A GREAT AMERICAN FILM RARITY: “BE WITH ME ON THE NEXT SOOT [SIC]”: THE GODFATHER SCREENPLAY, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY MARLON BRANDO TO THE FILM’S SET DRESSER

(BRANDO, Marlon) PUZO, Mario and COPPOLA, Francis Ford. The Godfather. Screenplay. Second Draft: March 1, 1971. New York: Paramount Pictures, March 1, 1971. Quarto, original gilt-lettered black leatherette wrappers, 173 numbered leaves (measuring 8-1/2 by 11 inches) with typescript on recto only, bound with brads as issued. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Original exceptionally scarce Second Draft of Puzo and Coppola’s screenplay for The Godfather (1971), dated March 1, 1971 on the title page, boldly inscribed on the title page to the film’s set dresser by Marlon Brando, “To Willie, Be with me on the next soot [sic], Marlon Brando [name underlined],” in fragile original wrappers.

Legendary actor and director Marlon Brando, whose performance in The Godfather (1972) earned him his second and final Academy Award, was surprisingly not Paramount Studio’s first, or even second, choice for Mafia patriarch Don Corleon. “But Coppola fought hard for him, and finally the executives agreed,” with conditions that included a screen test. Coppola kept this unsettling news from Brando when he visited the actor one day, armed with a few props and a camera, and saying he only wanted some footage of the actor. Brando’s transformation into Don Corleon that afternoon astounded both Coppola and the studio executives, who quickly agreed with Coppola’s inspired choice. Subsequently “in mid-March 1971, Coppola gathered his actors at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan… Brando broke the ice by toasting the group with a glass of wine” (Vanity Fair). This rare early draft of Puzo and Coppola’s screenplay for The Godfather contains a stated “Second Draft” and date of “March 1, 1971” on the title page—the same month as that groundbreaking meeting. Brando has warmly inscribed this copy to William Canfield II (“Willie”), who was movie’s Set Dresser. Canfield’s skill at preparing the shooting set with everything from a crystal wineglass to the bloody severed head of a prize racehorse, as in scene 7B (31), would have been greatly appreciated by Brando, an actor famed for his attention to detail. This “Second Draft “of The Godfather screenplay is especially scarce in that it was not used past the first day of shooting, when it was succeeded by a “Third Draft” dated March 28, 1971. Front wrapper with gilt-lettered “The Godfather” (centered) and the imprint of “studio duplicating service, inc.” (lower corner). With inked “31” in upper corner of title page.

Text fresh with only tiny bit of dampstaining to title page not affecting text or inscription, slight wear to fragile original leatherette wrappers. An exceedingly rare and most desirable signed copy, in near-fine condition.