NOVEMBER 2022:
THE FILM THAT ALMOST NEVER WAS…
Since the Paramount+ limited series The Offer deals with The Godfather‘s production, this review will discuss that production in detail. It’s hard to believe that The Godfather was almost never made, Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the film in 1969 when Mario Puzo released the novel of the same title, and long before the film actually started production in 1971. Robert Evans, the head of Paramount was reluctant to make another gangster film as they had proven to be box office failures in recent years and the studio needed a hit before Charles Bluhdorn, the owner of Paramount’s parent company, Gulf +Western decided to sell the studio and break even over failed box office profits for a string of films that had been released. It would be fate that put The Godfather in the hands of Albert S. Ruddy to produce and the nightmare that would become the production of the landmark gangster film and one of the greatest movies of all time would be gossip for the film history ages to come.
PRODUCING A GANGSTER CLASSIC…
Mario Puzo’s The Godfather remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 67 weeks and the novel sold over nine million copies in two years. For several years the novel published in 1969 became the best-selling published work in history for several years. Paramount originally found out about Puzo’s novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company had contacted Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about the unfinished novel’s sixty-page manuscript titled Mafia at the time. Bart believed there was more to the novel than the mafia story and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with another option of $80,000 if the finished novel was adapted into a film. Despite Candida Donadio, Puzo’s literary agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo had written the novel because he was deeply in debt and saw it as a way to get out of the red and accepted the deal with Paramount and disclosed to Evans that he really needed the money to pay off gambling debts.
In March 1967, Paramount announced that they were fully supporting the Puzo upcoming novel in hopes of making it into a film. In 1969, Paramount confirmed their intentions to make a film out of the novel with the $80,000 option deal and to stave off other competing studios from propositioning Bluhdorn to sell the rights to one of them because they could better handle the budget of such a highly anticipated film adaption. Paramount announced they were aiming for the film to have a Christmas Day release in 1971, and on March 23, 1970, Albert S. Ruddy was officially announced as the film’s producer, he had pitched a good idea at his interview to studio executives for the film and Ruddy was also known for bringing his films into production and ending under budget.
THE DIRECTION OF ONE OF THE GREATS…
Robert Evans felt the film should be directed by an Italian American to make the story of the film more authentic and “Ethnic to the core”. And while Evans hesitated to greenlight the production after Paramount’s last mafia film, The Brotherhood did poorly at the box office, Evans believed that the reason the film failed was the lack of star cast members and that the creative personnel on the film had no one of Italian descent. Paramount had initially chosen Sergio Leone as the director of The Godfather, but he turned down the option to direct in order to work on his own gangster film, Once Upon a Time in America. There would be a long line of requested directors who would turn down Paramount including, Peter Bogdanovic who had no interest in making a film about the mafia, as well as Peter Yates, Richard Brooks, Arthur Penn, Costa-Gavras, and Otto Preminger who were all asked to direct and turned down the option to helm The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola was suggested by Evans’ chief assistant Peter Bart who recommended Coppola as a director of Italian ancestry and since his latest film, The Rain People did poorly at the box office, he was willing to work for a low sum and budget to get the film made. At first Coppola had turned down the offer to direct because he thought that Puzo’s novel was sleazy and sensationalist, but Coppola’s studio American Zoetrope, owed Warner Bros. Pictures over $400,000 for budget overruns with the film, THX 1138 and his financial standing wasn’t doing well after a box office failure, so after conferring with friends and family he reconsidered and took the offer from Paramount to direct The Godfather. Coppola was officially announced as the film’s director by Paramount on September 28, 1970, and agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of the gross income from rentals of the film. Coppola would reconsider his thoughts on Puzo’s novel when agreeing to the do the film and at second glance thought the film should represent the deeper theme material of the novel and the film should not be about organized crime, it should be about the family that happens to be an organized crime family. Coppola decided the film would represent a metaphor for capitalism in America.
THE COPPOLA AND PARAMOUNT FAMILY…
As stated earlier, Paramount was hesitant to make The Godfather due to an unsuccessful period the studio was going through. In addition to the failure of their most recent mafia film, The Brotherhood, other recent films that the studio had produced and co-produced, Darling Lili, Paint Your Wagon, and Waterloo had all exceeded their budgets to a great degree. The budget for The Godfather and Coppola had been set at $2.5 million, but as the novel grew in popularity and with that the anticipation of the film adaption, Coppola argued for and ultimately received a larger budget. Coppola also argued with the studio about shooting the film as a contemporary 1970s film rather than a 1940s and 1950s period film, the studio wanted to shoot it as contemporary and on the backlot of Paramount in order to cut down on production costs, but Coppola argued and ultimately wo the argument that the film doesn’t work as a contemporary film and would fail if it was not set in the 1940s and 1950s as the novel depicts. Coppola’s reasons included: Michael Corleone’s Marine Corps stint serving in World War II, the emergence of corporate America in the 1940s and 1950s and how America recovered in the years after World War II. His argument was supported by the increasing popularity and success of the novel and so Coppola eventually got the budget and film vision he desired without any more interference from Paramount. The studio even agreed to let Coppola film on location in New York City and Sicily.
Gulf + Western’s Charles Bluhdorn did however, become increasingly frustrated with Coppola over a number of screen tests he had performed without finding a cast member among them to play the various roles. The conflicts with Coppola and Paramount met with Coppola’s indecisiveness quickly led the production to fall behind. With the costs of the production rising as a result, Paramount had then-Vice president Jack Ballard keep a close eye on the production of The Godfather and its rising expenses. Coppola felt under pressure and assumed he could be fired at any moment if the Paramount executives were not happy with the decisions he was making. This was made more relevant by the fact that Coppola was aware that Evans had asked Elia Kazan to take over directing the film because he feared that Coppola was too inexperienced to cope with the increased size of the production. Coppola was also convinced that the film editor, Aram Avakian, and the assistant director, Steve Kestner, were conspiring with Ballard to get him fired. Avakian had complained to Evans that he could not do his job right and edit the scenes correctly because Coppola was not shooting enough footage. Evans was satisfied with the daily footage, or dailies, being sent to the West Coast and authorized Coppola to fire them both. Marlon Brando even had threatened to quit the production if Coppola was fired.
Coppola later stated on the firings during the production,
“Like the godfather, I fired people as a preemptory strike. The people who were angling the most to have me fired, I had fired.”
– Francis Ford Coppola about The Godfather production.
Paramount was worried the film wouldn’t appeal to a wider audience looking for a gangster film and that it needed more violence and threatened Coppola with a “violence coach” to make the film more exciting. Coppola added a few more violent scenes as a result to keep the studio happy, and so the scene in which Connie smashes crockery after finding out Carlo has been cheating was added to the film.
THE FAMILY AFFAIR OF SCRIPT WRITING…
It was announced on April 14, 1970, that Puzo was hired by Paramount for $100,000 to write the screenplay, and would also be paid a percentage of the film’s profits. This was out of the ordinary in Hollywood, because at the time studios were reluctant to hire authors of novels adapted for film, due to it being difficult for them to condense their writings to a smaller scale and leave out elements for the allotted screen time given. Working from the novel, Coppola chose to focus the film on the themes of culture, character, power and family as the forefront of The Godfather, where as Puzo argued retaining aspects and subplots of novel and keeping them for the film. After Coppola’s hiring as director, the studio agreed to let him work on the screenplay with Puzo to get it within the parameters the studio had set for the budget and screen time. Puzo and Coppola worked on their screenplays separately, with Puzo working on his draft from Los Angeles and Coppola writing his version in San Francisco. While Coppola wrote his screenplay, he created his own version of Puzo’s novel to shoot from by tearing out pages from Puzo’s original novel and pasting them into the shooting novel he had created. In the Coppola-created shooting novel the director would make notes about each of the novel’s fifty scenes, and the notes written related to the major themes prevalent in the scene, whether the scene should be included in the film, and Coppola’s notes included ideas and concepts that could be used while filming to help keep the Italian culture of the film more authentic. Puzo and Coppola remained in contact while writing their respective screenplays and made decisions on what to keep in the film and what to omit from the novel for the final film version. Puzo’s initial draft of his screenplay was completed on August 10, 1970, and totaled 150 pages, the second draft of the screenplay completed by both Puzo and Coppola was completed on March 1, 1971, and totaled 173 pages long, and the final cut of the screenplay was finished on March 29, 1971, and totaled out to 163 pages long. Considering that one page amounts to about a minute of screen time, the studio was still not thrilled that in all the time it took to write the screenplay as it was still too long and concessions would have to be made by Coppola to shorten the film because the screenplay was still 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for. Coppola often referred to the shooting novel notebook he had created over the final draft of the screenplay when filming, and Screenwriter Robert Towne, known for writing the screenplay for the film Chinatown, was uncredited for the work he did on the screenplay, he was responsible for the Pacino-Brando garden scene. The screenplay was revised, and scenes were added throughout the production.
The Italian American Civil Rights League, led by co-founder mob boss Joseph Colombo, fought a public campaign to shut the film down due to his believing the film emphasized the stereotypes about Italian Americans and wanted the words “mafia” and “Cosa Nostra” removed from the script, and Paramount would have to donate the proceeds from the film premiere to the League’s fund to build a new hospital. Coppola didn’t see the omission of the words as a problem because he told the studio and Ruddy that it only appeared in Puzo’s script in two instances where consigliere Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, says “mafia” but the word “Cosa Nostra” is never used. So, Coppola removed them without compromising the story told.
The League would eventually support the filming of The Godfather in New York City, but not before the windows of producer Albert S. Ruddy’s car had been shot out and a note was left on his dashboard that read,
“shutdown the movie – or else”
– Mafia ultimatum note left in Albert S. Ruddy’s car along with warning shots
AN ICONIC FAMILY BORN…
Puzo had written a letter to Marlon Brando about his novel being made into a film and he stated in the letter that he was the “only actor who can play the Godfather”. Despite Puzo’s strong wishes for the lead in the film, Paramount executives were against having Brando, due to his reputation for being hard to work with and he was doing poorly at the box office. Lawrence Olivier was considered for the role, but he turned it down and before the studio could be convinced by Coppola, other actors considered for the part were Ernest Borgnine, George C. Scott, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, and Orsen Welles. Paramount debated the casting of Brando for months with Coppola, and Paramount president Stanley Jaffe finally agreed that if Brando performed a screen test and it went well, Coppola could hire him. Coppola did not want to offend Brando and stated that he needed to test equipment in order to set up the screen test at Brando‘s California residence. For make-up, Brando stuck cotton balls in his cheeks, put shoe polish in his hair to darken it, and rolled his collar. Coppola placed Brando‘s audition tape in the middle of the videos of the audition tapes as the Paramount executives watched them. The executives were impressed with Brando‘s efforts and allowed Coppola to cast Brando for the role if Brando accepted a lower salary and put up a bond to ensure he would not cause any delays in production. Brando earned $1.6 million from a net participation deal.
Robert De Niro was originally given the part of Paulie Gatto but when a spot in The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight opened after Al Pacino quit the film in favor of The Godfather, De Niro auditioned for the role and left The Godfather after getting the part. When the film began production, Michael Corleone had not yet been cast, Paramount wanted either Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. Coppola favored Pacino from the beginning of the production, but Paramount thought he was too short to be a leading actor on screen in the role. Burt Reynolds was offered the role but when Brando threatened to quit, Reynolds left the film and offer to play Michael. James Caan also auditioned for the role, Caan was well received by the Paramount executives and was given the part of Michael initially, while the role of Sonny Corleone was awarded to Carmine Caridi. Coppola still pushed for Pacino to play Michael after the fact and Evans eventually conceded, allowing Pacino to have the role of Michael as long as Caan played Sonny. Evans preferred Caan over Caridi because Caan was seven inches shorter than Caridi, which was much closer to Pacino‘s height. Despite agreeing to play Michael Corleone, Pacino was contracted to star in MGM‘s The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, but the two studios agreed on a settlement and Pacino was signed by Paramount three weeks before shooting began.
In the theme of family, Coppola gave several roles in the film to family members. Talia Shire, his sister, was given the role of Connie Corleone. His daughter Sofia Coppola played Michael Francis Rizzi, Connie’s and Carlo’s newborn son, and Sofia would then go on to play Michael Corleone’s grown daughter Mary in The Godfather Part III. Carmine Coppola, his father, appeared in the film as an extra playing the piano during a scene. And Coppola’s wife, mother, and two sons all appeared as extras in The Godfather.
FAMILY HOME VIDEOS…
Before the initial filming of The Godfather began, the cast received a two-week period for rehearsal, which included a dinner in the character of their roles for the film for the duration of the dinner. Filming was set to begin on March 29, 1971, with the scene between Michael and Kay Adams leaving Best & Co. in New York City after shopping for Christmas gifts. When the weather was predicting snow flurries the week before, Ruddy moved up the production schedule to start shooting on March 23, but it never snowed, and a snow machine was used. Principal filming for The Godfather continued in New York City until July 2, 1971. Before the production was set to head to Sicily to film, Coppola requested a three-week break before heading overseas. After the crew left to film in Sicily it was announced by Paramount that the film would be moved to early 1972.
Gordon Willis was the cinematographer for The Godfather but had initially turned down the opportunity to film it because he thought the production seemed “chaotic” to him. After Willis later accepted the offer, he and Coppola agreed that they would film the movie without any modern filming devices such as helicopters, and zoom lenses. Willis and Coppola also agreed to shoot the film in a “tableau format” of filming to make it seem as if you were viewing the film like a painting. Willis made use of shadows and low light levels throughout the film to showcase psychological developments and had agreed with Coppola to interplay light and dark scenes throughout the film. Willis also underexposed the film in order to create a “yellow tone” for the viewers watching. The scenes shot in Sicily were filmed to display the countryside and a more romantic land that gave off a softer feel than the New York City scenes.
One of The Godfather’s most shocking scenes involved an actual severed horse’s head. Coppola received some criticism for the scene, although the head was obtained from a dog-food company from a horse that was to be killed regardless of the film. The scene where Sonny Corleone is killed was shot on a runway at Michell Field in Uniondale, where three tollbooths were built, along with guard rails, and billboards to set the scene up to look like a highway tollbooth entrance. Sonny’s car was a 1941 Lincoln Continental with holes drilled in it to resemble bullet holes. The scene took three days to film and cost over $100,000.
Coppola had requested to film on location for most of the movie and about 90 percent of the film was shot on location in New York City and its surrounding boroughs and suburbs that included over 120 distinct locations. Several scenes were filmed on location at Filmways in East Harlem, while the remaining portions were filmed in California, or on-site in Sicily. The scenes set in Las Vegas were not shot on location due to insufficient funds in the production budget. The scenes shot on location in Sicily were shot in the towns of Savoca and Forza d’Agró. The opening wedding scene was shot on location in a Staten Island neighborhood using almost 750 locals as extras for the scene. The home that was used as the Corleone family compound and the wedding location was at 110 Longfellow Avenue in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island. The wall you see around the compound in the film was actually made from Styrofoam and the scenes set around the Corleone olive oil business were filmed on Mott Street in Manhattan.
After filming had ended on August 7, 1971, post-production efforts were focused on trimming the film to a manageable length. In addition, Ruddy and Coppola were still including and removing different scenes from the end product, along with trimming certain sequences. In September, the first rough cut of the film was viewed. Many of the scenes removed from the film were centered around Sonny, which did not advance the plot. By November, Coppola and Ruddy finished the semi-final cut. Debates over personnel involved with the final editing remained even 25 years after the release of the film. The film was shown to Paramount staff and exhibitors in late December 1971 and January 1972.
A MASTERPIECE COMPLETED…
The world premiere for The Godfather took place at Loews’s State Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, March 14, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971, with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys’ Club of New York. Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from advance rentals from over 400 theaters. The following day, the film opened in five theaters in New York, at the Loew’s State I and II, Orpheum, Cine, and Tower East. Next was the Imperial Theatre in Toronto on March 17 and then Los Angeles at two theaters on March 22. The Godfather was released on March 24, 1972, throughout the rest of the United States reaching 316 theaters five days later.
The television rights were sold for a record $10 million to NBC for one showing over two nights. The theatrical version of The Godfather debuted on American Network Television and NBC with only minor edits. The first half of the film aired on Saturday, November 16, 1974, and the second half two days later. The television airings attracted a large audience with an average Nielsen rating of 38.2 and audience share of 59% making it the eighth most-watched film on television, with the broadcast of the second half getting the third-best rating for a film on TV behind Airport and Love Story with a rating of 39.4 and 57% share. The broadcast helped generate anticipation for the upcoming sequel. The next year, Coppola created The Godfather Saga expressly for American television in a release that combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II with unused footage from those two films in a chronological telling that toned down the violent, sexual, and profane material for its NBC debut on November 18, 1977. In 1981, Paramount released the Godfather Epic boxed set, which also told the story of the first two films in chronological order, again with additional scenes, but not redacted for broadcast sensibilities. The Godfather Trilogy was released in 1992, with the release of The Godfather Part III in 1990, in which the films are fundamentally in chronological order.
During the film’s original release in 1972, the original negatives were worn down due to the reel being printed so much to meet demand. In addition, the duplicate negative was lost in Paramount archives. In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg—whose studio DreamWorks had recently been bought out by Paramount—about restoring The Godfather. Robert A. Harris was hired to oversee the restoration of The Godfather and it’s two sequels, with the film’s cinematographer Willis participating in the restoration. Work began in November 2006 by repairing the negatives so they could go through a digital scanner to produce high-resolution 4K files. If a negative was damaged and discolored, work was done digitally to restore it to its original look. After a year and a half of working on the restoration, the project was complete. Paramount called the finished product The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and released it to the public on September 23, 2008, on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Dave Kehr of The New York Times believed the restoration brought back the “golden glow of their original theatrical screenings”. As a whole, the restoration of the film was well-received by critics and Coppola. The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration contains several new special features that play in high definition, and it included additional scenes, behind-the-scenes footage, etc.
Paramount Pictures restored and remastered The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone which was a re-edited cut of the The Godfather Part III for a limited theatrical run and home media release on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of The Godfather. The disc editions were released on March 22, 2022.
MY REVIEW AS THE OFFER NOT TO REFUSE…
My review covers the elements of the production of The Godfather that play out over the course of the ten-episode limited series, The Offer while the Paramount+ limited series didn’t cover all the bases of the chaos of the production of this classic film and focuses heavily on the mafia involvement aspect of the production, and tells the story of the other elements of the dram in the production in between, it’s a series worth watching if you’re a fan of The Godfather and had any curiosity about how one of the greatest films in history was made or if you were ever wondering what exactly a producer does when making a film. While the series has some critical issues with timelines, including the involvement of Tommy Lucchese in the mafia storyline, when he actually died of cancer in 1967 before the novel was even written by Mario Puzo, the limited series is a good dose of classic Hollywood gossip and the world that turns in California filmmaking, and who doesn’t like a good dose of gossip tea spilled all over them?
All 10 episodes of The Offer are available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ now or are available for purchase at your preferred retail store.