This “Godfather” Quiz Is an Offer You Can’t Refuse

Instead of walking up to receive his Best Actor Oscar at the 1973 ceremony, Marlon Brando sent someone else in his place. Indigenous American actress Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage and announced that Brando "very regretfully" could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans in film. He believed they were typecast as savages and were poorly treated, and he wanted that to change.

Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo is one of New York City's top drug dealers. He approaches the Corleone family with an offer to go into business together, but Vito declines. Sonny, however, seems interested, leading the Turk to try to kill Vito to get Sonny to take over. Unfortunately for the Turk, Don Corleone survives multiple gunshots and his family gets their revenge on the drug dealer.

When Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo were writing the final installment of "The Godfather" trilogy, they gave it the title "The Death of Michael Corleone." The duo considered the film to be an epilogue of the first two, rather than a continuation of the story. Paramount disagreed and continued under the title "The Godfather: Part III."

Connie Corleone is the youngest of the Corleone siblings. Played by Talia Shire, Connie marries Carlo Rizzi in one of the film's opening scenes. However, that turns out to be a mistake, as Carlo turns on the family and conspires to have Connie's brother Sonny killed. For his treachery, Sonny's brother Michael has Carlo killed in one of his first acts as the new Don of the Corleone family.

"The Godfather" opens with Amerigo Bonasera asking Don Corleone for help getting revenge on some men who wronged his daughter, Maria. He begins, "I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion." Don Corleone is willing to assist, but, in return, he says, "Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me."

Corleone is the hometown and namesake in Mario Puzo's novel "The Godfather." The small city, which is located in western Sicily, takes its name from a phrase meaning "heart of the lion."

The Italian American Civil Rights League was formed in 1970 to fight prejudiced stereotypes of Italians in American media and news. During the production of "The Godfather," the league insisted that the movie not utter the words "mafia" or "cosa nostra." And just to be extra safe, the movie also does not use the word "mob."

Before Clemenza leaves for a hit job in the first movie, his unsuspecting wife yells to him, "Don't forget the cannoli." After the job is finished, Clemenza says, "Leave the gun, take the cannoli," which has become one of the movie's most iconic lines. In actuality, those words weren't in the original script — actor Richard S. Castellano improvised the now-famous line on the spot.

Francis Ford Coppola was fresh off directing the Best Picture-winning movie "Patton" when Paramount asked him to direct "The Godfather." Coppola agreed, but he had to fight the studio to bring his vision to life. If the producers had it their way, "The Godfather" would've been set in Kansas City in the 1970s and starred Ernest Borgnine and Robert Redford. Coppola won the Best Director Oscar for his work.

By the 1970s, Marlon Brando's career was essentially over. His last decade of films had done poorly at the box office and he was known to be difficult to work with. Paramount didn't want him to play the title character in "The Godfather," but the movie's director did, and was able to convince the studio to film a screen test with Brando. After that, he was cast.