Trivia

The early buzz on The Godfather was so positive that a sequel was planned before the film was finished filming.

This was the last film printed in the US in the Technicolor "imbibition" printing process. The lab was held open for about three weeks for the film to be ready to print, and then it was disassembled and sent to Peking, China. The imbibition process was a three-strip dye transfer process that photochemical processes have yet to equal in richness and longevity of color rendition.

Bruno Kirby, who plays the young Clemenza (who was played by Richard S. Castellano in The Godfather) played Castellano's son in the TV series The Super.

Merle Johnson is played by Troy Donahue, whose real name is Merle Johnson.

Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro are the only two actors to ever win separate Oscars for playing the same character. Brando won Best Actor for The Godfather and De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for this movie, both in the role of Vito Corleone.

The first sequel to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Francis Ford Coppola, having nearly been fired several times from the first film, was given a Mercedes-Benz limousine from Paramount as a reward for the record success of The Godfather and an incentive to direct a sequel. He agreed on several conditions - that the sequel be interconnected with the first film with the intention of later showing them together; that he be allowed to direct his own script of The Conversation; that he be allowed to direct a production for the San Francisco Opera; and that he be allowed to write the screenplay for The Great Gatsby - all prior to production of the sequel for a Christmas 1974 release.

Editing continued up to the release date

James Caan asked that he be paid the same amount of money to play Sonny Corleone at the end of the film in the flashback as he was paid to do The Godfather. He got his wish.

Francis Ford Coppola considered bringing Marlon Brando back to play Vito Corleone as a young man, convinced that he could play at any age. As he worked on the script, though, he remembered Robert De Niro's exceptional audition for The Godfather and cast him without offering the part to Brando.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #32 Greatest Movie of All Time.

The flashback sequences with a young Vito were part of the original Godfather novel but not used for the first film.

Vito's birthday is December 7. Sonny curses at the "Japs" for dropping bombs in Hawaii on his father's birthday.

A then-unknown Joe Pesci was briefly considered for the role of Clemenza, which eventually went to Bruno Kirby.

The movie's line "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." was voted as the #58 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

Michael's unnamed bodyguard is listed simply as "Michael's bodyguard" in the closing credits. But in the shooting script he is named "Bussetta".

According to the chart shown during the hearings, the Corleone family's buttonmen/soldiers are: Luca Brasi (deceased), Chris Pennari alias 'The Manager', Donato Tolentinicci, Gaetano De Luna alias 'Gary Dee', Roberto Nelenza alias 'Thunder Bob', William Cicci, Pauli Gato sic (deceased), Nino Arneldi alias 'The Patch', Victor Vinatonni alias 'Vicky Veal', Calogero Radeni, Rafilo Gernzo, Carmine Caronda alias 'The Plunge', Francis Forducci alias 'The Kid', Ricardo Simmini alias 'Powder', Frank Corteale, Ettore Radeni alias 'Oily Hand', Salvatore Plumari alias 'Sally Pee', Samuel Corocco, Angelo Granelli alias 'The Trojan' (in jail), Gino Corsetta (in jail), Bartolo Neni alias 'O'Neal' (in jail), Joeseph Bronski alias 'Joey Jail' (deceased), Natale Parri alias 'Fat Nat', Alphonse Barino alias 'Al Barret', Gino Fredonna alias 'Pretty Boy' (deceased), Sabastino Sabela (in jail), Lawrence Tippirri, Gaetano Sirillo, Tony Dinegio alias 'Tony Ding', Carmen Della, Frank Darra alias 'Frankie Dare' (in jail), Alphonse Evolloni alias 'Al Ove' (deceased), Peter Leone alias 'The Lion' (in jail), Cassandros Fracca alias 'David Gelly', Charles Locirno (deceased), Cristoforo D'Binna

In the original script, Tom gains Senator Geary's support by paying off his gambling debts.

In an interview, Gordon Willis admitted that he sometimes "went too far" in his use of dark photography. He particularly noted the scene in which Michael asks Mama for advice as an example.

Lee Strasberg came out of retirement to play Hyman Roth after a specific request from Al Pacino. He was unwilling at first, but agreed to do it after a 45-minute meeting with Francis Ford Coppola's father, Carmine Coppola.

This was the first film sequel to receive five Academy Award Nominations for acting. Talia Shire (Best Actress In A Suporting Role), Lee Strasberg (Best Actor In A Supporting Role), Michael V. Gazzo (Best Actor In A Supporting Role) and Al Pacino (Best Actor) all received nominations, while Robert De Niro took home the Oscar for Best Actor In A Supporting Role.

Hyman Roth's character is loosely based in real-life mobster Meyer Lansky. Lansky, who at the time of the film's release was living in Miami, reportedly phoned Lee Strasberg and congratulated him for the role as Roth.

The orchestra that plays in the band shell during the party scene at Lake Tahoe was actually the Al Tronti Orchestra that played nightly for big names like Elvis Presley and Tom Jones at the Sahara Tahoe Casino/Hotel on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe while this film was being shot. Al Tronti himself sits in the orchestra in the front room (only seen in shadow). He wasn't allowed to appear as the orchestra conductor since he looked "too Italian" and the orchestra in the movie was supposed to be a West Coast group not able to play any traditional Italian music.

The golden telephone presented to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista is based on an actual event. You can see the actual gold-plated (not solid gold) telephone in Havana's Museum of the Revolution (formerly Batista's presidential palace). The replica made for the movie looks pretty much like the original. No reference to the film is made in the information card of the telephone on display.

The Havana hotel that Michael stays in is the Capri. The location was the El Embajador Hotel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The plot thread with Sen. Geary is a direct reference to The Godfather, when Vito laments that he wanted Michael to be a "big shot" who "pulled the strings." In particular, he had hoped Michael would become a Senator. Michael assures him, "we'll get there, Pop." At the opening of this film, we see Michael explicitly rebuffing the demands of a US Senator, turning the tables by making demands of his own.

November 2005: Voted #5 in Total Film's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time list.

According to Francis Ford Coppola in the DVD commentary, Michael V. Gazzo gave such a great performance in the rehearsal of his testimony scene that Coppola wanted to start filming it immediately but everyone had to break for lunch. During the break, Gazzo got drunk and was unable to perform as well as he had in rehearsal.

Robert De Niro spent four months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect in order to play Vito Corleone. Nearly all the dialogue that his character speaks in the film was in Sicilian.

Don Fanucci says that, in order to show proper respect to him, Vito and his friends should allow him to 'wet his beak a little', by giving him a share of their profits. This is Sicilian slang, meaning "to get a piece of the pie", a common expression often used to indicate the extortion activities committed by mafia members.

When Francis Ford Coppola decided to replace Richard S. Castellano, Willi Cicci was planned to be the sole testifier against the Corleones before the character of Pentangeli was created.

In his DVD commentary, Francis Ford Coppola claimed The Godfather: Part II was the first numbered sequel in film history. In actual fact, the British film Quatermass 2 was the first (released 17 years earlier). The Godfather Part II is the first US film sequel to use such numbering though.

Although Nino Rota's score for The Godfather was withdrawn an Oscar nomination because he reused the same theme from his previous score for Fortunella, he was still awarded the Oscar for Best Original Score for the sequel even though it still used the same love theme from the first film.

Vittorio Storaro turned down the chance to be the film's cinematographer as he felt that a sequel would never match the original.

The presence of oranges in all three "Godfather" movies indicates that a death or an assassination attempt will soon happen. The Senator is framed for murder after playing with oranges at the Corleone house, and Johnny Ola brings an orange into Michael's office before the attempt on Michael's life. Fanucci eats an orange just before he is gunned down and Michael is eating an orange while plotting to kill Roth. However, after the young Vito Coreleone buys oranges from a street vendor, no immediately related death occurs.

According to Robert De Niro in The Godfather Family: A Look Inside, he suggested the idea of Vito wrapping his gun with a towel before he shoots Fanucci.

Originally, Kay was to truly have a miscarriage. It was Talia Shire's idea that she would have an abortion instead, as the ultimate way to hurt Michael. To thank her for this idea, Francis Ford Coppola wrote in the scene in which she tearfully asks Michael to forgive Fredo.