Godfather Trivia: Mind-Blowing Facts About "The Godfather"

For more than 50 years, The Godfather has been the gold standard of Hollywood mafia movies. Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece about the Corleone family business spawned one of the greatest sequels of all time, The Godfather Part II, as well as endless debates among film buffs over whether The Godfather Part III holds up. But even if you’re not a superfan, knowing a bit of Godfather trivia can come in handy on game night—and we’re here to help.

Reader’s Digest compiled 10 of the most mind-blowing Godfather trivia tidbits to give you an insider’s look at the making of this iconic movie classic. Keep reading to finally get to the bottom of that horse-head thing, along with other Godfather lore.

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1. Marlon Brando used cue cards

Marlon Brando insisted that reading his lines during a take increased his spontaneity and made his lines sound less canned. “If you don’t know what the words are, but you have a general idea of what they are, then you look at the cue card. Then it gives you the feeling as the viewer, hopefully, that the person is really searching for what he is going to say,” Brando said in the documentary The Making of Superman: The Movie.

Brando began using cue cards as early as 1966. Directors taped the cards to lamps, bushes and even other actors to keep them from showing up in the shot.

2. One of the movie’s most famous lines was improvised

Even if you don’t know anything about The Godfather, you probably recognize the memorable quote “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli,” uttered by capo Peter Clemenza after a certain dirty deed. Actor Richard Castellano improvised that line after director Francis Ford Coppola added a line in an earlier scene in which Clemenza’s wife says, “Don’t forget the cannoli!”

3. The horse’s head was real …

Horse Head Scene From The Movie The Godfather Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

… as were actor John Marley’s screams. A fake horse head was used in rehearsals, but when the cameras were actually rolling, Coppola replaced it with the real thing, much to Marley’s surprise.

4. The words “mafia” and “mob” aren’t uttered in the movie

After a meeting with the Italian-American Civil Rights League, an organization formed to combat the use of stereotypes about that group, producer Albert S. Ruddy agreed to omit the words from the script (though they didn’t appear much anyway). The closest it gets is the newspaper headline “Mobster Barzini Questioned in Underworld Feud” the day after Michael’s killing spree in the Italian restaurant.

5. One of the movie’s most memorable scenes was a mistake

Brando And Montana In The Godfather Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Former pro wrestler Lenny Montana, who played Luca Brasi, was so nervous to act with Marlon Brando that he couldn’t muster a good take of the scene in the Godfather’s study on the day of his daughter’s wedding, despite a full day of shooting. Coppola didn’t have time to reshoot the scene, so he incorporated Montana’s best attempt in the movie. The result is a revealing look at the softer side of a merciless killer.

6. Sofia Coppola is in all three Godfather movies

Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter Sofia appears as the baby in the baptism scene in The Godfather, as an immigrant girl on the ship that brings Vito Corleone to Ellis Island in The Godfather Part II and, of course, as Michael Corleone’s daughter in The Godfather Part III (a role she got after actress Winona Ryder dropped out).

7. Brando turned down his Best Actor Oscar

When Roger Moore called Brando’s name for Best Actor on the evening of March 27, 1973, a diminutive, long-haired woman in Apache dress approached the stage. The woman, Sacheen Littlefeather, waved away the Academy Award statue and read from a statement: “I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you … that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award … [because] of the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.”

Brando had long been politically active and often voiced his support for the formation of a Jewish state, for African-American rights and for the Black Panther Party. Brando became the second person to decline the Academy Award for Best Actor. The first was George C. Scott, for Patton.

8. Brando didn’t stuff his mouth with cotton for the movie

Marlon Brando As Don Vito Corleone In The Godfather Paramount Pictures/Getty Images

He did it for the screen test in order to make Vito Corleone “look like a bulldog.” For the filming of the movie, he had a dentist make him a custom mouthpiece to create his sagging jowls.

9. “Don” doesn’t mean what you think it means

The bosses of each of the Five Families in The Godfather are referred to with the title Don (Don Corleone, Don Barzini, Don Cuneo). You’d be forgiven if you thought don specifically meant “murderous crime boss.” In fact, don comes from the Latin dominus, and it has long been a title of respect meaning lord, master or head of household.

10. Lots of famous actors failed to be cast in the film

Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro all wanted to play the part of Michael Corleone. As for Al Pacino, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role, he didn’t want it. “I thought, ‘How am I going to play this part?'” Pacino told Loaded magazine. “No one wanted me. Except for Coppola.”

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Sources:

CBR: “1 of The Godfather’s Biggest Changes From the Book Was Secretly the Movie’s Most Clever Trick”
Entertainment Weekly: “Storm over Sofia Coppola”
Guardian: “Godfather role was an offer Al Pacino could refuse”
History: “Marlon Brando declines Best Actor Oscar”
Hollywood Reporter: “An Offer He Can’t Refuse: Rare Look at Early ‘Godfather’ Drafts Reveal Famous Line’s Origins”
New York Times: “I Just Want to Be Normally Insane”
Screen Rant: “Is The Horse’s Head In The Godfather Real?”
Vanity Fair: “The Godfather Wars”