Just under three million dollars to buy the home of one of the most famous families in American cinematic history, you say? That sounds like an offer one shouldn't refuse...
$2.89 million is the listed price for the Staten Island mansion that belonged to Don Vito Corleone and his brood, as immortalized in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 classic "The Godfather."
Officially, only the home's exterior was filmed in the making of the movie, but the Staten Island Advance accounts that the current owner, who bought the home in March 2012, has remodeled some of the interior rooms to make them seem more like the ones seen on screen. Among the renovated rooms is a first-floor office made to resemble where Marlon Brandon's don greets supplicants and well-wishers on his daughter Connie's wedding day.
The house was purchased for $1.7 million from the Norton family, who had owned it since 1951. The five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home was originally built in 1930. But it wasn't until over 40 years later that the home became part of cinema history. Producers and location scouts selected the home for filming on the advice of Staten Island native Gianni Russo, who played Don Corleone's vicious, double-dealing son-in-law Carlo Rizzi.
"The kitchen is to die for," estate agent Joseph R Profaci told the Staten Island Advance.
"It has anything you would want for entertaining - big open space, a huge island, and a very large eating area that opens up to the yard and pool."
Profaci added that his favorite feature of the house was a wooden door on the first floor which looked like the entrance to an old speakeasy. It leads down to a basement containing a pub, stone fireplace and game room, which he described as the "ultimate man cave."
Now get Tom Hagen on the horn and let's broker a deal before Luca Brasi pays me a visit. Yes, I've watched "The Godfather" way too many times...
