...tell him, I ain't no band leader!"

So Woltz dismisses a gun being put to someone's head as something that wouldn't intimidate him into doing anything, but a horse head in his bed makes him capitulate?

I don't think a wealthy and powerful guy like that would have been intimidated by the horse head stunt into casting Johnny. People with lots of money who are used to getting their way in all things don't intimidate easily.

As I said in my original post, "People with lots of money who are used to getting their way in all things don't intimidate easily."

I believed that then, and I believe that now.

Woltz would have been completely freaked out by the horse head, as anybody would be. After that, it would have galvanized him.

As I said in my original post, "People with lots of money who are used to getting their way in all things don't intimidate easily."

I believed that then, and I believe that now.

Woltz would have been completely freaked out by the horse head, as anybody would be. After that, it would have galvanized him.

The novel provides more detail. Woltz was intimidated because:

1. The horse killer got past his security, meaning that his security was no good.
2. He boasted to Tom that he was friends with J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director. But, what could Hoover do for him now? "What was the penalty for killing a horse?" he asked himself. Would the FBI even investigate a horse murder?
3. If that's what Corleone did as a warning, he must have something "infinitely more painful" in store if Woltz still didn't give in. You can infer that Woltz was afraid that, if there was a next time, it'd be his coglioni that were cut off, not a horse's head.

Could you still fight him? Sure. Could you win? Maybe. But are you willing to take that chance. Nope.

Woltz was also a pedophile. His reputation might have also taken a hit if that had come out.

The novel makes exactly that point. Vito asks Tom if Woltz has "real balls." Tom thinks: Woltz has character, he has strength...but would he be willing to risk all on a point honor? He replies to Vito: "You're asking if he's a Sicilian. The answer is no.

Was it a deleted scene or from the book? In my mind I, really can't distinguish. I've read the book and watched the movies so many times that they all run together sometimes.

Turnbull brings up a great point; in the novel I think the real reason Woltz was so taken aback was twofold:

1) This "nobody" from New York was able to infiltrate his mansion with its private security as though it was nothing, not only getting to his stable but getting into his bedroom. For someone bragging how they had a "personal relationship" with J. Edgar Hoover and all the power that Woltz thought he had (I believe the novel states that he had dined at the White House), his defenses were nothing. A bigshot was brought low and humiliated by some "obscure importer of Italian Olive Oil"

2) Don Corleone had no issues killing a racehorse worth a lot of money (I can't remember the exact amount, but I think it was several hundred thousand?) simply because Johnny Fontaine didn't get a part in a movie. To Woltz, that was unfathomable because of his lifestyle - who would destroy a magnificent racehorse over something as petty as someone not getting a part in a movie? I think moreso that demonstrated that, beyond the implication that Woltz might be next, that Don Corleone had zero problems with doing everything in his power to ruin Woltz over something so trivial.