?Uncle Michael… everyone knows you?re the final word, you?re like the Supreme Court?
When Paramount told Francis Ford Coppola that Marlon Brando would have to take a screen test before getting the Don Vito Corleone role, one commentator said this was like asking the Pope to recite the catechism. But Brando more than played along, turning up for the test with shoe polish under the eyes and wads of tissue paper in the mouth. Voil?, the wheezy and jowly performance that captured the American imagination then and enthrals the world?s film aficionados to date. Then, there was the part of son Michael. Robert Redford was a contender, as were Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. But the part was dished out to Al Pacino. He had only two films released before 1972, which is when The Godfather trilogy debuted. Some mystical conjuration would have every decision made on the project the right decision. But who were the people who inspired it?
One theory strongly pushes Charles ?Lucky? Luciano to the forefront. In the New York of the Prohibition era, the man organised organised crime?with a management style that was very different from the mayhem-centric one favoured by Chicago man Al Capone, the other obvious contender for the ?inspiration? role. The FBI got to him but he was exiled away in 1946. US authorities said that, till his death in 1962, Lucky was building up a worldwide drug-smuggling operation out of Cuba. A new book, by historian Tim Newark, says nothing doing. This Don died a pauper. But the government had spent so much money hounding him that it had to then build a legend to justify the expenses. Mario Puzo helped. We helped. Long live the imagination.
