It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years since The Godfather showed up on movie screens. Reading Mark Seal’s informative Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather, it’s amazing that the movie managed to get made at all. Casting conflicts, the struggles Coppola endured as the project unfolded, the moody Brando, the upstart Pacino, and the interference of movie executives make the story of how The Godfather came about despite the odds enthralling and fascinating.
If you’re more interested in the Paramount+ dramatization of the making of The Godfather, The Offer–a 10-episode series–takes viewers behind the scenes and shows how Coppola navigated the Byzantine aspects of Hollywood during the shooting of this movie.
Fans of The Godfather might think they know a lot about the process of movie-making of this classic film, but Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli and The Offer reveal new details about what went down 50 years ago. GRADE: A (for both)
Table of Contents:
Preface: A Story as Extraordinary as the One Told Onscreen ix
Prologue: To the Mattresses! 1
1 “I Just Go Out and Kill for Them” 7
2 The Man in the Gutter 13
3 Hurricane Charlie and The Kid 37
4 The Best Selling Writer in the World 55
5 The Producer: The Man Who Gets Things Done 74
6 Coppola: A Celestial Occurrence 97
7 The Miracle on Mulholland 118
8 The War over Casting the Family Corleone 155
9 The Godfather vs. The Godfather 181
10 Tableau: Each Frame a Painting 209
11 Looking for Places to Kill People 243
12 Bada Bing! 278
13 “He Looked Like He Could Eat Raw Meat” 290
14 Dancing on a String 313
15 “I Met Him, I Married Him, and I Died” 328
16 “A Baptism in Blood” 355
Epilogue: The Man Who Touched Magic 385
Acknowledgments 389
Selected Bibliography 395
Index 425
Love the book. The tv series not so much. If you only watched the tv series, you would think Albert Ruddy was the driving force behind The Godfather.
Steve, I agree with you. Love LEAVE THE GUN, TAKE THE CANNOLI! I’m only a couple episodes into THE OFFER.
Yeah, Ruddy always tried to give that impression himself.
When THE GODFATHER was released I was in the Air Force, stationed at Griffiss AFB in Rome NY and working in Base Data Processing, mostly with civilians who were nearly all of Italian descent and were just wonderful people. And they went absolutely apeshit over the movie. They thought it was astonishing that I had no idea what a cannoli was, and brought some to work so I could try them. And they were pretty good, too, although I doubt that I’ve had another one since.
A few months ago Showtime showed all three movies back to back and I recorded them, including some kind of new, revised version of Part Three. I’m looking forward to seeing them again, and today I put a library hold on the Seal book, and may even get to THE OFFER.
Michael, our favorite doughnut shop, PAULA’S DOUGHNUTS (ranked in the top 25 doughnut shops in the U.S.), features a cannoli doughnut…only on Wednesdays! The lines of cannoli fans are long on Wednesdays!
Jackie doesn’t like custard so the only cannoli she will eat is a chocolate one!
Jeff, I think PAULA’S DOUGHNUTS feature a chocolate cannoli.
Megan is reading that too. I will too, I am sure.
Patti, you will love LEAVE THE GUN, TAKE THE CANNOLI! At one time, CITIZEN KANE was considered the best movie ever made. Now many critics like THE GODFATHER for the top spot.
Well. Too much logrolling isn’t a good thing.
We don’t have Paramount + but I have no interest in the show anyway. The book was terrific.
We rewatched the chronological GODFATHER SAGA last year and it was as great as ever. “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” is one of the great lines ever.
Jeff, it’s actually Al Pacino, playing Vito’s son Michael Corleone, who said the famous line, “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
Joe LOVED these movies – and the book.
I’ve never seen them or read the book. I’m scum.
Beth, there’s so many movies and so many books…and so little time!
Also, Puzo’s novel isn’t up to the first two movies.
I’ve seen bits and snatches over the years but not the entire Godfather, and none of the others. Guess I’ll join Beth in the scum crowd.
Rick, I consider THE GODFATHER II to be a better movie than the original. But, I get a lot of pushback for that opinion.
I think a lot of people will tend to agree, as well. I do.
A Godfather inspired joke:
What do you get when you cross a postmodernist and a mobster?
Somebody who’ll make you an offer you can’t understand.
Michael, love that Godfather joke!
Very entertaining, Michael.
I’ve read the book and saw all three movies! Okay, have seen all three movies! Mario Puzo used to write fake stories for Men’s Adventure Magazines like Male or True with titles like, I Saved 50 Gorgeous Nurses From a Jap Prison Island! I believe it was Godfather II in which James Murdock (Mushy from Rawhide) played an FBI agent guarding a mobster!
I had a canolli about 60 years ago and didn’t like it! I think it was cheese! Maybe chocolate would be more to my liking!
Bob, you haven’t really lived if you haven’t tasted a chocolate cannoli!
Funny …
I never heard about cannoli before in Germany.
But we often have cannelloni which are smaller rolls filled with tomato sauce, meat, cheese and/or even spinach.
So they taste similar to lasagne.
About the movies:
Haven’t seen any of them, never was interested in gangster movies.