Why does marlon brando talk like that in the godfather

But a number of prominent mobsters later said they liked the film. Frank Sinatra—seen here after testifying in front of the House Select Committee on Organized Crime in —was furious that the character of Johnny Fontane Al Martino appeared to be based on him. Mario Puzo recalled Sinatra shouting abuse when the two were introduced.

A "Godfather" crew member ordered it from a dog food plant in New Jersey. As Coppola later recalled, "One day, a crate with dry ice came with this horse's head in it. Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi, was in real life a former professional wrestler who reportedly served as an enforcer and arsonist for the Colombo crime family.

For his famous death scene, Montana relied on techniques he used as a wrestler, making his eye bulge and his face turn purple as Luca Brasi is strangled with a garrote. During his audition, Brando stuffed cotton balls in his mouth to create the appearance of a bulldog jaw, But when it came to filming, he wore a custom-made dental appliance, which is now on display at New York's Museum of the Moving Image.

Al Pacino reportedly had his jaw wired shut for the scene in the restaurant where Michael kills Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey after the corrupt cop broke his jaw. Diane Keaton hated having to wear a wig but loved working with Pacino. The filming didn't begin with the wedding scene. The first scene to be shot was the one in which Michael and Key go Christmas shopping. A big crowd gathered on Mott Street during the filming of the scene in which Don Corleone is shot in an assassination attempt.

The scene required many takes because the onlookers couldn't resist cheering Brando's performance. But the actor apparently loved it and, when his work was finally finished, turned and bowed to his audience. The footage of newspapers showing events in a five-family mob war was shot not by Coppola but by future "Star Wars" director George Lucas, who asked not to be credited.

It was Lucas' way of saying thanks to Coppola for helping him finance his upcoming film "American Graffiti. How faithful was "The Godfather" to novel it was based on? In scenes set in Sicily, Pacino wipes his nose because Mario Puzo's book noted that the earlier punch from the police captain had damaged his sinuses.

Although Coppola co-wrote the screenplay, he doesn't claim credit for one of the movie's most memorable lines. Al Pacino was not the first choice for the role of Michael Corleone, and he said he was almost fired during filming.

The studio also didn't want to cast Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, but then they saw his legendary screen test where he stuffed his mouth with Kleenex. Brando didn't memorize any of his lines for the film. Instead, he relied on cue cards. The cat in Brando's lap was a stray and not supposed to be in the film. In fact, the cat's purring almost ruined the scene. The lead actors liked to play pranks by mooning each other while filming.

Talia Shire, who played Connie, was Coppola's sister, and she had very little acting experience. She even knocked down the camera at one point. Coppola had a habit of leaving in actors' mistakes because he felt they were genuine. After filming the wedding scene, Pacino and Diane Keaton got drunk together because the actor was scared the movie would flop. Studio executives felt the film was lit too darkly, and they had to be convinced that the artistic choice would work.

He easily absorbed the mannerisms of his friends and portrayed them dramatically. Cleonice Tsaplin Supporter. Is Robert De Niro Italian? Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. He is of Irish and Italian descent on his father's side, while his mother had Dutch, English, French, and German ancestry. Rabi Eremushkin Supporter. Where was the godfather 2 filmed? Isidro Declara Beginner. What happened Godfather 1? The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

He is at the event of his daughter's wedding. But tragic circumstances make him face the legacy of his family. Farooq Homentovsky Beginner. Did Marlon Brando wear a mouthpiece in the Godfather? Ibtisam Ritzenhofer Beginner. What happened at the end of The Godfather? When Vito dies, Michael orders to kill all the heads of the five families.

The brutal assassinations take place during the baptism of Michael's newborn son. Eventually, after discovering that Connie's husband arranges the hit on Sonny, Clemenza strangles him to death by Micheal's orders. Concetta Thusen Beginner. What is the famous line from the Godfather? The cat held by Marlon Brando in the opening scene was a stray that Coppola found while on the lot at "Paramount Pictures," and was not originally called for in the script.

So content was the cat that its purring muffled some of Brando's dialogue and, as a result, most of his lines had to be looped. The smack that Vito gives Johnny Fontane was not in the script. Marlon Brando improvised the smack and Al Martino 's confused reaction was real. According to James Caan , "Martino didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

There was intense friction between Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Pictures, in which Paramount Pictures frequently tried to have Coppola replaced, citing his inability to stay on schedule, unnecessary expenses, and production and casting errors Coppola actually completed the film ahead of schedule and under budget.

According to Richard S. Coppola got revenge on Castellano by making him do twenty takes of the shots of Clemenza walking up four flights of stairs. Note the attention to detail: most of the cars have wooden bumpers. Bumpers were removed by car owners during World War II, and replaced with wooden ones. The chrome ones were turned in to help with the war effort.

After the war, it took several years for them to be replaced. Marlon Brando did not memorize most of his lines and read from cue cards during most of the film. As a matter of fact, Marlon, who was the father of Method acting, was famous for this; he felt that doing a cold open type reading for the cameras, and then using that very first un-practiced take, was the best way to get an authentic performance.

He did the exact same thing for Superman. The set for Krypton was filled with the cards pasted here and there for Marlon as he read his lines for the first time. Francis Ford Coppola insisted on the film being called " Mario Puzo 's The Godfather" rather than just "The Godfather", because his original draft of the screenplay was so faithful to the novel, he thought Puzo deserved the credit for it.

Francis Ford Coppola turned in an initial Director's Cut running two hours and six minutes. The final release version was nearly fifty minutes longer than Coppola's initial cut. The scene where Sonny beats up Carlo Connie's husband took four days to shoot, and featured more than extras. The use of the garbage can lid was improvised by James Caan. According to Al Pacino , the tears in Marlon Brando 's eyes were real, in the hospital scene when Michael pledges himself to his father.

Orson Welles lobbied to get the part of Don Vito Corleone, even offering to lose a good deal of weight in order to get the role. Francis Ford Coppola , a Welles fan, had to turn him down because he already had Marlon Brando in mind for the role and felt Welles wouldn't be right for it. Don Vito Corleone's distinctive voice was based on real-life mobster Frank Costello.

Marlon Brando had seen him on television during the Estes Kefauver hearings in , and imitated his husky whisper in the film. Francis Ford Coppola held improvisational rehearsal sessions that simply consisted of the main cast sitting down in character for a family meal. The actors and actresses couldn't break character, which Coppola saw as a way for the cast to organically establish the family roles seen in the final film.

However, it was widely assumed that it was, and Sinatra was furious. When he met Puzo at a restaurant, he screamed vulgar terms and threats at Puzo. Sinatra was also vehemently opposed to the film. Due to this backlash, Fontane's role in the film was scaled down to a couple of scenes. George Lucas put together the "Mattress Sequence" the montage of crime scene photos and headlines about the war between the five families as a favor to Francis Ford Coppola for helping him fund American Graffiti He asked not to be credited.

Lucas used photos from real crime scenes. The corpse on the ground near a chain link fence is Frank Nitti aka "The Enforcer" , Al Capone 's right-hand man who had not been murdered, but actually shot himself. During the scene, Coppola's father, Carmine, is the piano player. Al Pacino boycotted the Academy Awards ceremony, angry that he was nominated for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar, noting that his character had more screentime than his co-star, Best Actor winner Marlon Brando.

According to Francis Ford Coppola , the film took 62 days to shoot. The early buzz on this movie was so positive that a sequel was planned before the film was even finished filming. Gianni Russo used his organized crime connections to secure the role of Carlo Rizzi, going so far as to get a camera crew to film his own audition and send it to the producers.

However, Marlon Brando was initially against having Russo, who had never acted before, in the film. This made Russo furious, and he went to threaten Brando. However, this reckless act proved to be a blessing in disguise, because Brando thought Russo was acting, and was convinced he would be good for the role.

For the scene where Clemenza is cooking, Francis Ford Coppola originally wrote in the script, "Clemenza browns some sausage. Stanley Kubrick thought the film had the best cast ever and could be the best movie ever made.

Marlon Brando and James Caan had to wear lifts for the movie. Sergio Leone was approached to direct the film, but turned it down since he felt the story, which glorified the Mafia, was not interesting enough. He later regretted refusing the offer, but would go on to direct his own critically acclaimed gangster film, " Once Upon a Time in America Paramount Pictures' original idea was to make this a low-budget gangster film set in the present, rather than a period piece set in the s and s.

Francis Ford Coppola rejected Mario Puzo 's original script, based on this idea. He felt she was too pretty for the part, and did not want to be accused of nepotism. Only at Mario Puzo 's request did Shire get a chance to audition. Francis Ford Coppola originally planned to open the film with the wedding, immediately introducing all the characters. Then a friend pointed out how interestingly he had written the opening scene of Patton Coppola then re-wrote the opening with the Bonasera scene.

Francis Ford Coppola worked with relatives in this film, making it a family film in many contexts. In chronological order of appearance: his sister, Talia Shire , portrayed Connie Corleone throughout the saga, his mother, Italia Coppola , served as an extra in the restaurant meeting, his father, Carmine Coppola , was the piano player in the Mattress sequence and, he composed the music, his sons Gian-Carlo Coppola and Roman Coppola , can be seen as extras in the scene where Sonny beats up Carlo, and he is at the funeral, and his daughter, Sofia Coppola , is the baby, Michael Rizzi, in the baptism she was three weeks old at the time of shooting.

Both nights, at 11 p. The scenes of Michael and Kay at the wedding at the beginning were shot at night. Due to the rushed schedule, Francis Ford Coppola had to get their scenes in the bag. Cinematographer Gordon Willis was furious at having to rig up so many lights. The Don's wife, Carmela "Mama" Corleone, is seen singing at the wedding.

Morgana King , who played Carmela, was a gifted jazz singer, and portraying Carmela was actually her film debut, as well as her acting debut. There was a great deal of mooning on-set, started by James Caan and Robert Duvall. In an effort to break some tension during a rehearsal for the first scene, the pair mooned Francis Ford Coppola , Marlon Brando , and Salvatore Corsitto.

Bob Duvall and I were in one car and Brando was in another, so we drove up beside him and I pulled down my pants and stuck my ass out the window. Brando fell down in the car with laughter. Even Al Pacino got in on the act, as he told Ladies' Home Journal, "In a scene where I sit behind a desk, wardrobe made a big fuss about getting me a shirt with a smaller collar.

So while everyone was looking at the shirt, I took off my pants. When I came out from behind the desk, I got a laugh, even though we had to do the scene over. They planned it carefully and Caan, who overheard the plan, started to shout, "No, no, not here!

Eventually, Brando was crowned best prankster, designated by a heavyweight-style leather belt with the title, "Moon Champion". Despite lead billing, Marlon Brando 's total screentime is less than one hour. Michael's speech to Apollonia's father was originally written to be in Sicilian, as it was in the novel.

Al Pacino , however, did not speak Sicilian fluently, and could not learn such a lengthy speech. Francis Ford Coppola re-wrote the scene at the last minute to have Michael speak English, and have Fabrizio translate for him.

James Caan originally heard the phrase "bada-bing! While filming the scene in which Carlo beats her, Talia Shire lost a shoe. Not wanting to have to restore the set and wait for the camera to be set up for a second time, she simply continued to play through the scene, even at the risk of cutting her foot on all the ceramics she had just destroyed. Radio personality Howard Stern has said that he would gladly have any cast member of this film as his guest, and they can show up at his studio unannounced.

Though over the years, cast members such as Robert Duvall and James Caan were pre-scheduled guests, his "just show up" policy was never taken up until Gianni Russo arrived one day. Stern immediately had him escorted into his studio, even though he was in the midst of other guests at the time, and interviewed him. Stallone instead decided to try his hand at writing, first completing the screenplay for the modestly successful The Lords of Flatbush He would later get his break in Rocky , alongside Talia Shire , who portrayed Connie Corleone in this film.

The film's opening scene, a three-minute zoom-out of Amerigo Bonasera and Don Corleone, was achieved with a computer-controlled zoom lens, which had earlier been used in Silent Running It was still only a page outline. Gordon Willis was forced to use overhead lighting for Marlon Brando 's scenes, because of his make-up. He decided to extend it throughout, which is one reason the movie is so dark. According to Robert Evans in his autobiography, Colombo called his house and threatened him and his family.

Paramount Pictures received many letters during pre-production from Italian-Americans, including politicians, decrying the film as anti-Italian. They threatened to protest and disrupt filming.

Producer Albert S. Ruddy met with Colombo, who demanded that the terms "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra" not be used in the film. Ruddy gave them the right to review the script and make changes. He also agreed to hire League members mobsters as extras and advisers.

The angry letters ceased after this agreement was made. Paramount Pictures owner Charlie Bluhdorn read about the agreement in The New York Times, and was so outraged, that he fired Ruddy and shut down production, but Evans convinced Bluhdorn that the agreement was beneficial for the film, and Ruddy was rehired. They would often have screaming rows, with a few broken props as a result. After one incident, such a loud noise exploded from Coppola's office that the crew thought that Coppola had shot himself he had only broken a door.

They also conflicted because Willis was very hard on the actors and actresses about hitting their marks, with his low lighting scheme, if they missed, they would be filmed in total darkness. Coppola, on the other hand, considered himself a protector of actors and actresses. He felt that he could get the most out of them by nurturing them. He's a war hero. The presenters of the award were Roger Moore and Liv Ullmann.

When Moore offered the statuette to Littlefeather, she snubbed him and proceeded with her speech about the film industry's mistreatment of Native Americans. Many of the events in his novel are based on actual incidents that occurred in the lives of Profaci, Genovese, and their families.

Puzo based Don Vito's personality on his own mother's. Robert Evans was unimpressed by them, and insisted that official screentests be held. The studio spent four hundred twenty thousand dollars on the screentests, but in the end, the actors and actresses Coppola originally wanted were hired.

The only comment Robert Duvall made about his performance was that he wished "they would have made a better hairpiece" for his character. During the 45th Anniversary reunion in , Al Pacino , to Diane Keaton 's amusement, revealed that during the filming of the wedding scene, they both "got back" as it was "chaos", and he thought that the film would not do so well.

He stated: "we started drinking and we were just talking about 'where do we go from here? We're done. It's the worst film ever made. Marlon Brando based some of his performance on Al Lettieri , who plays Sollozzo. While preparing for On the Waterfront , Brando became friendly with Lettieri, whose relative was a real-life Mafioso. For the long exterior shots of Tom entering the studio lot, and Tom and Jack Woltz walking around the grounds, the second unit filmed extras with wigs and hats in order to avoid having to pay Robert Duvall and John Marley.

According to Albert S. Ruddy 's assistant, Bettye McCartt , Ruddy was warned by police that the Mafia was following his car. Ruddy would switch cars with McCartt in an effort to lose them. One night, McCartt found her car with the windows shot out and a note that read, "Shut down the movie or else. Paramount Pictures senior management, dissatisfied with the early rushes, considered replacing Francis Ford Coppola with Elia Kazan , with the hope that Kazan would be able to work with the notoriously difficult Marlon Brando.

Brando announced that he would quit the film if Coppola was fired, and the studio backed down. Paramount Pictures brass apparently did not know of Brando's dismay with Kazan over his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the s. To add a sense of reality to the wedding scene and because he only had two days to shoot it , Francis Ford Coppola had the cast freely act out and improvise in the background of the wedding scene.

He then shot specific vignettes amongst the action. Although the dark photography of Gordon Willis was eventually copied by many other films, when the developed film came back from the lab, Paramount Pictures executives thought the look was a mistake.

They ordered a different look, but Willis and Francis Ford Coppola refused. The film was set and shot in New York City, at over one hundred locations. Originally, the entire film was to be shot in the Hollywood backlots, in order to save production costs. However, production designer Dean Tavoularis threatened to add two stories to each backlot building in order to replicate the look of New York City, and the studio relented, and allowed for shooting in New York City.

The studio originally wanted to scrap the now-iconic "puppet strings" logo which was first created by graphic designer S. Neil Fujita for the novel's release with Mario Puzo 's name above the title for the movie release, but Francis Ford Coppola insisted on keeping it, because Puzo co-wrote the script with him.

As the film's grosses climbed, Coppola and George Lucas went car shopping, and bought a Mercedes Benz stretch limousine, instructing the salesman to send the bill to "Paramount Pictures. Real-life gangsters responded enthusiastically to the film, with many of them feeling it was a portrayal of how they were supposed to act. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former underboss in the Gambino crime family, stated: "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.

It was incredible. I remember talking to a multitude of guys, made guys, who felt exactly the same way. Intiso would frequently swear and use poor grammar, but after the movie came out, he started to articulate and philosophize more.

It was not until after Paul was killed in , did Richard reveal to her that Paul was his uncle. James Caan was at first considered to play first Tom Hagen for what he actually auditioned , and then Michael Corleone, before being eventually being cast as Sonny Corleone. James Caan hung out with various disreputable characters, in order to better understand the underworld lifestyle. Paramount Pictures wanted the film to appeal to a wide audience, and threatened Francis Ford Coppola with a "violence coach" to make the film more exciting.

Coppola added a few more violent scenes to keep the studio happy. The scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added for this reason. Originally, Francis Ford Coppola was against directing the film, as he felt it glorified the Mafia and violence, and it would reflect poorly on his Italian-Sicilian heritage.

However, he eagerly took the job, once he thought of making it an allegory of American capitalism. Mary's Mario Puzo was very proud of one particular line from the novel, "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns". He was adamant that it be used in the film, but Marlon Brando felt it was too preachy, and it was excised. Oscar winner Rod Steiger campaigned hard for the role of Michael, even though he was too old for the part.

Beatty was also offered directing and producing duties. Evans explained that Redford could fit the role, as he could be perceived as "northern Italian". Evans eventually lost the struggle over the actor he derided as "The Midget".