How the Goodfellas Tracking Shot Went Comically Wrong

Perhaps the most memorable single scene of Ray Liotta’s career is also the longest: The stunning sequence in Goodfellas in which Henry Hill (Liotta) and his date Karen (Lorraine Bracco) enter the Copacabana nightclub and find their way to a very good table in front of the stage.

The scene has been often imitated since it first awed audience in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 Goodfellas, and it helped establish Liotta in the iconic role for which he was best known. The actor, who died Thursday at 67, was magnetic as the charming and erratic Hill.

The Goodfellas tracking shot into the Copacabana nightclub isn’t just technically impressive, but also shows us — and Karen — what a big deal Henry Hill has become. He is a powerful man, but apparently a kind one, who doles out big tips and friendly nods as he makes his way to the best seat in the house. 

But an early take of the famous tracking shot went awry for comical reasons.

Also read: 4 Times Al Pacino and Robert De Niro Vied for the Same Roles

As producer Irwin Winkler explains in his 2019 book A Life in Movies, director Martin Scorsese wanted the three-minute Goodfellas tracking shot to serve at least two functions.

“Marty found a way to have Henry Hill not only impress his date, Karen, but to show the audience why the world of Goodfellas was so attractive and glamorous,” Winkler writes.

You remember the scene: Henry and Karen arrive at the Copa, skip the line, head down a staircase and hall, and meet a bunch of, well, goodfellas. Henry hands out dollar bills liberally. They pass through the kitchen and into the dining room. A table is deposited in the front, just for Henry and Karen, and someone sends over champagne. Henry lies abut his job, drum roll, and the camera moves over to famed comedian Henny Youngman, who greets the audience and delivers his catchphrase, “Take my wife, please.”

“It took us all day to set the actors, hide the lights, time entrances and exits, and and have the Steadicam hit the focus marks,” Winkler wrote. As night fell, they began shooting and got six or seven takes that were “off just a bit either mechanically or dramatically.”

Finally, Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus got a take that was perfect — until the last moment.

That’s when Henny Youngman blew his line, which happened to be a catchphrase he had said in his act thousands of times over 40 years: “take my wife, please.”

After five more takes of the tracking shot, Winkler writes, they captured the shot perfectly, Youngman nailed his line, “and the crew applauded Henny Youngman.”

For all the rigorous planning that went into the Goodfellas tracking shot, at least one thing came very naturally: The rapport between Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco.

“I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas,” Bracco wrote on Twitter Thursday, after writing that she was “shattered” by the news of her co-star’s death.

“Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.”