How a Stand-Up Veteran Ruined the Most Elaborate Shot in ‘Goodfellas’
· Vice
From a technical standpoint, the scene in Goodfellas where Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and the future Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) go on their second date arguably contains the most impressive shot in the entire film. After arriving at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City, the couple bypasses the line out front and heads in through the basement entrance. The camera follows them around each corner as Hill slips money to the various people they encounter. Once they make their way through the kitchen, a waiter carries a table into the main room for them and places it directly in front of the stage.
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As producer Irwin Winkler explained in his 2019 book, A Life in Movies: Stories From 50 Years in Hollywood, this expertly crafted sequence was Martin Scorsese’s way of not only showing Henry winning over his date, but giving the audience a glimpse of the “attractive and glamorous” world that Henry was now a part of. When Karen finally gets a moment to talk to Henry, she immediately asks him, “What do you do?” “I’m in construction,” he tells her. Before the conversation can go much further, comedy legend and “King of the One-Liners” Henny Youngman takes the stage, opening his act with his signature catchphrase, “Take my wife…please!” “I take my wife everywhere, but she finds her way home,” he continues, as the long tracking shot comes to an end.
Since all of this was captured in a single continuous shot, there was quite a bit of behind-the-scenes preparation. According to Winkler, “It took us all day to set the actors, hide the lights, time entrances and exits, and have the Steadicam hit the focus marks.” As filming commenced, they ended up with six or seven takes that were slightly off, sometimes due to mechanical issues. Eventually, they got what Irwin thought was a perfect take, right up until the point that Youngman was supposed to deliver his classic line, that is.
“Youngman, a borscht belt comic, had been doing that joke for forty years and was fine in rehearsal,” Irwin recalled in his memoir. “Now, at this moment where everything went off perfectly, when the camera hit him, Youngman actually forgot his line,” the producer went on to reveal. “Marty’s meticulous rehearsal was ruined over a missed joke. An hour later, after five more takes, we got it perfectly, and the crew applauded Henny Youngman.”
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