James Caan says he walked out of The Godfather screening over one of his scenes being cut: ‘I was so pissed’

Actor said director Francis Ford Coppola scrapped 10-page sequence

James Cann, who played Vito Corleone’s (Marlon Brando) oldest son, Sonny, in The Godfather, has recalled the time he walked out of a screening of the film over a scene cut.

The actor, 81, said he was “was so pissed off” about the creative decision in the 1972 film.

“When Michael [Al Pacino] tells me he is going to take care of the cop and Sollozzo [Al Lettieri], I say, ‘You’ll get brains all over your nice Ivy League suit,’” Caan told The Hollywood Reporterin a retrospective on the film for its 50th anniversary.

“There was a scene before in the same room that I had with Bobby [Duvall] that was like 10 pages long – and Francis [Ford Coppola] cut all of it out!”

The final version of the film ran at almost three hours. Set in the 1940s and 1950s, the iconic movie follows a Mafia family called the Corleones.

Director Coppola, who went on to make several sequels to the film, recently said that he is unimpressed by the “razzle dazzle” of the modern-day Oscars.

His comments came after it was announced that eight of the 23 awards given out at the 94th Academy Awards would not be broadcast in an attempt to streamline the televised event and make it “more thrilling”.

Coppola shared his thoughts on the news, saying: “All those [categories] are important. It seems odd, but I guess they have their reasons.

Coppola (Getty Images for Paramount Pictu)

“I don’t like it so much as a big razzle-dazzle production.

“I like it more intimate, when they had a gentle quality that I think was nice. There are too many awards shows now. I liked it when it was just the Oscars.”