The Godfather at 50
With The Godfather celebrating its 50th anniversary, the film’s director getting his own road – Francis Ford Coppola Street - and the movie being voted the nation's favourite gangster movie of all time, we seek out the Jewish connections to the mob masterpiece.
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
1. In 1969, Paramount confirmed their intentions to make a film out of Mario Puzo’s novel. The budget was $80,000 and in March 1970, the studio signed Albert S Ruddy as the producer. The Canadian Jewish former TV writer had impressed them with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget. His first hire as producer was for Wild Seed (1965) and he was given the job by Marlon Brando Sr, father of the late actor and Godfather star.
2. Before Francis Ford Coppola got the director gig it was offered to others including Jewish directors, the late Peter Bogdanovich and Otto Preminger. All those offered the position declined.
3. Mafia don Vito Corleone’s eldest son Sonny is played by Jewish actor James Caan. Originally considered for the role of youngest son Michael, Coppola as director then demanded the role be played by Al Pacino. Robert De Niro, who played the young Vito in Godfather Part II, was briefly considered for Sonny before actor Carmine Caridi was given the part, but the studio wanted Caan.
4. The final screenplay was finished on March 29, 1971 and at 163 pages long, it was 40 pages over what Paramount had asked for. Jewish screenwriter Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz) did uncredited work on the script.
5. At the start of filming on March 29, Michael Corleone had yet to be cast. Paramount executives wanted a big name such as Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. Jewish actor Ryan O’Neal was mooted due to his success in Love Story, but Al Pacino was Coppola’s favourite for the role – he wanted an unknown actor who looked Italian-American. Paramount executives felt Pacino was too short to play Michael and so Dustin Hoffman, Martin Sheen, and James Caan were asked to audition, before Burt Reynolds was offered the role. Marlon Brando then threatened to quit so Reynolds turned it down.
6. Everyone assumed the late Abe Vigoda was Italian when he played mobster traitor Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather, but Abraham Charles Vigoda was the son of Russian Jewish parents and the doomed Tessio was his first credited movie role.
7. Jewish actor John Marley plays a notable but small role as defiant movie mogul Jack Woltz, who awakens to find the severed head of his prized horse in his bed. Not a scene anyone forgets.
8. Several of the film’s mafia characters are based on Jewish mobsters such as Morris ‘Moe’ Greene, who was inspired by Bugsy Siegel. Like Greene in the film Siegel, a hitman, launched Las Vegas operating the luxury casino the Flamingo. Siegel and Greene also met similar fates receiving bullets in their eyes. In Godfather Part II Actors’ Studio founder Lee Strasberg is Hyman Roth, a character drawn from Meyer Lansky, the dangerous gambling innovator. Legend has it that Lansky called Strasberg after the premiere and said: “You could have made me more sympathetic. After all, I am a grandfather.”
9. In 2006 Coppola contacted Steven Spielberg—whose studio DreamWorks had recently been bought out by Paramount – to ask about restoring The Godfather. The result of this request is now in the cinema.
10. The Offer is an upcoming biographical-drama miniseries about the making of the landmark mafia film. Whiplash star Miles Teller plays Jewish producer Albert S Ruddy and Jewish actor Dan Fogler, best known as Jacob Kowalski in Fantastic Beasts, is Francis Ford Coppola.
All three Godfather films have been meticulously restored under Coppola’s direction and will be available on 4K Ultra HD for the first time on March 22.
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