The Godfather

Corrected entry: Sonny and the crew get the call from their police inside informant from the station house as to where the meeting between Michael and Sollozzo (along with NYPD Captain McCluskey as Sollozzo's bodyguard) will take place (recall that it is made clear that a Police Captain must let it be known where he will be at all times if he is away from the station house). It is to be held at a restaurant in the Bronx. This is important so they have time to plant the gun in the bathroom for Michael. Tessio immediately says he knows this restaurant - a family place, good food, etc. *but* - in actuality, it would *not* be Tessio but rather *Clemenza* who would know this small neighborhood restaurant, since Clemenza's territory - where he is a captain - is the Bronx and Tessio's is Brooklyn. This is such an obvious mistake it boggles the mind no one on the set caught it, especially the writer, Mario Puzo.

Correction: Complete and utter nonsense. What, you think that these people would have total knowledge of their own territory, but know nothing whatsoever about anything outside it? There is absolutely no reason why Tessio couldn't be familiar with the place - restaurants with good food can draw in customers from many miles away; entirely reasonable that Tessio could have visited it at some point. So obviously not a mistake that it boggles the mind that you thought it could have been.

Tailkinker

Corrected entry: Carlo beats up Connie when she is pregnant, and she calls Sonny and he is killed on the causeway. When Michael comes back from Italy and looks up Kay, she asks how long he has been back and he says a year, maybe longer. Michael and Kay get married and then the scene shifts to a few years later (Kay and Michael have a son). The Godfather asks Michael how his son is and Michael says he is "smarter than me; he is three years old and can read the funny papers". But then, Michael decides to be Godfather to Connie and Carlos' baby. How long was Connie pregnant? This implies she was pregnant for four years.

Correction: Or, thinking a bit more sensibly, that Carlo and Connie had two children. Which they do, Victor and Michael Francis. When Michael has arrived at Carlo's house to 'make him answer for' Sunny's death, When Carlo replies, to Michael, he refers to swearing "on the kids...", plural. We are all thinking that the baby whose baptism they just participated in was Connie's first baby, but Kay and Michael (as previously mentioned) were now already married and have a 3 year old, so this has to be Connie's 2nd baby with Carlo, yes? And Carlo does say, I swear on "the kids."

Tailkinker

Correction: This isn't true. In fact, it doesn't happen more than it does. There are no oranges present when Paulie the driver is killed, or when Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey in the restaurant, when Apollonia is blown up in the car in Sicily, or when Sonny is gunned down, when Moe Green and the heads of the five families are killed, or when Clemenza strangles Carlo in the car.

edep12

Corrected entry: Prior to going off to kill McCluskie and Sollozzo, Michael is "trained" by Clemenza in how to shoot a pistol - as if Michael has no experience with firearms. Yet as a Marine who just returned from war - especially one decorated for battlefield heroism - it would be expected that Michael had both formal training and practical "fluency" with a range of firearms. Granted Michael might be anxious about committing brazen murder in public and even more so about whether the gun indeed will arrive for him in the right place at the right time at the restaurant - these are natural and plausible things for Clemenza to counsel him on. But the actual *use* of the firearm should present Michael no problem at all. And yet Clemenza talks to Michael as if he has never fired a weapon... Plot-wise, is there too much effort here expended on trying to depict Michael as being, at this point, naive, so as to enhance the "end-of-innocence" pivot that the murder of McCluskie and Sollozzo will come to signify, both for Michael's father Vito and the audience?

Correction: Clemenza is basically telling him specifically how to use that gun, such as about the tape and why it's so loud. As well, killing people in war is far different than murdering someone in cold blood. Clemenza is telling him how to keep calm while doing it and how to avoid being caught by the police.

Greg Dwyer

Corrected entry: Before the car that takes Michael to the clandestine meeting at Louis' makes a sudden u-turn on the highway, the car in the left lane almost stops to make room for the stunt. (01:19:45)

NancyFelix

Correction: That vehicle is actually part of the strategy. As they complete the u-turn you can see the vehicle moving forward and stopping exactly to block every other car from attempting the same u-turn. This was done to make sure nobody was following them.

Corrected entry: Since the film came out, the Catholic term "Godfather" (the principal witness to a child's baptism, usually a relative) has largely been replaced by "sponsor".

Correction: This is incorrect. In Catholicism, the term Godfather (and Godmother) are still used at baptism. Its at the Sacrament of Confirmation (usually when the child is 12) where a Sponsor is chosen- nothing to do with the Godparents.

Corrected entry: Prior to killing the mob leader and cop in the restaurant Michael tries out a Colt .38 Spl pistol in the basement. There is a close-up of the pistol being fired; there is no recoil and one spark is seen coming from the barrel. This pistol had significant recoil and a substantial muzzle blast would have been visible in the close-up.

Correction: The pistol used was .22 caliber, not .38 caliber. A .22 has significantly less muzzle blast and recoil than a .38 caliber pistol.

Mobrien316

Corrected entry: Michael is accused of killing the heads of the 5 families in 1951, but during that scene in the movie, he leaves the church in a 1954 Packard. (02:35:10)

Correction: The shooting of the other Dons happen in 1955. Sonny is shot in 1951, Michael returns home, reunites with Kay and has Anthony in 1952, which makes Tony three years old in the scene where Don Vito dies. Also, Vito's tombstone is marked '1955'. So if Michael becomes Don in 1955, the 1954 car is entirely in its place.

Twotall

Corrected entry: As the gangster hands Michael a pistol to try in the basement he tells him that the grip and trigger has a special tape that latent prints can not be lifted from. There is no such tape.

Correction: At the time, fingerprints had to be very clear to be lifted from an object. Simple atheletic tape has a rough enough texture that would make it nearly impossible to get prints from.

BillyBlake

Correction: I just watched the scene; he doesn't blink. The shot is very wide, and his eyes are barely visible in the frame anyway, but even paying very close attention to McCluskey, there's no blinking.

Corrected entry: In the first of the baptism murders, there are 3 people in the lift but Clemenza fires the shotgun only twice.

Correction: Shotguns generally use many small pellets. Two blasts would certainly be enough to kill three people in such an enclosed space.

Corrected entry: Fredo is wearing a very 1970's sport coat, sunglasses, and wing-tipped shirt ensemble in the Las Vegas hotel scene, set some 20 years earlier.

Correction: This kind of style existed at the time the scene was set; even then, Vegas had its own eccentric style. You can see plenty of photos of people from that time dressed like Fredo is.

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the Godfather, Michael Corleone was referred to as a Marine and a war hero in Europe. The Marines didn't fight in Europe, they fought in the Pacific.

Correction: Marines worked with the British in a variety of roles - many non-combat, but some worked behind enemy lines and in combat, most notably Captain Peter J. Ortiz who received a Navy Cross for his role in Europe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Ortiz.

Corrected entry: When Clemenza gets out of the car just before Paulie is shot, it doesn't make sense that he would stand in front of the car where he's right in the firing line. When he returns to the car you can see bullet holes in the windshield. He was lucky not to be hit. Someone as smart as Clemenza would have stood behind the car where he would have been safe.

StarryMessenger

Correction: He's not really in the line of fire. He's in front of the car but also off to the side.

LorgSkyegon

Corrected entry: At the wedding scene, Michael is wearing many ribbons. The 'highest' rated ribbon, the first, is the 'Silver Star'. It is very visible. In a scene much later in the movie there is talk about 'knocking off' Michael but someone says,"He is a war hero. He won the Navy Cross . This is higher ranked than the Silver Star and should have been worn first in the line - if he did in fact earn it.

Correction: Character Mistake: The person who said this didn't know what he was talking about. He knew Michael was a decorated war hero, so he mentions a type of medal he'd once heard about, thinking that must be what he had received.

raywest

Corrected entry: Luca Brasi is killed after his left hand is pinned down with a knife. Watch carefully and notice Brasi is wearing a ring on his left hand. In the final death scene, you can see that the hand pinned with the knife appears to be the right hand, not the left and the ring is gone.

Brion Pollack

Correction: Bruno Tataglia holds Luca's left hand on the bar, while Sollozo pins Luca's right with the knife. There is no switch.

Corrected entry: When Sonny beats up Connie's Husband in the street, he throws him into a tiny area where the trash cans are and starts beating him. Watch closely when he hits Connie's Husband with his left hand and you will be able to see that he doesn't even touch him.

Correction: Already submitted.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Corrected entry: During the fight with Sonny and Carlo on the street, the actor who played Genco, Vito Corleone's old friend and business partner in Part II, is seen in the crowd (maybe a younger relative?).

Correction: If this is a mistake, it should be listed under "Godfather II", as it would be there the continuity error would have been noticeable. But as the submitter says, this can be explained by the person watching the fight being a younger relative that resembles Genco, so there is really no error.

Twotall

Corrected entry: When the heads of the other families get killed during Michael Jr.'s baptism one guy gets shot through a blocked glass door. The first shot that's aimed at his body shatters the glass but leaves the man unharmed, only the second shot causes a visible wound. (02:34:05)

NancyFelix

Correction: First: the child being baptized is Michael Francis Rizzi, Carlo and Connie's child; there is no Michael Jr. Second: The first bullet could have been deflected by the glass in another direction. The man behind the glass (Cuneo?) isn't reacting to being shot; he's already shouting because he realizes what's happening to him.

Corrected entry: When the heads of the five families meet to call a truce, right in the middle of where Don Barzini makes his famous comment, "After all, we're not Communists," his elbow slips off the table. I guess Coppola decided to keep it in.

Correction: How is that a movie mistake? It's not even a character mistake. That's a human slip up.

Jane Doe

Factual error: In the scene when Michael visits his father in the hospital in 1945 there's a NYC Fire Dept. Sign on the wall with the name of the Commissioner, Robert O. Lowery, who was commissioner from 1966 to 1973.

Ray Palermo

More mistakes in The Godfather

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

More quotes from The Godfather

Trivia: When Vito is in the garden with his grandson, he puts an orange peel in his mouth, and the kid looks scared. Well, the kid really is scared. Marlon Brando improvised that, and the kid wasn't expecting it.

More trivia for The Godfather

Question: What is the name of the melody/song that is played just after Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey? It is played while you see some newspapers with big headlines etc.

don_corleone

Chosen answer: The mattress montage music is called "This Loneliness." It is written and performed by F.F.C's father.

More questions & answers from The Godfather

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.