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Did you know that...  In Francis Ford Coppola's acclaimed Best Picture winner The Godfather (1972), the word «Mafia» is never heard on screen because the real Mafia did not allow its use.   Written by Mario Puzo based on his own eponymous bestselling novel, The Godfather chronicles ten years in the life of a fictional New York crime family. Academy Award winner Marlon Brando played the patriarch, Vito Corleone, while Al Pacino co-starred as his younger son Michael, who goes from being a reluctant family outsider to a ruthless mafia boss. The cast also included James Caan, Robert Duvall, Talia Shire and Diane Keaton. Critically acclaimed upon release, The Godfather became the highest-grossing film of 1972, winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay.   Due to its subject matter, The Godfather originally faced great opposition from Italian-Americans to filming on location in New York. In addition, the Italian-American Civil Rights L...

Did you know that... Alfred Hitchcock came under the surveillance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his use of uranium as a plot element in Notorious (1946)? Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), the «Master of Suspense».   Notorious tells the story of Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the alcoholic daughter of a Nazi, who is recruited by government secret agent T. R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to romance and spy on her father's friend, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), in Rio de Janeiro. Although Alicia and Devlin are in love, he asks her to marry Sebastian out of duty to her country. After their wedding, Alicia explores Sebastian's mansion and finds the wine cellar locked. During a party, Alicia secretly gets the key to the cellar and gives it to Devlin. They discover uranium dust hidden inside a bottle, but now Sebastian has learned that Alicia is a spy and starts poisoning her slowly.   Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains in Notorious .   While developing ...

Did you know that...   A total of 31 actresses were screen-tested for the coveted role of the indomitable «Southern Belle» Scarlett O'Hara in Victor Fleming's epic Gone with the Wind (1939). When David O. Selznick purchased the screen rights to Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind in July 1936, he began an extensive search for the role of Scarlett. He mounted a nationwide casting call that interviewed 1,400 unknowns, 400 of which were asked to do readings. This was eventually useless for the film, but it created «priceless» publicity — exactly what Selznick wanted. A number of established actresses were also considered, including Miriam Hopkins (the author's preference), Norma Shearer, Katharine Hepburn , Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard. However, only 31 of these names made the final cut.   Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh were the last two finalists in the search for Scarlett.   Below is a list of the 31 women who were tested for the role o...

Did you know that...  In 1947, an FBI analyst investigating Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry submitted a memo to his director, J. Edgar Hoover, claiming that Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) promoted Communism by discrediting bankers.   It's a Wonderful Life is now considered a Christmas classic. According to the memo received by Hoover, written by a certain D. M. Ladd and dated May 26, 1947, It's a Wonderful Life , now a Christmas classic, «represented rather obvious attempts do discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This [...] is a common trick used by Communists.» The report goes on to add that the film  «deliberately maligned the upper-class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters.» An informant interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation spoke in particular of the scene in which Mr. Potter (play...