Film’s most unforgettable scene

The actor never knew they would use a real horse’s head. This was May 1971 and John Marley was preparing to perform in the most infamous scene in The Godfather, playing the corrupt movie producer who wakes up to find a horse’s head in his bed. Reportedly, Marley assumed this would just be a plastic prop. But the director, Francis Ford Coppola, had other ideas. In a note to himself, Coppola observed: ‘If the audience does not jump out of their seats on this one, you have failed.’ So he quietly sent an assistant to a dog-food factory to pick up a genuine head, newly hewn from the shoulders of a racehorse. She brought the stinking object back in a freezer box and it was slipped into the bed with Marley for maximum authenticity.

At one point, the story goes, the actor’s bare toe nudged against the bloody head, and he lost control: by that account, his screams of horror are real. It was worth it, though. The film, which was released 50 years ago this week, is arguably the greatest ever made, and this scene a gruesome highlight. So what is it about the scene that makes it unforgettable?

When I ask Mark Seal – author of Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, the definitive book about the making of The Godfather – he says the answer lies in the contrast with what has gone before. The movie begins at the wedding of the daughter of the Italian-American Mafia don, Vito Corleone. It’s a scene of laughter and dancing. This rich, powerful family knows how to throw a party. Then Vito’s godson, the crooner Johnny Fontaine, comes to him for help. There’s a film role he desperately wants, which would save his career. But the producer, Jack Woltz, won’t play ball.