The Godfather hidden details: the stray cat, the oranges and Brando's screen test
The Godfather hidden details include a cat that was never in the script. The cat Marlon Brando strokes in the opening scene was a stray found on the Paramount lot and handed to him before shooting, and accounts say it purred so loudly that some dialogue had to be re-recorded.
Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film won Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando and Best Adapted Screenplay. Its making was a fight at almost every stage, and many of its famous images came from practical decisions rather than grand design. Here are the details worth knowing.
The Godfather hidden details: the oranges, symbol or accident?
Oranges appear before several deaths and attacks, most famously when Vito is shot while buying fruit. Fans read them as an omen. Production designer Dean Tavoularis has said the reason was practical: the film was dark and oranges made a nice contrast, and he did not remember anyone choosing them as a symbol. He knew cinematographer Gordon Willis shot with little light, so a bright colour helped. Coppola has described the orange as a symbol of Italy.
Brando's screen test
Paramount executives did not want Brando because of his recent flops and temper. Mario Puzo had written to Brando that he was the only actor who could play the Godfather. Coppola arranged a test at Brando's home, presented as an equipment check so as not to offend him. Brando stuffed cotton balls in his cheeks, darkened his hair with shoe polish and rolled his collar. Coppola placed the tape in the middle of a run of auditions, and the executives agreed on condition that Brando took a lower salary and posted a bond.
The horse head was real
The severed head of Woltz's prized racehorse Khartoum was real. It came from a dog-food company, from a horse that was going to be killed anyway. Coppola still received criticism for the scene, and sources disagree on where it was filmed.
Production details you might miss
Many small choices shaped the film's look and feel.
- Willis and Coppola agreed to avoid zoom lenses, helicopters and other modern devices, shooting in a tableau style; Willis underexposed the film for a yellow tone.
- The first scene filmed was Michael and Kay leaving a store; snow was forecast, did not arrive, and a snow machine was used.
- Sonny's tollbooth death took three days, cost over $100,000 and used a 1941 Lincoln Continental drilled with holes.
- The Corleone compound wall was made of styrofoam, and the house was on Longfellow Avenue in Staten Island.
- Coppola's father, Carmine, wrote some of the music played by the band at the wedding.
How the script came together
Coppola initially turned the job down, calling Puzo's novel pretty cheap stuff. Once hired, he and Puzo wrote separately, Puzo in Los Angeles and Coppola in San Francisco. Coppola built a notebook by tearing pages out of the novel and pasting them in with his notes. Robert Towne did uncredited work, particularly on the garden scene between Michael and Vito. Coppola said the script used the word mafia only twice. Before filming, the cast rehearsed for two weeks, including a dinner where everyone stayed in character. Nino Rota's score was nearly rejected by Paramount's Robert Evans as too highbrow.
Questions people ask
Was the cat in The Godfather planned?
No. It was a stray found on the Paramount lot and given to Brando before the scene.
Do the oranges in The Godfather mean death?
Fans read them that way, but production designer Dean Tavoularis said they were chosen as a colour contrast, not a symbol.
Was the horse head real?
Yes. It came from a dog-food company, from a horse that was going to be killed regardless.