In the Godfather movie does the Don have a name for his cat and what if any meaning is behind the cat that he is petting on his lap in the begining of the movie? Might be a stupid question, Does he do it too calm himself or to calm the person he is talking to, to show that deep down he is a gentle person. Or did the f--king cat just jump on him to get petted.

It was a cat that Brando found on the set of the movie (I believe it was on the set might have been somewhere else) but he just held it with him.

So there was no deeper meaning to the cat in the movie. The cat wasnt in the novel? I have to get the old book out and see.

As far as I know there wasn't a deeper meaning nor was it in the novel (but I could be wrong)

I thought maybe there was a deeper meaning with the cat because FFC is such an intense, deep director. But your right it proably did not mean anything.

The cat was an improvised thing. Brando is infamous for his improvisations. Like in On the Waterfront, when Eva Marie Saint drops her glove by accident. Brando could have just picked it up and given it back, but he used it as a prop. He sits on the swing, fidgets with it, even goes so far as to put the glove on his own hand. None of that was in the script. Same with the cat. It's also kinda sinister and creepy too, how they're discussing murder, and he's just sitting there stroking a cat. FFC was throwing a fit though because the cat's purring was drowning out all the other noise.

Really, I never would have known that. I thought that the cat was supposed to be in the scene. Thanks for the insight.

In the novel there's no mention of any cats/dogs/other animals in Corleones' household. Only kids, buttonmen and ants and lice in Don's tomato-pepper garden.

I think the novel described the two guys who attacked Bonasera's daughter as "real animals".

Just me, I also beg to differ with your statement: At the commission meeting, one of the Don's tells the other commission members " Theye're Animals anyway, so let them lose their souls!"


Don Cardi

I think that from a dramatic point of view this was an excellent idea -- the powerful Padrino receiving visitors asking for help, revenge even involving murder, while petting a cat....in a sort of a nonchalance attitude. Quite a strong contrast. Very serious decisions are going to be made in a calm, domestic set. Same thing at Vito's death, he just died while playing with his grandson.

Wasn't there a thread once when we all tried to come up with an apt name for the cat?

Well, I was talking about animals in their household only, you know.
Anyway, as Vito mentioned to Signor Roberto that he "hates animals himself", that explains why he was so cruel to those two punks, and coloured, and poor horse, and ants and lice-poor lice! We may only imagine their tortures when they were sprayed with poison!
(btw, I don't deny that I'm doing that myself... )

I remember awhile ago a member claimed that breed (a Havana brown I think) could not have existed in the 40s

The Don with the cat on his lap made me think of the James Bond baddie - Blofeld - who always had a cat on his lap. It always looked very sinister.

coppola said marlon just found that cat where they make the film,and marlon loved it.so that cat was not in coppola's plan.