Versions of this story were originally published in 2022 and 2024.
This is one of the truly iconic movie lines filmed in New Jersey.
“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”
Even if you haven’t seen The Godfather, the 1972 epic crime film chronicling the Corleone family, you’re probably familiar with Clemenza’s brutally casual six-word direction of Rocco as he kills Paulie in a parked car.
Steve Gorelick, former executive director of the New Jersey Film and Television Commission, said in 2022: “The irony of the commentary that corresponds to the action is memorable. It speaks to their sense of morality… We just killed a man, but don’t leave a cannoli.”
Perhaps you want to stand where Clemenza stood when she was dropped off at what is now Liberty State Park, and enjoy the view of the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of welcoming immigrants that contrasts with the scene. Movie tourism is a popular pastime, and New Jersey is home to dozens of locations associated with popular movies.
However, while many of the New York City locations in the film can still be visited — the Staten Island mansion that served as the Corleone family home was rented on Airbnb in 2022 — the exact location of the guns/cannoli scene has been off-limits to the public for decades.
Maybe not for long, though.
This scene was filmed in 1971 on an unmarked road in Jersey City that became part of Liberty State Park when it opened five years later. Some fans believe the scene was filmed on what is now known as the Freedom Trail, which cuts through the park’s two main thoroughfares and runs level with the Hudson River.
Liberty State Park/Godfather
But that’s not the location, at least not according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees Liberty State Park.
Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said the unmarked road that sealed Paoli’s fate is within a 210-acre interior area of the park that has been closed off to the public since the early 1980s due to environmental contamination.
“This is part of an internal ecological restoration project area and is currently not open to the public,” Haina said in 2022.
Hajna said that will still be the case in 2025.
NJ Advance Media was not granted access to the site, but state officials provided a photo taken by an employee in 2022 showing the site being overgrown with weeds, brush and trees.
Godfather/Liberty State Park
Haina said work on the Liberty State Park revitalization plan is ongoing. This included clearing the fenced-in interior area where the set was filmed.
It’s unclear whether the unmarked road will be preserved as part of the cleanup effort, but the DEP has recorded GPS coordinates for the film.
Might a plaque be dedicated to this location one day?
“People like to visit movie locations and scenes that are familiar to them,” Joseph Simonetta, former executive director of the New Jersey Tourism Industry Association, told NJ Advance Media before his death in 2023.
In New Jersey film lore, scenes from “The Godfather” rank alongside Terry Malloy’s exclamation “I could have been a contender” in “On the Waterfront” – the 1954 film shot almost entirely in Hoboken. Malloy is played by Marlon Brando, who played Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
It remains unclear where the car was parked during the “On the Waterfront” scene when Brando expresses regret. According to the Hoboken Museum, it was either on a street in Hoboken or in a studio outside the city, although the movie shows Malloy being dropped off on River Street.
Given this uncertainty, we have to ask: Is the state Department of Environmental Protection completely certain of the location of the Godfather? We’re talking about a scene from a movie that was filmed in a rather unremarkable location more than half a century ago. The state Film and Television Commission’s database only states that the film was filmed in Liberty State Park.
Haina attributed the information in the file to a longtime park employee who had served as an assistant director. He said the scene was filmed at a bend in the unmarked road, closer to Phillip Street than Liberty Road. In 1973, a year after the film’s release, the former employee was working at a local tow boat yard and recognized locations from the film.
“I guess you could call it oral history,” Haina said.
As such, this is likely to be the final word on the scene’s placement, unless others with competing anecdotal claims emerge or long-lost documents are found.
via GIPHY
Ironically, this was the only scene in The Godfather filmed in New Jersey. Actor Richard Castellano, who plays Clemenza, lives in North Bergen and improvised the cannoli. Castellano died in 1988 at the age of 55.
There are many timeless lines from the movie: “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” “Don’t take anyone’s side against this family again.” “This isn’t Sonny’s personal business, this is strictly business.” However, the cannoli line perfectly captures the juxtaposition of crime and family that runs throughout the film.
The scene comes after the family leader, Vito Corleone, was shot several times in a street ambush and hospitalized in critical condition. His driver, Paulie, had called in sick the morning of the shooting, and eldest son Sonny accused him of orchestrating the incident.
Clemenza and Rocco ask Paulie to take them for a ride, ostensibly to find the location where the body was dumped as revenge. When the car pulled over, Clemenza got out of the car to urinate, turning his back to the car. Rocco, who was sitting behind Paulie, fired three times.
Clemenza turned slightly, with an expression on his face that could be interpreted in many ways, perhaps a hint of regret. He walked back to the car, glanced at Paulie, who was slumped over the steering wheel, and mentioned cannoli. It’s reminiscent of the beginning of the scene: His wife stands in the driveway as the car pulls out, blowing a kiss to him and reminding him not to forget the cannoli.
Gorelick noted that there is the Statue of Liberty in the background and that many of the gangsters depicted in the film are first- and second-generation immigrants.
He said it’s not surprising that little is known about filming the scene in New Jersey, such as how long it took. While The Godfather proved to be an iconic film, especially this scene, the result is only apparent in retrospect.
“Could anyone have predicted that ‘The Godfather’ would have such a lasting impact? You never know these things,” Gorelick said.
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