# Yet another Godfather thread -- about the cat **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285 "2011-10-01T21:18:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285/1 "2011-10-01T21:18:40Z")
Believe you me, I’ve read everything I can find on here since before I was a mere “guest” with search “privileges,” just from nerdiness. Spill, geniuses. Watched again last weekend. How the fuck did they get the cat to behave – did Brando have some StarKist up his sleeve? I want deets. It’s truly incredible to me that it was not an animatronic cat. Did they starve the kitty so it would do FFC’s bidding? WTH? ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285/2 "2011-10-01T21:36:31Z")
Do you mean its playfulness towards the Godfather? I just assumed it was random and that when they’d first decided on him holding a cat they’d envisioned it just sitting there. What resulted was a happy accident. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285/3 "2011-10-01T21:42:30Z")
from the trivia section of the IMDB page: > [@](#): > > The cat held by Marlon Brando in the opening scene was a stray the actor found while on the lot at Paramount, and was not originally called for in the script. So content was the cat that its purring muffled some of Brando’s dialogue, and, as a result, most of his lines had to be looped. [the 17th item on this list](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/trivia) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285/4 "2011-10-01T21:44:02Z")
Even if it hadn’t been a random happy accident, is it so hard to believe that they could get a well trained cat? There are cats on TV and movies all the time doing more complicated tricks than just sitting there and enjoying being petted. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-godfather-thread-about-the-cat/598285/5 "2011-10-01T22:30:39Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Even if it hadn’t been a random happy accident, is it so hard to believe that they could get a well trained cat? There are cats on TV and movies all the time doing more complicated tricks than just sitting there and enjoying being petted. Well, sure. As I saw again the flick for like the whateverth time, it struck me that the cat was pretty well choreographed to “VAITO CORLEEAWN”'s movements. My last cat (who lives with a horrible adopted surrogate woman now) wouldn’t even do that, not for Fancy Feast or any Feast. Maybe, if I may advance a theory – Brando adjusted his gestures to match the cat’s tendencies. If it was a playful, well-socialized cat, he or she might well have been playing along just out of habit. Admit, though, it’s a bit uncanny how well the cat plays into the scene, responding to all of Brando’s moves – and, as I allow, maybe vice versa. ETA have to listen for the ADR – I’m used to it being a big Orson Welles fan, but I only caught a few BIG scenes where “looping” was used in I & II