SOURCE: "The Godfather, Part II: One Godfather Too Many," in New York Times, December 22, 1974, p. D19.

In the following review, Canby complains that "Much of the time it's next to impossible to figure out who's doing what to whom [in The Godfather, Part II, not, I suspect, because its mode is ambiguity, but because it's been cut and edited in what looks to have been desperation…."]

If Francis Ford Coppola were a less intelligent and less talented filmmaker, one might indulge the failed aspirations of The Godfather, Part II—if not the thick fog of boredom that settles in before the film is even one hour old. Clumsy directors may not be entitled but because their gaffs are not exactly unexpected, they are more easily accommodated. We snicker and laugh at multi-million-dollar dreadfuls like The Valachi Papers and Crazy Joe. Our good spirits remain intact since there's no...