50 Great Facts About Goodfellas

Check out this article at Shortlist.com which lists 50 little-known facts about Goodfellas such as these:

"The dinner scene with Tommy’s mother is largely improvised, including Tommy asking if he could borrow her butcher’s knife and the paw/hoof debate."

"For a film renowned for violence, GoodFellas has a relatively low body count of 10."

"The legendary Steadicam tracking shot through the nightclub kitchen was an accident. Scorsese (right, with De Niro), who didn’t even like using Steadicams at first, had been denied permission to go through the front door and had to improvise another plan. He decided to do it in one long shot to symbolise “Henry’s whole life being ahead of him, doors opening to him. It’s his seduction of Karen and it’s also the lifestyle seducing him”. The shot had to be redone eight times — not because of complications choreographing it, but because it ends on comedian Henry Youngman performing, but Youngman kept fluffing his lines, spoiling the close of the scene."

"Scorsese first heard of Pileggi’s book Wiseguy when he was handed an early proof copy while shooting The Color Of Money in Chicago. Although Scorsese had sworn off making another gangster flick after Mean Streets, he immediately called the writer and told him, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life.” Pileggi replied, “I’ve been waiting for this phone call my entire life.” They agreed to co-write it there on the phone."

Great stuff - as if I needed motivation to watch Goodfellas again!

http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/article/938/50-useless-but-genius-facts-about-goodfellas