In honor of Francis Ford Coppola’s birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from The Godfather.

In this scene, a self-pitying Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) discusses his career problems with Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone.  Johnny is losing his voice.  Johnny is up for a role in a big movie but he worries that the producer will never allow him to appear in the film.  Johnny says he doesn’t know what to do and he sheds a tear….

….and that’s not a smart thing to do when you’re talking to Don Corleone.

This scene contains some of the best moments of The Godfather.  Al Martino was a professional singer with little acting experience.  (While Johnny Fontane was a major character in Mario Puzo’s book, he only appeared in two scenes in the film version.  Coppola later said that he thought the Johnny Fontane chapters were so poorly written that he would have turned down the film if he had to include too much of the character.)  In order to get an effective performance out of Martino, Brando did not warn him that he would actually be slapping him.  During one take, Brando got so aggressive that he knocked off Martino’s toupee and caused Robert Duvall to start laughing.  It was all worth it, though.  Martino was thoroughly convincing as Johnny Fontane and Marlon Brando won (but did not accept) his second Oscar for Best Actor.  Coppola did not win Best Director for The Godfather (1972 was a competitive year) but he made up for it 1974 when he was honored for The Godfather Part II.