 Production began on March 20, 1972.The film shows a 1930s night street scene, 27 minutes into the film, in which numerous 1960s model cars are parked and drive by.In another scene depicted as occurring in the early 1930s, Valachi, eluding police pursuit, drives a car into the East River just north of the Brooklyn Bridge, where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are clearly visible against the dawn sky; the Towers were only recently completed when the film was released in 1972.