10 Movies That Went Into Totally Unnecessary Detail
5. A Real Horse's Head Was Used - The Godfather
One of the most unforgettable scenes in The Godfather sees studio president Jack Woltz (John Marley) wake up with the decapitated head of his prized racing horse in his bed, in an attempt by the Corleone family to "persuade" him to cast Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) in a new movie.
The scene was originally going to be shot with a fake horse's head at the behest of studio Paramount, but director Francis Ford Coppola felt the prop head was unrealistic, and so went about sourcing a real horse's head instead.
Coppola's crew contacted a dog food company and found a soon-to-be-slaughtered horse that resembled Woltz's in the film, and then asked them to send them the head once it had been slaughtered for food.
And so, in Coppola's own words, "One day, a crate with dry ice came with this horse's head in it."
Yet going to the effort of securing a real horse's head and dealing with all the sanitary issues under hot film lights scarcely seems worth it considering that the real head just looks like a prop anyway.
Between this and the fact that it's featured on screen for less than 10 seconds, it's tough to believe that it wouldn't have been easier for a $7 million movie to just get a decent prop made.