The other day the Captain asked me to open a bottle of juice for him, and I got all up with my Godfather voice, saying, “I do you this favour, and someday, and that day may never come, I may ask you for a favour in return…” You know the drill.
When I was a kid, my actual godfather (shout out, Uncle George!) used to talk to me every single time he saw me in the classic Godfather growl. He’d say, “Kid, I am your godfather. Someday, and that day may never come, if you need a favour, you come to me…” And so on. Being like, 8 years old, I had no idea what the heck he was talking about, but that didn’t stop me from doing my own Marlon Brando impersonation around the house.
So I considered myself something of a Godfather specialist, and after I pulled it on the Captain, it led to a conversation about the movie (in the most stripped, cleansed version, we’re not trying to terrify the kid, geez). And I explained about the favour quote, and the voice, and who the godfather is (without actually using the words “mob” or “mafia,” try that at home kids!).
My point here is that I went to YouTube to find the clip in question with this quote, and I found it easily, and it turns out THE WORD “FAVOUR” IS NOT EVEN USED.
NOT AT ALL.
My mind is BLOWN. Did you all know this is a famous misquote? What he actually says is, “Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”
A SERVICE? A SERVICE?
Mind boggling. My Marlon Brando may never be the same.
TurtleHead 
Humphrey Bogart never says “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca.
I knew about that one, it seems to have more publicity than this one. This Godfather thing blew my mind because I’ve never heard anyone refer to it as a misquote before. Sir Monkeypants, in fact, had so much trouble believing that the word “favour” is not part of this quote – or any similar quote – that he spent a good half hour reading the script online, and searching for other references. He even found a Roger Ebert review – EBERT – that “quotes” this particular scene and uses the word “favour” in place of “service”.
“I do you this favour…” will never die, it seems :).
Somewhat related – I remember seeing the trailer for Iron Man 2; at one point Tony Stark quickly says “you complete me” to Pepper Potts before dropping off a high precipice somewhere. Funny line, but it never appeared in the movie. In fact that line was funnier than anything that _did_ appear in the movie…
So I guess there’s a possibility that those lines were real but just didn’t make the final cut, or were changed during filming, but somehow still made it into folklore. Editing is often done right up to the last minute before a film’s release, so I’m sure this must happen with some regularity.
I’m also completely convinced that the version of Come What May (from Moulin Rouge) that I saw in a film clip in an Ebert review is not the same as the one that appeared in the movie – the same phenomenon perhaps?
Kirk never says “Beam me up, Scotty.” in Star Trek. Whaaaaaaaaaat?!
In your synopsis of The Godfather, did you omit the bit about the guy waking up with a horse’s head in his bed? I hope so.
I love that movie. I really do. I also love the book. I read it while pregnant with Jake and I called my husband, sobbing, from the waiting room at the doctor’s office because I got to the part where Sonny is all shot up and he is waiting for a service from that guy, because “I don’t want his mother to see him like this.” My husband was all, why are you crying? *I* am not the godfather.
Brody never says “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” in Jaws, although it’s close. It’s “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
It’s such a subtle difference but I think it makes the whole thing much more sinister. Like, a favor? You can say no. But not a service… you’re stuck with that one.
I HATE when stuff like that happens. It always makes me suspicious that I’ve slipped into a parallel universe and then I wonder what else isn’t going to be how I expect it to be.