Godfather (34 page)

After serving his apprenticeship under independent producer Roger Corman, Coppola wrote and directed his first feature,
Dementia 13
, which Corman produced. The film featured Mary Mitchel and William Campbell (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive).

In the psychological thriller
Dementia 13
, the lives of newlyweds Kane (Mary Mitchel) and Richard (William Campbell), a sculptor, are threatened by a serial killer (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive).

Coppola wrote the screenplay for Jack Clayton's film of F. Scott Fitzgerald's
The Great Gatsby
, starring Mia Farrow and Robert Redford. This is the only script Coppola wrote for another director after becoming a director himself (Author's Collection).

Elizabeth Hartman and Peter Kastner in
You're a Big Boy Now
, which Coppola submitted as his master's thesis at UCLA (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Fred Astaire in
Finian's Rainbow
, one of the last big Hollywood musicals (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Shirley Knight as a distraught housewife in
The Rain People
. This film is considered one of the first feminist films to come out of Hollywood (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

James Caan as the mentally retarded hero of
The Rain People
, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Gene Hackman as Harry Caul in
The Conversation
, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival (Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, far left) in
The Conversation
(Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Marlon Brando in the title role of
The Godfather
, which earned Academy Awards for both Francis Coppola and Brando (Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive).

Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen and Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone at a summit meeting of Mafia chiefs in
The Godfather
(Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive).

Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, right) names his son Michael (Al Pacino) as his successor in
The Godfather
(Ohlinger's Movie Material Store).

Lawyer Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton), and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) at a Senate investigation of the Mafia in
Godfather II
(Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive).