There are numerous great scenes with Tom Hagen (Duvall) in the Godfather including fixing up the mess with Senator Geary in the brothel. But as a fan of good, crisp dialog, my favorite series of scenes involves his interplay with movie mogul Jack Woltz (John Marley):
Jack Woltz: Are you trying to muscle me? Tom Hagen: Absolutely not. I've come to ask a service for a friend... Jack Woltz: Now you listen to me, you smooth-talking son-of-a-bitch, let me lay it on the line for you and your boss, whoever he is! Johnny Fontane will never get that movie! I don't care how many dago guinea wop greaseball goombahs come out of the woodwork! Tom Hagen: I'm German-Irish. Jack Woltz: Well, let me tell you something, my kraut-mick friend, I'm gonna make so much trouble for you, you won t know what hit you! Tom Hagen: Mr. Woltz, I'm a lawyer. I have not threatened you. Jack Woltz: I know almost every big lawyer in New York, who the hell are you? Tom Hagen: I have a special practice. I handle one client. Now you have my number, I'll wait for your call. By the way, I admire your pictures very much.And after the initially pleasant dinner with Woltz goes off the rails, Hagen's cool politeness is the superb counterpoint to the raging Woltz.
Jack Woltz: You don't understand. Johnny Fontane never gets that movie. That part is perfect for him. It'll make him a big star. I'm gonna run him out of the movies. And let me tell you why. Johnny Fontane ruined one of Woltz International's most valuable proteges. For three years we had her under contract, singing lessons, dancing lessons, acting lessons. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was gonna make her a big star. And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I'm not a hard-hearted man, that it's not all dollars and cents. She was beautiful! She was young, she was innocent. She was the greatest piece of ass I've ever had, and I've had 'em all over the world. And then Johnny Fontaine comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous. And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous. Now you get the hell out of here! And if that goomba tries any rough stuff, you tell him I ain't no bandleader. Yeah, I heard that story. Tom Hagen: Thank you for the dinner and a very pleasant evening. Have your car take me to the airport. Mr Corleone is a man who insists on hearing bad news at once.
It took me a long time to realize that Woltz was referring to Luca Brasi when speaking of the "goomba".
Tom Hagen brought him along to the studio.
Luca was the one who put the horse's head in Woltz's bed.
And Duvall is great when he's kidnapped by Solozzo.
"Your boss is dead."
Hagen comes close to tears, but then says:
"That may be true, but you can't stop Luca Brasi from coming after you."
"Well, let ME worry about Luca".
O/T, Robert Duvall doesn't look "older" because he's been bald since the early '70s.
He was wearing a hairpiece in the Godfather, and GF II.
He might have even been quite thin in To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), but I can't remember.
Yes, once he gets to “she was the greatest piece of ass I’ve ever had, and I’ve had it all over the world” (one of my favorite lines in a movie full of them) we know what’s really bothering him. Tom evidently makes note of how much the horse means to him.
This film made such an impression on people that many believe that Frank Sinatra(the inspiration for Johnny) actually got the part in From Here to Eternity due to mob intimidation. But a movie buff friend tells me that his then-wife, Ava Gardner, actually used her influence to get him the part.
Though he is not blood-related to the Corleones, Tom Hagen has been de facto adopted by them and Vito pays for his law school. So Fredo and the worthless son-in-law, Connie’s husband, are always jealous of him. So the son-in-law betrays Sonny. And eventually the increasingly paranoid Michael lashes out at Tom. He was Sonny’s friend originally, after all.
I said to my old movie buff friend who seldom watches anything made after 1960, “Are you ready
to see one of the best movies ever made?’ He said, “yes, or I’m ready to see the Godfather.” He felt that it was OK, over-long, and “only the old guys could act.” I think that means Marlon Brando, Sterling Hayden and the actor who plays Barzini, whose name I always forget but used to be in a lot of film noir.