Mario Puzo had two books under his belt that were reviewed well and sold poorly when he decided to make one about a Sicilian crime family, which he hoped would appeal to the masses. Considering the months the new book, entitled The Godfather, spent on the bestseller lists, he well succeeded. The book transitioned to screen as Francis Ford Coppola decided to do a film adaptation, enlisting Puzo’s help in writing the screenplay and after winning eleven Academy Awards, writing screenplays for the two sequels.

On this day, December 25, in 1990 Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo’s The Godfather Part III premiered.

The trilogy completed the story of the rise and fall of Michael Corleone, as played by Al Pacino, but weighed down by what many considered to be poor acting by Sofia Coppola, the director’s daughter. The plot, too, involving the Pope and the Papal banking scandal then making the news, was criticized for a convoluted, hard-to-follow storyline. Although the film was widely considered the weakest of the trilogy, it still made a very respectable showing at the box office and won seven Academy Awards that year.