Before appropriate legal regulations were introduced, animals on film sets in the USA broke legs, suffered injuries and sometimes died in accidents and while working. No wonder there are many myths surrounding the horse’s head placed on a film producer’s bed.
The horse head that Jack Woltz finds after waking up in “” looked absolutely real for a reason. It wasn’t a prop. A few days before this scene was shot, the animal was still alive.
The horse’s head in The Godfather was real
It was supposed to be a sophisticated way to make sure the warning really got through. When film producer Jack Woltz refused to hire Johnny Fontane of the Corleone family for a new film, he probably had no idea who he was refusing. The horse racing enthusiast dared to say a few inappropriate things about people of Italian descent. The next morning he found the head of one of his racehorses in his bed.
Although Puzo never admitted whether the horse’s head symbol was real (the author wrote “The Godfather” based on his own imagination and facts), this particular head used in the film adaptation was absolutely real. However, the horse did not die solely for the sake of cinematography. It turns out that Coppola was against using the prop from the very beginning. He sent one of his men who worked with him on the film to a horse slaughterhouse.
It was there that one animal was selected that most closely resembled Waltz’s racing horse. Coppola and his colleagues mention this in recordings included in a special edition of “The Godfather” in 2001.
The studio tried to convince Coppola to use a fake prop, but he didn’t want to fake it. Someone from manufacturing came to the horse slaughterhouse at a dog food factory in New Jersey. An animal was chosen that resembled a horse from another scene in the movie. “When this one is slaughtered, send us his head.” Coppola later recalled: “One day a container of dry ice arrived with a horse’s head inside.”
“The Godfather”. Johnny Fontane based on Frank Sinatra?
Shortly after the book’s premiere, its author, Mario Puzo, had a lot of problems with Frank Sinatra. It was known that some characters and scenes from “The Godfather” were not made up at all, although no one – apart from the author – knew for sure which ones. Frank Sinatra was particularly offended because he saw himself in Johnny Fontane.
Unofficially, it was said that he also got a role in the film thanks to mafia influence – just like Johnny. Although there was no mention of a horse’s head anywhere, the two characters had far too much in common for it to be a coincidence. Sinatra even happened to meet Puzo in a restaurant a year after the book’s release and insulted him. With positive results, he also argued with the BBC, which suggested a connection between him and a character made up for the book.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
