Al Pacino's drug spiral to real mobster who spiked hookers with HEROIN… dark secrets of The Godfather Part II 50yrs on

The Sun

25-05-2025

IT should have been an offer Al Pacino and Francis Ford Coppola couldn't refuse - make a sequel to the box office blockbuster The Godfather.
But half a century ago even a million dollars alone was not enough to tempt either the star of the film or its legendary director to come back.
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That was despite Pacino, now 84, being in debt having blown his small fortune on fast cars, suits and booze.
It took an incredible deal to make them both change their mind.
The Godfather Part II - which was released in the UK 50 years ago this month - went on to win six Oscars, including Best Picture, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.
But getting the three hour and 20 minute long epic made brought Pacino close to a 'breakdown' during an eight month long shoot that drove many of the crew to breaking point.
And not everyone was impressed with the end result.
It was panned by some critics and the real life gangster Michael's nemesis was based on wasn't happy with his portrayal.
Talking ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of The Godfather Part II's release, Pacino said: 'I was going through a bit of a dark time there.
'I was borderline breakdown, borderline make it or not make it.'
'I wasn't very happy. It's a difficult role.'
In many ways that's surprising because the first Godfather in 1972 had been Pacino's breakthrough performance.
He was unknown until Coppola persuaded the movie studio to take a chance on him.
But back in the 1970s sequels were not popular and neither man saw the point in keeping the Corleone tale going.
The idea for the follow up was to examine how cold-hearted war hero Michael became the deeper he got into the role of heading a New York criminal mob.
This time his enemy was to be rival clan leader Hyman Roth, who was inspired by real life gangster Meyer Lansky.
In the film Roth boasts 'we're bigger than US Steel,' which are the exact words uttered by the five ft four inch tall criminal mastermind nicknamed The Little Man.
The feared Lansky, who died in 1983 aged 80, had casinos all over the world and was said to have developed the cruel idea of getting his sex workers hooked on heroin.
Pacino hated 'c**p' script
Pacino, though, considered the original script to be 'c***.'
When he turned the role down the studio bosses 'kept coming to me with prices, and the prices kept going higher. First $100,000. Then $200,000. Then they got it to up to $600,000.'
Finally, a producer visited him and said 'Al, what if I told you there's one million dollars in cash in that box?'
For Pacino, though, 'it did not make one bit of difference" because the script was so bad.
He only accepted the part after Coppola reluctantly agreed to re-write the script.
But even when the director was happy with the story, he wanted to pass the job onto a then relative newcomer called Martin Scorsese.
The man who'd go on to make classics such as Goodfellas was not considered good enough by the bigwigs.
Grudgingly, Coppola agreed to do the job only if several terms were met.
They were the chance to direct an opera, being chosen to write The Great Gatsby script, having his movie The Conversation greenlit, a million dollar pay packet and calling it Part II.
No one numbered sequels back then because it was feared audiences would think it was the same film.
Coppola said earlier this year: 'I'm the jerk that started numbers on movies. I'm embarrassed, and I apologise to everyone."
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All the other terms were agreed to as well.
It is also rumoured that he refused to work with The Godfather producers Robert Evans and Albert S Ruddy.
Coppola was not on speaking terms with Ruddy by the end of the first film and said the Hollywood mogul Evans 'did nothing on The Godfather other than annoy me."
But the all powerful director didn't get everything his own way.
He asked Marlon Brando to reprise his role as Vito Corleone even though the mafia don died in the first movie.
In Part II the story flashes back to how he became a criminal back home in Sicily before emigrating to the US.
Coppola believed the Oscar winning actor would be capable of playing a young Vito even though he was almost 50 at the time.
I took Valium. I took that and drank at the same time, which is a no-no
Al Pacino
Brando turned him down and newcomer Robert De Niro, who had missed out on the chance to play Sonny Corleone in the first film, was given the part instead.
New Yorker De Niro proved his dedication to the role by spending four months learning a particular Sicilian dialect.
That patience was needed because perfectionist Coppola ordered all the Sicily scenes to be reshot after he found out that the costumes had been wrong.
In the original cut the cast had zips in their trousers, which hadn't been invented in the era that part of the story was set.
The painstaking approach did not appeal to Pacino who is said to have complained that the film was taking too long to make.
He had personal problems to contend with.
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Pacino's battle with the booze got worse as he struggled with the pressures of celebrity.
The actor said: 'It was a tough shoot for me because of my drinking.
'I found myself in a state of mind that was difficult. I took Valium. I took that and drank at the same time, which is a no-no.'
He was also in an on-off relationship with actress Diane Keaton, 78, who played his on screen love in all the Godfather films.
She was 'mad for him'and wanted Pacino to marry her, but he wasn't ready to walk down the aisle and by the end of the third Godfather in 1990 the romance was over for good.
The key new character in the sequel is Roth, who makes a failed attempt on Michael Corleone's life.
British comic actor Peter Sellers had been considered for the role, but Pacino persuaded Coppola to go for his former drama teacher Lee Strasberg.
Panned by critics
Strasberg, who died in 1982 aged 80, was famous for promoting 'method' acting which meant drawing on his own experiences for a role.
His understated performance won an Oscar nomination, but did not win over the criminal overlord Roth was based on.
Lansky, whose interest in Cuba is depicted in the film and was linked to the plot around the assassination of the US president John F Kennedy, would have preferred a more positive spin.
After seeing The Godfather Part II he's said to have telephoned Strasberg, and complained "why couldn't you have made me more sympathetic? After all, I am a grandfather."
Not all the critics were impressed by the movie either.
The famous American critic Roger Ebert said it was 'disappointing' in comparison to the original.
But the Academy Awards disagreed, giving it six awards including best director, which was two more than the first one.
Unsurprisingly, the Hollywood moneymen wanted the Godfather to go on and on.
It would take another sixteen years for their wish to come true.
The financial dire straits of Coppola and Pacino played a major part in getting the cameras rolling.
Pacino admitted in his memoirs this year: "The choice could not have been easier. I was broke. Francis was broke. We both needed the bread."
The actor couldn't stop spending and Coppola's own movie studio was facing bankruptcy after making a string of expensive flops.
Sadly, The Godfather Part III had the air of a movie made out of desperation.
They should have listened to Keaton's character Kay in the second film, who broke Michael's heart by telling him that she'd aborted their son.
The reason, she said, is "because this must all end."