A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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Go back one day for yesterday's posting of MAD's various parodies of The Godfather, their animated version, as well as the one from Grin. Today we'll show the other ones.
THE RODFATHER
Cracked #104, October 1972
a: John Severin
One of the posters had the family wedding, another had the logo in front of a black background manipulated like a marionette. "An offer you can't refuse" was their tagline,
Again, the summation of events are written about in yesterday's post. I have clips of some of the missing parts there. There's going to be some repitition but some other parts filled in and some parts ignored. It's a three-hour movie.
The Godfather, head of the family, was Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). Next in line to be the leader after him would be either Sonny (James Caan), the hot-tempered one or Fredo (John Cazale), the quiet one. Michael (Al Pacino) is the son that wants to stay out of the family business and is engaged to Kay Adama (Diane Keaton). Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) is the adopted son who acts as consigliere, a sort of lawyer and advisor for the family.
At the wedding is lounge singer Johnny Fontaine (Al Martino), supposedly based on Frank Sinatra. Guests are famous Italian-Americans I don't recognize now but probably will after writing and posting this. Asking a favor of the Don is Benito Mussolini
Daughter Connie is played by Talia Shire. The first man to ask a favor is actually a mortician asking to have men punished for violating his daughter. Johnny Fontaine comes to ask to get a part in a movie that the producer won't give him. Tom Hagen flies out West to talk to Jack Woltz (John Marley), the producer, who shows Tom around his home, including his prize horse, but is adamant Johnny won't get the part. The next morning he wakes up with the horse's severed head in his bed.
Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), from a rival family, needs Corleone to grease the palms of judges so he can sell heroin in the city. Here heroin is substituted for pizza. Since Don Corleone won't cooperate, he is shot down and sent to the hospital. Michael sees his father is in the hospital unprotected, because the bodyguards were chased away by the cops that are owned by Sollozzo. The Corleones vow revenge arranging Michael to have dinner with Sollozzo and the crooked cop.
Michael shoots the rival gangsters with a gun hidden in the bathroom and hides in Sicily to avoid being arrested for murder (they leave out the scene of his stay here too). Sonny goes to respond to his sister being abused and is killed at a toll both in retaliation for having beaten Connie's abusive husband previously. Don Vito Corleone has had enough of the feuding, wants Michael to be able to return safely, and calls for a meeting of the Five Families. Kay, oblivious to all this, keeps coming to the Corleone compound asking where Michael is. Couples didn't live together before they were married or know what the other one did back in the forties.
Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Durante are members of the rival gangs. I know some of the others are someone but I'm not sure who. Eagle-eyed readers will tell me. Don Corleone is actually with his grandson in the tomato garden and Michael has already crossed over into crime and is in the process of re-organizing the syndicate and going semi-legit.
What they leave out here is Michael Corleone's first order of business before moving the business is having rival gangs and unnecessary staffers killed.
Cracked was known for milking a theme to death in the seventies and put The Godfather on their cover a couple issues later.
From Pell-Mell with Mel in Cracked #125, an article about famous movies as if they were directed by Mel Brooks.
A couple years later, they started combining movies and TV shows, here was their Godfather/Jaws mash-up in #131, their March 1976 issue.
There hadn't been sequels to Jaws yet. This starts with the same plot of Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) concerned about a shark attack and the Mayor (Murray Hamilton) not caring, and suggesting the aid of Quint (Robert Shaw).
From If Gary Coleman Played Other Parts in #161, August 1979
From Combining Hollywood Movies for Fun and Profit in Crazy #17, May 1976. Doing the famous horse head scene again.
Of course Sickgot in on the action in #94, their June 1973 issue.
From their contents page
THE GODFATHER REVIEW
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
In case you were wondering, Brando did win the Oscar that year, and had someone accept on his behalf to give a speech on behalf of the Apaches, angering Conservative actors.
Joe Valachi is mentioned a couple times. He was a real-life gangster.
When the movie came on TV, Jack Davis did a cover for TV Guide.
UPDATE:
Cover to the Mexican edition. Might not have been specifically to accompany the movie, why is he holding a baby, and Fredo in a bathing suit?
MAD # 153, September 1972
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
The city of San Francisco is under attack by a murderer who's attacking citizens at random and threatens to strtike again until he's paid ransom. The mayor (John Vernon, caricatured by Drucker more accurately in the Animal House parody as you can see clicking on the sidebar link.) has assigned Detective Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) to the case.
There is a bank robbery while Harry is eating lunch and the shootout is established. It also introduces the magnum speech he's best known for and is used in other films in the Dirty Harry series.
Harry is partnered with Gonzales (Reni Santoni), who sees Callahan's unconventional ways.
Callahan is given directions by the killer, Scorpio (Andy Robinson), about where to place the ransom as he runs throughout the city.
Scorpio has kidnapped a teenage girl and won't tell anyone where she is. They find through hospital records that he squats at a football stadium, and Callahan tracks him down there and beats him.
Later, Callahan is called into the district attorney's office and told Scorpio can't be prosecuted and none of the evidence is admissible in court if he wasn't read his Miranda rights and was searched without a warrant. Callahan then decides to pursue the case on his own. Scorpio pays someone to beat him so he can say the police did it.
Scorpio has hijacked a schoolbus to get to where the airport where he's demanded a private plane from the city and is holding the children on it hostage to make sure the city doesn't have agents waiting at the airport or anything like that. Callahan jumps on the bus and chases him out to a lake and kills him. Having finished the job and knowing he's violated a bunch of rules, he throws his badge in the river.
From Combining Movies for Fun and Profit by Mark Steven and Bob Smith, from Crazy #17, May 1976. Shampoo was a movie where Warren Beatty played a promiscuous hairdresser.
