Few are the girls who never dreamed of becoming an actress, a movie star, a Hollywood icon. Even fewer are the girls who never swooned over a hot movie star. Whether we like it or not, Hollywood is still the film-making capital of the world, and if you look at many of today’s starlets you would believe that all it takes is a nice face and a lot of well-placed silicone. However, Hollywood became the stuff of dreams decades ago when the movie stars were larger than life. This series is about the Golden Era of Hollywood and the legends on whose blood, sweat and talent the success of the modern film industry was built upon.
As an avid movie fan, one of the things I’ve often wondered is how come most mafia films portray ruthless mobsters as quite likable characters? We know the guys on the screen are ruthless killers and do terrible things, but as the story is usually told from the mobster’s point of view, we can sympathize with them, we understand they have their honor and family to protect, and enemies to kill. And when film legends like Marlon Brando, Roberto de Niro or Al Pacino play gangsters you cannot really hate them, can you?
The reason mafia movies are like that is very simple - the movie industry has been involved with various crime families from the very beginning and it simply would not do to paint in a negative way the very people whose money you use to make those movies.
Speaking of the beginning of the movie industry, the first established connection with the mob dates back to 1932, during the making of a movie called ‘Scarface’. The movie was about famous Chicago boss Al Capone, who had been given the nickname ‘Scarface’, which he hated. Hearing they were making a movie based on his life, Capone sent his own people to Hollywood to make sure the production wasn’t going to present him as a really bad guy. The movie was kind enough to the mafia boss, in fact so kind the American censorship authorities were appalled. The production glamorized organized crime, the censors believed, which is why they demanded the addition of a prologue and an alternate ending, both condemning the mob, as well as an alternate title ‘The Shame of a Nation’. Even so, the movie was banned in many states.
The 1983 ‘Scarface’ starring Al Pacino is a (loose) remake of the original production and when it went on DVD it also contained the 1932 version. Al Capone would probably be pleased with the way Pacino portrayed him, since, almost 40 years after the movie came out, kids still wear Tony Montana T-shirts.
You must have heard the phrase ‘an offer he can’t refuse’, a pop culture reference everybody uses because who doesn’t like Don Corleone? With the first part released in 1972, ‘The Godfather’ is even today considered one of the best movies ever. So good even the mafia liked it. As Mario Puzo (who wrote the original novel) once explained, before the book and the subsequent movie were released the mobsters did not actually use the term ‘godfather’ to refer to the boss, but they started doing so afterwards.
(Left to right) Gianni Russo, Pacino and Coppola on 'The Godfather'set
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The production of ‘The Godfather’ is quite relevant for the intricate connection between the mob and the movie industry.
For instance, director Francis Ford Coppola badly wanted Al Pacino to play Michael Corleone, but the actor had a contract with another studio. There’s where a very shady character, Sidney Korshack, a sort of liaison between the mob and studio executives comes into play. With just a phone call, the contract was terminated and Pacino was signed up for the new production. Korshack started his career as a lawyer for Al Capone’s gang in Chicago and later moved to the West Coast when the mafia became interested in the movie industry, which was very useful for money laundering purposes. Later, when the same mafia started building Las Vegas, its Hollywood assets, famous actors and divas, where used as publicity vehicles for the nascent gambling business.
There have been speculations that the character of consigliere Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, was based on Korshack, but Puzo denied it.
James Caan, who plays Sonny Corleone, did have known ties with the mob. Caan, who often played mafiosi, is closely associated with the Colombo crime family. In 2011, when crime boss ‘Andy Mush’ Russo was arrested in a vast police operation, Caan defended him publicly and offered to pay his bail. Speaking of godfathers, boss Russo is indeed the godfather of Caan’s son, Scott.
Yet the most spectacular connection between the movie and the real mob is the casting of a complete unknown, Gianni Russo, to play the the part of Carlo Rizzi, who is getting married to the Don’s daugher in the opening scenes. According to his memoirs, Russo was a small time gangster working for boss Frank Costello in his youth. The way he puts it, he abandoned his life of crime to pursue a legitimate career, but others say he was simply sent to Hollywood to look after the Mafia’s interests. Later, he would also serve in Vegas, where he allegedly owned a restaurant.
James Caan with Gianni Russo, on 'The Godfather' set.
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According to Russo’s book, Marlon Brando was furious when he heard an important part would go to someone with zero experience in acting and confronted Coppola on the subject. What followed looks like a movie scene. Russo put his arm around Brando and pushed into a corner where he let out a violent torrent of abuse, which included the phrase ‘I’ll cut your heart out’. Russo says Brando was very impressed with his ‘acting skills’, but one can equally say Brando understood he was messing with the wrong guy.
Incidentally, film critics pointed out that unforgettable raspy voice Brando uses throughout the film imitates the voice of the above mentioned mobster Frank Costello. At the time the movie was made, Costello was head of the Genovese crime family, still active today.
Ironically, it’s been said Marlon Brando didn’t want to play Vito Corleone and he was offered a pretty bad contract, but he eventually agreed because there are offers not even huge stars like him could refuse.
The actor who plays the young Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather 2’, film legend Robert de Niro has also had unsavory ties to the mob. He’s played many mobster parts in his life and yet, when he was making the 1999 comedy ’Analyze This’ he suddenly felt the need to spend some time with a real mobster to understand the character better. The mobster was an important man in the Gambino family, Anthony ‘Fat Andy’ Ruggiano. The two were introduced by an associate of the Gambino family, Anthony Corozzo, who just happened to play an extra in ‘Analyze This’ as well as in ’A Bronx Tale’, another of De Niro’s famous mafia movies. However, when questioned about his association with Ruggiano, de Niro claimed the movie was long ago and he didn’t recall meeting the gangster. Unfortunately for him, the meeting was captured in this photo, apparently taken on set.
De Niro with boss Anthony Ruggiano (right)
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Fun Fact: The words mafia and mob are never uttered in ‘The Godfather’ following protests from the Italian-American Civil Rights League and its most vocal spokesman, Frank Sinatra, whose ties with organized crime were the topic of a previous post.**
Even some lesser parts in ‘The Godfather’ trilogy were played by actors with a shady reputation and a long criminal records.
Alex Rocco, playing the part of Vegas big-shot Moe Greene had ties with the Boston Irish-American mob and was once arrested in connection with the murder of a gang leader, operation in which Rocco was the getaway driver. And he did get away with it, as he did not stand trial for that murder.
Lenny Montana
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Lenny Montana, playing the small part of a mob enforcer working for Don Corleone, was actually playing himself. Prior to this stint in acting he had been a hitman for the Colombo family. Following a prison term, he became a bodyguard for Colombo family members and it seems he was accompanying someone on the set, when Coppola saw him and offered him a part.
Tony Sirico
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Tony Sirico, who appeared in ‘The Godfather 2’, ‘Goodfellas’ and later rose to fame with ‘The Sopranos’, had 28 arrests and two convictions in his youth spent in Brooklyn. He was part of the Colombo family organization, just like his friend James Caan.
Sirico only agreed to play the part of Paulie Walnuts in ‘The Sopraonos’ on condition that his character never turns an informant, the worst thing a mafioso can do.
All the information above are just fragments of a much larger story we will never fully know. The Mafia is not known for sharing its secrets and they have business interests to protect even today. On the other hand, the actors have reputations to protect and there are secrets they will take to their graves. But, at the end of the day, does it really matter? Questionable life choices and unsavory friendships do not make them lesser actors.
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References: Wiki, FoxNews, Vanity Fair.
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