‘The Godfather’ 50th anniversary: A legacy made from gut feelings, pranks and fate
It’s a story you can’t refuse to read.
Fifty years ago, the first installment of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” hit theaters on March 24, 1972, revitalizing the career of Marlon Brando and making a star out of Al Pacino.
To celebrate the momentous occasion, the film was just re-released in theatres, and the entire trilogy had been painstakingly restored and will be out in 4k Ultra HD for the first time in March.
“We felt privileged to restore these films and a little in awe,” said Andrea Kalas, the senior vice president of the archive for Paramount Pictures. “We were able to witness first-hand how the brilliant cinematography, score, production design, costume design, editing, performances, and, of course, screenwriting and direction became famously more than the sum of their parts.”
Here, cast and crew recall some memorable moments from behind the scenes of the cinematic masterpiece.
“Robert Duvall, Jimmy Caan, and even Marlon participated in a lot of pranks and fun on the set. They kept mooning each other and things like that,” Fred Roos, who served as a producer and casting director on the first two films, told The Post. “Once there was a sequence where Marlon had been wounded and had to be carried by Jimmy and Duvall. He had the prop people put heavy rocks in with his clothing so it weighed a ton. Those were the kind of jokes that Marlon liked to play.”
Co-star James Caan also recalled Brando having a great sense of humor, but said “he would have trouble figuring out the f–king punchline sometimes . . . he was like a child.”
Pacino wasn’t part of the shenanigans and just focused on playing Michael Corleone.
“Al was too into his character and it was a major, major break in his career. He was totally consumed by his character and preparing that he was not in the mood for fun or hijinks,” Roos said. “He was still part of the team and there was no animosity or anything, he was just very into himself during the shoot … he just had a different way of working.”
The higher-ups in Hollywood almost whacked Brando’s chance at playing the boss.
“The studio heads were just dead against [Brando] because of his down position in the industry, being considered box office poison, being difficult, and all of that,” Roos told The Post.
To convince the bigwigs, Coppola went over to Brando’s house with a very early video camera.
“Francis didn’t explain it to Marlon like it was a screen test, it was just, ‘Let’s experiment with some things on this character just for the fun of it.’” Roos said. “Marlon probably knew what was going on, but he didn’t object and Francis went to New York and showed the tape to the owner of Paramount, Charlie Bluhdorn, and he was blown away by what he saw and let us cast him.”
Shooting the scene in which Sonny, the Corleone brother played by Caan, is killed involved some heavy artillery. “I told Francis the other night I would never have shot that scene under any other conditions — but there were girls on the set, and I couldn’t look like a p—y,” Caan said. “That’s the only reason I did it. There were 147 squibs on my body … Those squibs were made like brass caskets, a square inch of brass with a little V on top where they pour gundpowder and they were sewn into my jacket. The effects guy, AD Flowers, said, “I don’t know if I ever put this many squibs on anybody, ever.”
