The Godfather: Part II - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Godfather: Part II or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Godfather: Part II

[nina]

In an early version of the script, an ongoing story line was Tom Hagen having an affair with Sonny Corleone's widow. This was later discarded, but the line where Michael Corleone tells Hagen that he can take his "wife, children and mistress to Las Vegas" was kept.

[lynn]

In the original script, Don Ciccio was named Don Francesco. "Ciccio" is a Sicilian nickname for Francesco. He is still listed as Don Francesco in closing credits.

[harry]

Filming was delayed for a month after Al Pacino developed pneumonia on location in Santo Domingo.

[maureen]

The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list. Although he originally gave the film a more mixed review.

[brent]

Francis Ford Coppola had a horrible time directing The Godfather (1972) and asked to pick a different director for the sequel, while taking the title of producer for himself. He chose Martin Scorsese, who the film executives rejected. Thus, Coppola agreed to direct the film, with a few conditions.

[addison]

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

[ethel]

The film takes place in 1901, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1941, 1958, 1959 and 1960.

[cameron]

When Michael goes to see Hyman Roth at his house in Miami, the football game on the television is USC vs. Notre Dame, a major rivalry. In 1958, the year the scene takes place, Notre Dame defeated USC 20-13.

[darrell]

Vittorio Storaro turned down the chance to be the film's cinematographer, as he felt that a sequel would never match the original The Godfather (1972).

[nicholas]

There was much debate over whether Robert De Niro should grow a mustache for the scenes where young Vito is a few years older, but De Niro couldn't decide. In the end, De Niro tossed a coin. For the scenes where Vito returns to Sicily, he even gained weight and wore a smaller version of the dental appliance Marlon Brando wore in the first film.

[toni]

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 (1972). He got his wish.

[sophie]

Unlike with the first film, Francis Ford Coppola was given nearly complete control over production. In his commentary, he said this resulted in a shoot that ran very smoothly despite multiple locations and two narratives running parallel within one film.

[cameron]

The paper currency that Vito hands to Signor Roberto is historically accurate. The bills used are series 1914 large size ten dollar Federal Reserve Notes. Large size notes measure 7-3/8 by 3-1/8 inches compared to the small note, printed from 1928 to the present, measuring 6-1/8 by 2-5/8 inches.

[manuel]

One of two Robert De Niro movies to win Best Picture. The other one is The Deer Hunter (1978).

[lena]

Danny Aiello's line, "Michael Corleone says hello", was completely ad-libbed. Francis Ford Coppola loved it and asked him to do it again in the retakes. Aiello later claimed (on Gilbert Gottfried's podcast) that, due to being nervous about working with Coppola, he didn't hear himself when he said the line and, to this day, has no idea why he said it.

[charlie]

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 that not able to play any traditional Italian music.

[chris]

The film cast includes five Oscar winners: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Sofia Coppola; and seven Oscar nominees: Talia Shire, Michael V. Gazzo, Lee Strasberg, Danny Aiello, James Caan, Gary Kurtz, and Roman Coppola.

[elmer]

Lee Strasberg became ill during shooting, but instead of delaying production, Roth's character was re-written to be an ailing old man.

[janice]

Talia Shire was the only Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee that year that was from a Best Picture nominated film.