Originally posted by Turnbull:
You have to wonder, though, how the film--both plot and performance--would have been improved (immeasurably, IMO) by using Duvall instead of the Melanoma Poster Boy. Duvall would have had a real role, and the plot undoubtedly would have been bolstered for him.
I guess - and now, I'm only assuming - we would have seen Tom clashing with Connie over what the Family should do with Zasa, much like we saw Michael doing. I mean, presumably, it was Tom who helped Michael the most (nearly totally) achieve legitimacy. Again - presumably - it would be Tom most reluctant to return the Family to more criminal dealings.
Interestingly, one of my Coppola reference books, ('Coppola' by James Clarke), had this tiny, blink-and-you-miss tidbit about Tom's possible role in GF3, (the bold lettering is words I've emphasised):
(on writing the screenplay for Part III)"
On 6th August 1989, in his office at his Napa Valley home, Francis Coppola drafted out his basic game plan for the structure of what would become 'The Godfather Part III'. Coppola's story-map split the film into five acts and he titled his pages of notes 'The Tragedy of Michael Corleone'. The notes include the phrases 'unravelling of puzzle' 'catasthrophe' and 'Hagen's suicide'" ... interesting, no?
Wonder what would have made Tom go the way of Frankie...
