robert duvall appeared in the movie as the corleone family lawyer and advisor tom hagen. client. today, at the age of 91, he firmly believes the epic bears the handiwork and stamp of one individual in particular. coppola. francis ford coppola. he's the — he's the beginning of the end of it all. although in the beginning, they were trying to fire him during the first couple of weeks of work. and i was aware, and i guess others were — and i'd gained a lot of respect for him. it was his vision from a to z and they tried to have a standby director, to fire him, in case they fired him, then this guy would take over. but it was coppola's vision and his film—making and his casting that made it all work, i mean, for me — for everybody. the inspiration for the godfather came partly from the bestseller of the same name by american author mario puzo, published three years before the film's release. in an interview decades ago, coppola, who ultimately worked with puzo on the godfather screenplay, revealed he didn't have much initial enthusiasm for the project. anyone who remembers th

. >> is that robert duvall >> no, that's not robert duvall. >> rudy giuliani >> no way!my god! >> oh, my gosh >> well, mr. giuliani, with all of the controversy that is surrounding you right now, i think it surprises us all that you're here on "the masked singer." >> me too, me too. [ laughter ] >> seth: i'm sure he was surprised. there is a good chance rudy genuinely did not know where he was, and was just as surprised as everyone else when they opened that box. he was probably thrilled, by the way. "a singing competition i just assumed i was going to jail." i bet you could trick rudy giuliani into climbing into almost any container just by telling him there's a trove of shredded trump ballots in there or, i don't know, a bottle of scotch that wasn't completely empty. honestly, the idea that any tv show would help rehabilitate a key figure in an attempted coup for entertainment purposes is so disgusting and shocking. the only reality show i would have been okay with rudy being on is "love is blind," just to see -- [ laughter ] just to see if he accidentally ends up marr