Gifts were handed out at the end of production. Brando was given some drums, having hammered the skins since he was a boy. He has said on several occasions that if he hadn’t been an actor he would have been a drummer. Brando’s Vito Corleone was based on at least two real-life mob bosses: Vito Genovese, whose activities in the 1950s had done much to bring the mafia to the attention of the authorities, and rival “Luciano family” boss Frank Costello (from whom Brando borrowed Don Vito’s husky voice).

Photograph: Steve Shapiro/Taschen