This is a trivia book for unabashed Godfather fans, people who can’t get enough of Francis Ford Coppola’s two brilliant, and one not-so-brilliant movies. It tells you everything you ever wanted to know and more about all three. Ever wonder what would happen if you dialed Don Corleone’s phone number, Long Beach 4-5620? (No, you don’t get to sleep with the fish, you just get a recording saying it is not a working number.) The cost of the flowers and wreaths at Don Corleone’s funeral? ($12,000) How many times Coppola was nearly fired? (5) How many violent deaths occur in The Godfather? (23) Why flashback scenes in Part 2 had to be reshot? (Because De Niro et al wore pants with zippers that hadn’t been invented yet.) The Don’s birthday? (December 7th, Pearl Harbor day.)
And there’s more: gossip, anecdotes, behind the scenes tidbits from the sets, and more factoids than dead bodies in all three films, like Marlon Brando’s favorite practical joke, the source of the notorious horse’s head, Coppola’s fake seizure in the Paramount offices, and so on. And in case you’ve forgotten any of the famous lines, they’re all here: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” “Leave the gun, take the cannoli,” “This is the business we have chosen,” “If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.”