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1. Who directed The Godfather?
Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola was in his early thirties and far from the studio's first choice, and he spent the shoot fighting to keep his job. He wrote the screenplay with the author of the novel, and the two shared the Academy Award for it.
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2. The film is based on a 1969 bestseller by which writer?
Mario Puzo
Puzo wrote the book to pay off his debts, and it sold millions of copies before the film was made. He went on to co-write every Godfather screenplay and won Oscars for the first two.
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3. Who plays Don Vito Corleone?
Marlon Brando
Brando was considered a risk and had to screen-test for the part; he stuffed his cheeks with tissue to get the look of a bulldog. He won Best Actor and refused the award, sending Sacheen Littlefeather to the ceremony in his place.
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4. Which actor plays Michael, the youngest son?
Al Pacino
Pacino was a stage actor with one film to his name, and Paramount wanted a bigger star such as Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neal. Coppola held out for him, and the studio kept threatening to fire them both well into the shoot.
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5. What's the first line spoken in the film?
"I believe in America."
The undertaker Bonasera says it in the dark of the Don's study, asking for justice for his beaten daughter while a wedding goes on outside. The third line is from Part III, made eighteen years later.
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6. What does the Hollywood producer Jack Woltz find in his bed after refusing the Don?
The head of his prized racehorse
The Don wanted a part in a war picture for his godson, the singer Johnny Fontane, and Woltz said no. The head was a real one, obtained from a dog food company, which is part of why the scream in the scene sounds so genuine.
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7. Which capo says "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli"?
Clemenza
Richard Castellano's Clemenza says it after Paulie, the driver who sold out the Don, is shot in the car. The cannoli were added on the day: his wife had asked him to bring some home, and the line about them is said to have been improvised.
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8. What's Tom Hagen's role in the family?
Consigliere, the family's adviser
Robert Duvall plays the adopted son who became the family's counsellor, an Irish-German in a Sicilian world. The other families never let him forget it, and his lack of Sicilian blood becomes an issue once the fighting starts.
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9. The oranges that keep turning up in the film are usually read as a sign of what?
Death or danger is near
They appear just before the Don is shot, in the Woltz meeting, and more than once later on. The production designer has said it began as a way of putting colour into dark scenes, but audiences have treated them as an omen ever since.
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10. Where does Michael go to hide after things turn violent in New York?
Sicily
He spends months in the hills near the village of Corleone, the place the family's name comes from, and marries a local girl named Apollonia. Havana and Lake Tahoe belong to Part II.
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11. James Caan plays which of the Corleone brothers?
Sonny
Sonny is the hot-headed eldest, the one everyone expected to take over. Caan had first been considered for Michael, and John Cazale, a stage actor with no film credits, was cast as Fredo.
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12. Who composed the score, with its famous waltz?
Nino Rota
Rota had been scoring Fellini's films for twenty years. His love theme was ruled out of the Oscars that year because he had reused a melody from an earlier film of his, though he did win for Part II.
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13. How many Academy Awards did the film win?
Three
Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. Three of its supporting actors, Caan, Duvall and Pacino, were nominated against each other, and all three lost to Joel Grey in Cabaret.
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14. The cat in the Don's lap in the opening scene was...
A stray found wandering the studio lot
Coppola found it wandering the Paramount lot and put it in Brando's hands shortly before the scene. It purred so loudly that some of Brando's lines had to be re-recorded afterwards.
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15. Which line does Michael say about the family business?
"It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."
He says it while planning his first killing, the moment the war hero becomes his father's son. The second line is from Part II, and the other two belong to Vito.
