Introducing: Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the history of cinema, few films have been as
successful as The Godfather. When it was released in March
of nineteen seventy two, Francis Ford Coppola's gangster epics at
a new standard, not just for movies about the mafia,
but for movies in general.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's five most supported legacy a light.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Although if you talk to the people who made it,
The Godfather's prospects for success were far from ashored. In fact,
before its release, they were pretty bleak and.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
They said, we're finished. This is over. The lily is
I'm gonna work to tell your reals, guys, that.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
People close to the movie have talked a lot over
the past fifty or so years about how difficult it
was to make The Godfather. But and leave the gun
take the Canoli. My co host Mark Ceo and I
strip back the varnish of movie history and talked to
never before heard from sources to get at what really
made the process so arduous for starters. Mario Puzzo, the
author of the book on which the movie is based,

(00:51):
only wrote it because he was deep in gambling debt.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
This dead broke rider comes into his office with a
thirty five page treatment under his arm, and pretty soon,
over cigars and conversation at Evans's office, the two men
strike a deal.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
And when the studio behind the film, Paramount, tried to
enlist a bankable director, it couldn't find one. It's solution
to hire Cobola, a relative unknown who proved to be
every bit the visionary they'd hoped for. The Only problem
was that the Paramount executives and producers didn't know he's
seen eye to eye with Cobola's vision.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Jack Ballard was hired basically by Robert Evans to be
there on the set and to haunt me.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
At every turn, from scriptwriting and casting to editing and
choosing the music. Paramount fought tooth and nail against the director.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
France has just got so sick of everything.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
He goes, I'm going to sicily just cast my movie.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Excuse my language, but that's just the beginning. Serious trouble
came for The Godfather when the real life mafia tried
to stop the film from being made.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
The Five Families did not want us to shoot that
picture in the New York.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
The mob thought Hollywood had given Italian Americans a bad rap,
and they were certain the Godfather would only deepen that stigma,
so they waged a campaign of threats and scare tactics.
But the studio and the filmmakers were not to be
deterred by what at times amounted to more than threats.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
My kids came in all hysterical, they'd heard gunshots.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
They worked their connections and did everything they could to
win over the people the film was based on, well
at least most of them.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I look over at Sinatra's table and, oh, my god,
Mario standing at Sinatra's table. And I looked at Mario
and his face was ashen.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Despite the almost unfathomable hardship of making The Godfather, it
minted a new generation of stars. It also made over
two hundred and fifty million dollars, won several Oscars, and
redefined America's relationship to one of its darkest, most shadowy forces,
the Mafia.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
No I'm saying when you heard the terminology crime, don't pay, yeah,
crime pace.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
The result was a modern masterpiece that bridged old Hollywood
and New Hollywood and managed to win over the American
public and the Mafia alike.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
And the projection has called me, Hey, you guys missed
already I've been a projector is my whole life. No
one never gave me a thousand dollar tech.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Leave the Gun Take the Canoli as based on my
co host Mark's best selling book of the same title,
and on this show we call upon as years of
research to help unpack the story behind The Godfather's birth.
From start to finish, we sift through innumerable accounts, many
of them conflicting, and try to get to the truth
of what really happened. And more importantly, we find out
how a story that starts like this, So I pull.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Up bexin Red though all my wood and done, I
just stick my ass out to say, this is the
first day he's met us.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Ends like this.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
You gotta understand nobody every vision successive as well.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Leave the Gun Take the Canoli features new and archival
interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Yes that was a real
horse's head, Robert Evans, it called Leaving Godfather's Godfather, James con.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Jimmy it wants coming past suest.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
What you gotta push you at me to drive around
the block? Al Ruddy Bob said, I got a caugh
of these Italian guys. David see the movie makes it
up be a lot of trouble Talia Shire.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Everything was a very arduous chess game.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
And many others. We still aren't entirely sure what's true
and what's not, but we can promise that our ten
part series gives everyone who is involved a chance to
tell their side of the story. Listen and subscribe to
Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli starting February nineteenth, on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get

(04:38):
your podcasts.