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Shoe Polish and Tissue Paper. Finally Paramount accepted the choice of Brando — with a stipulation. He would have to go through a screen test. Though Brando had never lost his technical brilliance, he had not given a truly satisfactory performance in years. Still, asking him to go through a screen test was like asking the Pope to recite the catechism. But Brando was so eager for the part that, when he heard about the stipulation through the grapevine, he beat Paramount to the punch by suggesting a test himself. Coppola hauled a video-tape camera to the star's house and Brando, with a little shoe polish under the eyes and wads of tissue paper in his cheeks, trans formed himself undeniably into the Godfather.
Two other contenders for the title role, John Marley (Faces, Love Story) and the familiar screen heavy Richard Conte, ended up taking smaller parts.
For the crucial roles of the Godfather's sons, such glamorous candidates as Robert Redford, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson were ruled out in favor of lesser-known actors with a tougher, more authentic look: Al Pacino as Michael, the Ivy-educated son who succeeds the Godfather; James Caan as the lusty Sonny, the oldest son whose hot temper betrays him; Robert Duvall as the adopted son Tom Hagen, the lawyer who be comes the family's consigliere; John Cazale as Fredo, the timid, feckless son who is given a Las Vegas casino to play with. For the role of Luca Brasi, the Godfather's muscleman, Ruddy signed Former Wrestler Lenny Mantana, whom he spotted idling among a crowd of bystanders during the early shooting. Several of these actors had distinguished themselves on Broadway and in minor movies, but few could be considered name actors.
With the casting battles behind him, Coppola found other problems on the set. Some members of his crew, openly unimpressed with his direction after the first few days, began plotting to get him fired. His cinematographer seemed to obstruct more than help. "I'd tell the guy how I wanted to shoot the scene," says Coppola, "and he'd say, 'Oh, that's dumb.'" Evans decided after three weeks that Coppola was near a nervous breakdown and never knew whether the director would show up the following day. But Coppola got rid of the key detractors, came to an understanding with the cinematographer—for whom he still has high professional regard—and kept showing up. "I had to hang in," he says. "Everything was at stake."
Ruddy turned his attention to the growing pressure being exerted by the Italian-American Civil Rights League. Shopkeepers in New York City, where the film was now being shot, were making difficulties over the use of their premises for locations, unions were becoming restive, and Joseph Colombo was continuing his harassment by publicity. Coppola was stopped on the street by people asking, "How come you, an Italian, can make such a movie?"
Ruddy met with the league and made a number of concessions that cleared up most of the trouble right away. He agreed to delete the words