The horse's head on the film producer's bed
Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) is a melodic singer and film actor, who gained special fame among the female audience. And he is the godson of Vito Corleone, to whom he offers obeisances and also asks for favors.
Johnny takes advantage of the wedding of Connie (Talia Shire), Vito's daughter, to talk to her godfather. Of course, he also sings at the wedding, but in private he confesses to Don Corleone that his career is going through a bad patch and he needs a role in a movie that a Hollywood producer, Jack Woltz, denies him.
Vito tasks the consigliere, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), with traveling to see Woltz and convincing him to give the part to Fontane. Woltz's first reaction was anger until he found out whose name Hagen was arriving. So, he received him and took him on a tour of his mansion and the stud where he showed her his favorite horse. "600 thousand dollars on all fours," he defined it.
The talk continued until Woltz lost his temper, and showed his contempt for Johnny Fontane and his Italianism, not caring who his best man was. He rebuffed Fontane again and fired Hagen, who asked for an urgent ride to the airport because he said, "Corleone likes to get bad news right away."
In the next scene, Woltz wakes up between his silk sheets covered in blood. But he is not yours. As he removes the sheets, more and more blood appears until the horse's head is visible at the foot of the bed. It was not a revenge against Woltz, but a negotiation, "a proposal that he will not be able to refuse." And he gave the part to Fontane.
Michael murders Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey
It is one of the most important scenes in the film because it marks a change in the direction of the Corleone family. It also exposes for the first time Michael (Al Pacino), Vito's youngest son, who had a military career as a United States Marine and did not want to be associated with the mob.
The scene takes place in a restaurant in the Bronx, in the context of a meeting to try to mend a broken relationship. The "Turk" Sollozzo is an Italian-American who is dedicated to drug trafficking and asks for Corleone's support. Vito, who receives it, rejects the proposal because he doesn't want to be linked to drugs.
But since Corleone is the one who has the best arrival in politics and his safe conduct, Sollozzo -supported by another capo mafia- decides to eliminate him. The hitmen fail and the old man survives. There Michael discovers that among those who want to kill his father is also a police captain, Marc McCluskey. And he hosts the dinner pretending he's going to negotiate on behalf of his family, even though Michael knows he's going to kill them.
In the course of the talk, Don Corleone's son goes to the bathroom where Clemenza, one of Vito's thugs, hid a gun. He grabs her and returning to the table, shoots and kills them. This leads to Michael's exile in Sicily, which opens a window into the film's plot.
The attempted murder of Michael in Sicily
After killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Michael was sent to Sicily, to "disappear" from New York, where his life would be in danger. In Italy, he was under the protection of Don Tomassino, Vito's childhood friend.
In his room, Michael (always with two bodyguards) falls in love with the young Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), whom he ends up marrying. Good news regarding peace between the families does not arrive from the United States and Michael is warned that he is also at risk in Sicily.
His bodyguards betray him and put a bomb in the car that Corleone would drive on a trip. Apollonia steps forward and begins to honk, urging her husband to get into her car. By the time Michael realizes it's a death trap, it's too late: the woman started the car and detonated the explosive that was meant to kill him.
Sonny is shot at the tollbooth
Connie (Talia Shire) receives a call at her home from a woman asking for her husband, Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo), and this sparks an argument between the two. As used to happen, Carlo starts hitting her. Long ago, the impulsive Sonny Corleone (James Caan) had beaten Carlo in the street after discovering bruises on his sister's face. This time it was Connie who called her brother and he grabbed the car and went straight to look for her brother-in-law. And he fell into the trap.
Knowing how temperamental Sonny was, Don Barzini (Corleone's rival capo-mafia) bought Carlo to provoke his brother-in-law and generate his reaction. At a tollbooth on the way to Carlo's house, Barzini's thugs ambushed him and shot him with an impressive crossfire. It is a scene full of drama and crude realism, where Sonny's body was left with holes.
Michael's baptism and revenge
When he handed over the command to his son as head of the family and he remained as an adviser, Vito Corleone had anticipated that, after his death, whoever offered him a deal first would be the traitor. And it was Tessio (one of the two historical thugs of Don Corleone, along with Clemenza) who approached Vito's funeral to organize a meeting with Barzini.
Michael decided to kill the heads of all five families at the same time. And he did it while consecrating himself to God as godfather to Connie's son in what is possibly the best scene in The Godfather, with a parallel script and montage that went down in history. All are accompanied by church music played by an organ, which goes from the sacred to suspense, and from images of baptism to crimes.
The priest is only heard asking the baby the “renunciations of sin”, which is answered in his name by his godfather, Michael; and the shots with which the other bosses are being assassinated in the name of the new godfather, Michael, who from that moment on was enshrined as “Don Corleone”.
