I watched “You’ve Got Mail” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks yesterday.
Meg’s character was telling Tom that her business was in trouble and asked for advice. He said the movie THE GODFATHER was the perfect advice because he had all the awnsers. He said The Godfather said “Take It To The Mattress”
(Which means to fight, fight fight) I do not recall this phrase being used in the movie The Godfather.
Did the Godfather really say that, or was it just for the movie’s effect?
If The Godfather did say it, could you tell me in what scene and context it was said?
You know, it just happens I am reading that book for the umpteenth time right now. I can’t vouch for the movie, but in the book the Don does not use that phrase. And “going to the mattresses” refers to setting up satellite locations for the button men to use in the City, not in order to keep their families safe (as no one would dream of attacking family members), but in order to keep their movements more difficult to track.
In the movie Caporegime Peter Clemenza tells Paulie Gato & Rocco Lampone something like “Sonny [Don Vito’s eldest son] is thinking aobut going to the matteresses already.” This is just after Vito has been shot. Clemenza is preparing for the great Five Families War of 1946 by setting up some secret hideouts for the Corleone soldiers.
So while Don Vito Corleone [Marlon Brando] did not utter those specific lines in the movie, the was used. The line originated from the book
If I’m not mistaken, the phrase “gone to the mattresses” (or something very close to that) was uttered by Clemenza, in the movie. He is referring to Sonny going off half-cocked, prematurely heading into battle.
It’s also said in the book (again, by Clemenza or Sonny…not sure, haven’t read the book in ages, but I am with fessie here, it’s not the Don). It also explains in the book, that “going to the mattresses” refers to when the gang wars would start, they would move out around the city (to avoid family members being hurt) and mattresses were used in empty apartments for someone to rest when they weren’t on lookout duty. They were also used as shields in windows.
I’m going by memory here, so if anyone finds error in what I say, by all means correct me. My memory does good these days to recall what I had for breakfast.
Here - since I’ve got the book handy I’ll just type it verbatim (from early in chapter 6):
“He (Clemenza) would tell Paulie that their job today was to find an apartment in casse the Family decided to ‘go to the mattresses.’
Whenever a war between the Families became bitterly intense, the opponents would set up headquarters in secret apartments where the ‘soldiers’ could sleep on mattresses scattered through the rooms. This was not so much to keep their families out of danger, their wives and little children, since any attack on noncombatants was undreamed of. All parties were too vulnerable to similar retaliation. But it was always smarter to live in some secret place where your everyday movements could not be charted either by your opponents or by some police who might arbitrarily decide to meddle.
And so usually a trusted caporegime would be sent out to rent a secret apartment and fill it with mattresses. That apartment would be used as a sally port into the city when an offensive was mounted.”
and a couple of paragraphs later
"Clemenza said sourly to Gatto, ‘Damn that Sonny, he’s running scared. He’s already thinking of going to the mattresses. We have to find a place on the West Side. Paulie, you and Rocco gotta staff and supply it until the word comes down for the rest of the soldiers to use it. You know a good location?’ "
Clemenza made that “mattress” statement to Paulie so that Paulie wouldn’t get suspicious about the “ride” into the city that they were going to take. Sonny wasn’t really thinking that way but it made the car trip plausible to Paulie, whom Clemenza was setting up for murder.
According to the book, the whole neighborhood had their rent paid for by Don Vito,
with one condition…if and when he requested it, the tennants would vacate the premises immediately, no questions asked.
Then, the apartments would be stocked with provisions and wall to wall mattresses, so they could hunker down for a month or so.
You’re mixing two concepts here. In the book, Vito gave the extra houses on the mall to his friends, with the proviso that they would vacate instantly if he asked. But, that was not for war or hunkering down - the cheap apartments they rented when they went to the mattresses were for that. If the homes on the mall were to be vacated, it was for when he needed them for any other reason - he would not bring soldiers into his “home” because that would bring the enemies into the home turf as well. Later in the book, after Sonny, he would give one of the mall homes to Carlo and Connie, to better keep an eye on Carlo. Michael and Kay had another house on the mall. Both of these houses, in the beginning of the book, would have been residences for his friends.