. He’ll set up a meeting with someone that you absolutely trust, guaranteeing your safety. And at that meeting, you’ll be assassinated…It’s an old habit. I spend my life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless, but not men…It could be anyone…Now listen, whoever comes to you with this Barzini meeting, he’s the traitor. Don’t forget that.

Tom Hagen: You know how they’re going to come at you?

Michael Corleone: They want to arrange a meeting between me and Barzini. On Tessio’s ground. Where I’ll be safe.

Tessio: Can you get me off the hook, Tom? For old times’ sake?
Tom Hagen: Can’t do it, Sally.

Michael (to his brother-in-law Carlo): You have to answer for Santino, Carlo…You fingered Sonny for the Barzini people. Ahh, that little farce you played with my sister. You think that could fool a Corleone?
Michael: Come on. Don’t be afraid, Carlo. Come on, you think I’d make my sister a widow? I’m Godfather to your son, Carlo…You’re out of the Family business, that’s your punishment. You’re finished. I’m putting you on a plane to Vegas…I want you to stay there, understand? Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry. Now, who approached you? Tattaglia or Barzini?
Carlo: It was Barzini.
Michael: Good.

[Kay questioning Michael, if he ordered the killing of Carlo]
Kay: Michael, is it true?
Michael: Don’t ask me about my business, Kay.
Kay: Is it true?
Michael: Don’t ask me about my business…
Kay: No.
Michael (slamming his hand on the desk): Enough. All right. This one time, this one time I’ll let you ask me about my affairs.
Kay (whispering): Is it true? Is it?
Michael (quietly, shaking his head): No.
Kay (sighing relief): (Michael kisses and hugs her.) I guess we both need a drink, huh?

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“Behind the Scenes“

• Continuity: A glass of wine in the wedding scene.
• Anachronisms: In several scenes wine bottles are shown with the DOC Italian wine classification designation shown on the bottle. DOC designations did not come in effect until the 1960s.
• Continuity: The waiter fills Tom Hagen’s glass twice within seconds during his dinner with Woltz.
• Continuity: Kay’s hands when she asks Michael when she will see him again.
• Anachronisms: A building reflected in the window of the police car during the assassination of Barzini would not be built until more than ten years after the supposed time frame of the assassination.
• Continuity: Level of wine in the glasses while Michael and Kay are having dinner following the attempted assassination of Vito Corleone.
• Revealing mistakes: Vito Corleone is supposedly unconscious, yet he jerks his hand out of the way of a door frame when being wheeled around the hospital. Some other characters can be seen reacting to this.
• Revealing mistakes: One of Sonny’s punches clearly misses Carlo, yet Carlo reacts as if hit. The punch was wrong for the camera angle.
• Continuity: While Sonny, Michael, Clemenza, Tessio and Tom are discussing waiting till Don Corleone can make a deal after he is better, the humidor on the desk where Sonny sits is closed. After Sonny says “We’ll wait” he closes it.
• Continuity: The windshield of Sonny’s car is shattered by machine-gun fire, but is whole again by the time his bodyguards arrive.
• Revealing mistakes: The bullet hole on McClusky’s forehead appears before Michael fires the gun.
• Anachronisms: In the scene where Michael and Kay emerge from the movie theater and read in a newspaper that the Don has been shot, there is a Volkswagen next to the newsstand. The scene is supposed to take place in 1945 or early 1946. VWs weren’t yet available in the USA.
• Anachronisms: 50 star U.S. flag in 1945 (on the building where the “peace conference” is held).
• Anachronisms: At the airport at night, a swept tail Cessna 182 is shown. Production of this airplane didn’t start until approximately the mid-1960s.
• Continuity: A shot of Michael in the hospital walking past the camera is obviously reused a couple of minutes later.
• Continuity: The placement of Moe Green’s drink during his meeting with Michael.
• Continuity: The level of wine in Vito Corleone’s glass when he is discussing Barzini’s move to kill Michael.
• Continuity: When the dons meet, one of them sits back twice: once before and once after an edit.
• Continuity: When Sonny is machine-gunned on the causeway, bullet holes appear at the roof line of his ’47 Lincoln Continental, then disappear, then appear again.
• Continuity: When Neri (the policeman) shoots the mobster at the end of the movie he fires seven shots.
• Factual errors: When Michael Corleone calls home after his father is shot, the dial on the pay phone is clearly out of alignment.
• Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Carlo is killed, the sound of glass breaking is heard before Carlo’s foot goes through the windshield.
• Continuity: During the string of shootings during the baptism, one guy is shot while running upstairs. Shot in the back, you can see blood and other stuff coming out of his back. While rolling down the stairs, however, the back of his shirt is untouched.
• Continuity: When Michael kills Sollozzo and McClusky, the maitre d’ is seen with a pipe in his mouth; in the next shot it is absent.
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The exterior set-up shot for the summit meeting of all families is of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While this seems like an unlikely place for a “family” meeting, it’s an indication of how high their influence reaches.
• Continuity: While Michael is talking to Apollonia’s father after he has given her the necklace. The same two people pass by twice – once in a close-up of Apollonia and the other in a wider shot.
• Miscellaneous: At Don Corleone’s funeral, Tom Hagen and Michael are discussing the loyalty of Tessio. On Hagen’s body, we see a bright, superimposed face of a woman.
• Revealing mistakes: The blood on the bed in the “horse head” scene. First it’s there, then it disappears.
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The punch to Michael’s face broke his cheek bone which gave him a permanent black eye (and caused his sinuses to continually run hence the use of a handkerchief all the time) until he got back to America and had surgery to fix it (Freddie says, “that doctor did a good job.”)
• Anachronisms: The movie’s chronology indicates the time frame of the movie when Sonny is gunned down is late 1948 or 1949; however, he was listening to the 3 October 1951 radio broadcast of Russ Hodges calling the Dodgers-Giants playoff, a half-inning before Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” specifically identifying the date of the murder as two years later than the movie’s timeline indicates it should be.
• Continuity: The amount of blood on Sonny after he is murdered on the causeway.

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Excerpts from DVD Collection:
This is an excerpt from “The Godfather” DVD collection.

Coppola
As the movies were made “The Godfather” became just kinda the biggest home movie in history.
Pacino
Movies were very new to me and before each take (Robert) Duvall would say “No matter what you do you’re gonna laught on this take.”

Coppola
My History with “The Godfather” was the history of someone in trouble. I found the first movie very tough to do and to fight poeple off. I was a young director. I hadn’t really done a lot of work, and I had this opportunity to do this novel. I thought of myself as a professional director making an adaptation of a novel. I knew that as the book became more popular and more successful I realized, that in a sense, it was beginning to outclass me in that I wouldn’t have gotten the job had five months later the book had become the sensation that it was. Even in the early weeks of the production, I knew that they were not happy with what I had done with the kinda classic style that I chose in rushes didn’t impress them. But, you know, I just wanted to survive it. I knew that my ideas regarding the casting were not popular. Had been a difficult time to try to convince the studio that my notions about casting were right.

James Caan
I remember he having a lot of problems. Every time he metioned Brando’s name one of the executives…executives is the right word…said, ah – “If you mention his name again, you’re out.”

Coppola
The guy who was then the president said. “As president of Paramount pictures – these were the exact words – “as president of Paramount Pictures Mralon Brando will never appear in this motion picture”. I remember I fell on the floor. I said, “At least give me a chance”. “All right. If, number one, he does the movie for nothing if he does the screen test and puts up a bond guaranteeing that none of his shenanigans will cost a delay, you can consider him”. So,I said “All right” [laughs]. And I called up Brando, who I didn’t know. He made that contact and said “What if I do some makeup tests?” I said, you know to get around the screen test. I went and bought Italian cheese and cigars and stuff and we were just shooting and shooting and he saw the cheese and he went like that [Brando stuffs the cheese in his mouth], and he started to like take his hair and put shoe polish on it. And he says, [He’s like a bull dog] “I wanna have…” – he’s doing this right there and I’m shooting it and then he started going [oooh..oh..oh]. He put Kleenex in his mouth, and had black – it’s remarkable to see.

James Caan
I forget the amount of time, but a very short time, he knew the cast. As a matter of fact, Bobby Duvall, Al Pacino and myself flew up to San Francisco. Eleanor, his wife, cut our hair, put a bowl over our head, cut our hair. And with a 16 millimeter camera you know, we improvised, did some stuff [snaps with his finger] and that was it. That cost him like four corned beef sanwiches I think, the whole, you know.

Al Pacino
I was more or less just sort of wandering – I didn’t know what was going on. Movies were very new to me. Before each take, Duvall would say “No matter what you do, you’ll laugh on this take.” I didn’t want to laugh.

Robert Duvall
I think Jimmy (James Caan) at that time wanted to play Michael, “No, you should play Sonny.”, well you know I said, “You read Hagen. I kept saying it was Hogan.”…”No, it’s Hagen.” and you know, it was all like a joke in a way. Who knew what it was gonna be? I had seen Al on Broadway. I said, “This kid would be terrific” for this you know. We talked about it informally.

Coppola
When I read “The Godfather”, when I’d see the character of Michael I saw Al’s face.”

Fred Roos (Producer) – talking about Al Pacino
He wasn’t a star…which was not pleasing to the executives at that time. He didn’t look like stars looked like at that time in the business.

Coppola
So, when they were suggesting like, you know, Ryan O’Neal or Robert Redford could be like a a northern Italian I already had Al’s face ingrained.

James Caan
For some reason they were not happy with Al [Pacino]’s test. But I knew Francis wanted Al [Pacino].

Al Pacino
I was aware that they didn’t want me and at one point, it actually seemed okay. Finally I thought, “Francis, look, we’ll do another movie together”. I was relatively young so I didn’t know quite, I thought, “Maybe they’re all like this, you know, I had seen movies about Hollywood, I thought maybe – that’s why I thought all the screen tests.

James Caan
One night I got a call from Francis. He was in New York and he said “Jimmy…” I could tell from his voice, this was not his idea. “Jimmy, uh…I want you to come in and test.” I said, “Test what? you’ve got a Porche you want me drive round the block?…what do you want, test what?”. He said, “Please, they want you to play Michael”. “What?” “Please, I…”, So I went in.

[During the screen test for James as Michael Corleone]
I don’t think you can name an actor that wasn’t there. They were all sitting around on cement floors [laughs] from 7:00 in the morning till 8:00 late at night. Some guys talk like “theeeese”…you know, guys from all over the world.

[shots of various screen tests] James Caan
And he {Coppola] kept sneaking Al [Pacino] in. You know, at the end of the day, he kept testing Al, testing Al, you know.

Al Pacino
It kep happening a lot. And it was countless. They went on and on. I remember saying at that time, you know, “I just don’t respond well to being around where I’m not wanted. Well, anyway he [Coppola] just stayed with it, it was his tenacity…and…that got me in there.

Coppola
Little point of memorabilia that was, Marsha Lucas who was the editor, George’s wife, who cut all those tests together…and she told me, “Cast Al Pacino, ’cause he undresses you with his eyes.”… And Diane [Keaton] said – I said to Diane, “Which one do you want?”..She said “Al.”

Pacino
I knew Diane [Keaton] before the [screen] test. We had a kind of immediate like for each other. And Francis, I think, recognized that thought that would be useful in the picture.

James Caan
So, what I’m saying is that they spent $400,000 or so on tests and would up with the four corned beef sandwiches.

Coppola
I wish that you could get inside of Al’s head a little more. Michael’s character, because he’s always such a master manipulator. Michael has an intellectual side so that he does have an inkling about his tragedy. And we could put the kinda nail on – really say it emotionally.

Al Pacino
I was already hired as Michael. They kept saying, “When is he gonna do something?”. While we were shooting, there were hints coming back to me that I wasn’t wanted and It was more than hints. People were actually giggling when I’d go on camera and the studio keep seeing this footage coming back and they said, “He’s sort of – He seems so dull”. I was out, you know, I was out. And thenSollozzo scene came….they kept me after that scene. It looked pretty good, I guess, when you can shoot a guy up. They wanted me to assert myself…well, you know…there’s that kind of assertion [laughs (with asserion)].

Robert Duvall
You gotta go with the moment, and see what happens and try not to plan too much and see you know. Like I know especially in that scene where I had to tell Brando that Sonny’s dead. We’d done one, two and three takes. And I usually like to do only one or two and that’s it. But Francis said maybe “Let’s just try another one. Take four”. The others, I would’ve been satisfied, but take four – boom…was the thing that worked for me. That nobody can take it away from me now that it’s in print [smiles], you know, on film….But this time [with Marlon Brando – Don Corleone] when I said, “Sonny died [They shot Sonny on the causeway. He’s dead.],” [snaps his fingers] something works so right. And Brando – There’s a scene over the body, wonderful, emotional scene he did. But before they roll, he [Marlon Brando] said, [talking like Brando]”Francis, could I have a moment? “…you know, he kinda gets himself ready. Prepares himself emotionally then he does it and it was wonderful.

Two three days later, I had to walk across the room and Jimmy [James Caan] said, with his shoulders [erect] you know, “Francis could Bobby [Robert Duvall] have a moment?”. So, I go like this [resting his head on his knuckle (just like Brando did in the Sonny dead scene)] Then I walk across the room and they say, “Cut.”…Brando gave me a dirty look [laughs].

Coppola
[Robert] DeNiro tried it out for the part of Sonny. And we shot a test on Deniro which, I think that exists, I think was electrifying.

[Robert De Niro comments]
Did I do the screen test for Sonny? Yeah. Me and 4 hundred – 4 thousand other people came in.

Coppola
He [Robert DeNiro] was spectacular, but it was Sonny really like killer, nothing like you could ever sell.

Coppola [talking about DeNiro’s screen test for “The Godfather II”]
But, I never forgot that, you know. And later on when we stumped on how to do the young Marlon, I thought that he [Robert DeNiro] could be the young Brando. I went to Paramount, I told them the idea [of Robert De Niro playing the role of the young Done Corleone – Brando]. They said, “No”.

Robert DeNiro
One thing were trying in Sicily when I was older, Brando had some thing in his mouth and I went to the same dentist and just got a smaller one and I tried to get a little heavier for that period because he was a little older and a little, you know, a little more mature. And so one of the things we were trying to decide was about the moustache, whether I should have a moustache or not. It was a whole thing back and forth this commitment to have the moustache or not to have the moustache. So finally, I think I said…uh, you forget these things, but I think the way I remember it is “Why don’t we flip a coin?”. We just flip the coin and…heads it’s on, tails it’s off…and so, it was heads I guess.”

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