The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

source: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Excellent comedy. this movie features bobby in a very different role. In short this movie is about the travails of a Italian Cyclist(Bobby) who is lost in NY. Jerry is extremely convincing as the floundering gang boss. Bobby is extremely funny in the sequences where he impersonates a priest in order to collect money. On the whole a must for all De Niro fans.

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) ** (out of 4) Weak adaptation of the Jimmy Breslin novel (adapted by Waldo Salt) about a Mafia family (led by Jerry Orbach) who try to take out a rival crime boss but every time they get close to killing him something goes wrong. I haven't read the novel that this film is based on but I've heard it's actually quite funny. With that said, clearly something didn't come over from the page to the screen and I think a lot of the blame has to go to director James Goldstone. The entire movie has such a serious tone that you're often having to remind yourself that you're watching a comedy because the film just needs to loosen up and let the cast do their job. For the life of me I couldn't understand why the comic moments weren't handled better and there are several scenes that should have been so much funnier. One example is when a couple guys are chasing a man they want to kill but they get to some dirty water and they don't want to mess up their expensive shoes. Flat. Another sequence happens when we learn that Mafia leaders send their wives out to start the car each morning just in case there's a bomb. Flat. The strange thing is that a love story breaks out between Orbach's daughter (Leigh Taylor- Young) and a guy named Mario (Robert DeNiro). This love story is actually the best thing about the film and I wondered if perhaps the two actors were so good that they just kept building up more scenes around them. Considering how far DeNiro's name is in the credits and the fact that he's got perhaps the biggest role tells you something. Both of them are quite good together and it's fun seeing a young DeNiro looking exactly like he did a few years later in MEAN STREETS only here he's nice. Orbach is good in his role as is Jo Van Fleet, Burt Young and Herve Villechaize who would appear in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN in a couple years. THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT is certainly a complete misfire in terms of a comedy but fans of DeNiro might want to check it out. It's also worth noting that his role was originally going to be played by Al Pacino but he had to back-out once Paramount agreed to let him have the part of Michael in THE GODFATHER.

"The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" has a great cast. Many, many familiar faces are in this movie. The cast is the only reason that I was able to sit through this movie. The movie itself is almost completely laughless. It also has a weird dubbing issue with the dialogue. It often sounds a spaghetti western. On the plus side, I did enjoy the location photography. "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" wears out its welcome pretty fast.

Where do I go to get an hour and a half back of my life I wasted watching this Crap

I don't read much in the way of fiction, but one of the exceptions was Jimmy Breslin's wry novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. It was based in part on Joey Gallo's buccaneering crew in South Brooklyn challenging the big Mafia bosses. It didn't Breslin any fans, but Gallo would soon be in no position to exact any vengeance. The film has some good moments, but overall it should have been a lot better. Jerry Orbach is the Gallo character who thinks he and his crew hasn't been getting enough of a split from the big capo Bacala played by Lionel Stander. In the meantime a young Italian bicycle rider just come to this country gets caught up in the war mainly because he's interested in Orbach's sister Leigh Taylor-Young. The bicycle rider is Robert DeNiro who would really make his mark in these kind of films. Two blacklisted people of note are prominent in The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Lionel Stander who had up to the mid 60s been doing films in Europe and screenwriter Waldo Salt. Two performances really stand out. One is Jo Van Fleet as Big Momma who is Orbach's and Young's mom. I'd worry about getting on the bad side of that woman. The second is crusading for the camera District Attorney Philip Sterling. I've seen so many politicians like him. A lot of the subtleties from Jimmy Breslin's work are missing here. Nice Brooklyn location shooting helps. It's good entertainment, but it isn't the classic it should have been.

I always want to see a movie that has Robert DeNiro starring in it, so seeing him play Mario an imported Italian bicycle racer who will steal anything even if it is nailed down, was unique. This movie was made in 1971 when Mr. DeNiro was very hungry for lead roles so you can't blame him for the movie's poor content and flow. The movie evolves around a band of goofy dressed Italian mobsters led by Jerry Orbach as Kid Sully who spoof the Mafioso, and Kid Sully's Big Momma (the Godmother figure) is played by a convincing Jo Van Fleet. She certainly nailed her part and blends sweetness with ripe viciousness. There were some smaller parts for good actors such as Burt Young, as Willie Quarqulo the bomb maker, Jack Kehoe as a scared bartender assigned to spike two of the rival gang's drinks, and Lionel Stander as the made man Baccala. I guess the animal rights groups made pictures like this a target for changing the times, as the poor lion was mistreated in front of the camera by a few of the actors, including a scene which shows the fully grown lion shackled to the conveyor belt in a car wash and forced to go through the car wash even if it was just with sprayed water. The lion appears in quite a few scenes and does some stunts that needed a great Animal Trainer to handle. I was very surprised that the lion did not receive any acting credit what so ever, nor did the animal trainers. Shame on you MGM. Well I wouldn't roar about this movie, (no pun intended) but it is a victim of the times, and the screenplay could have been a lot stronger even for a mafioso spoof.

Jerry Orbach does his best to act like an Italian-American from the streets, let alone, an Italian-American. At times, he is funny but not hilarious. The plot is made to be funny but fails along the way. The audience not only loses interest in laughing, but the characters as well. By the end of the movie, you hardly care who lives or dies and whether or not the movie ends. The title alone makes it hard for anyone to take this movie serious let alone enjoyable. For 1971, an unknown Robert De Niro is the highlight of the movie. The relationship between him and actress Leigh Taylor-Young becomes more of the story than the comical situation of trying to "bump off" the head of the local mob. Robert De Niro addition to the story is the only thing that keeps the movie watchable. Even for a spoof, this off beat, chuckles of a comedy lacks interest and any passion outside the side story of Young and De Niro.

"The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" has all but been forgotten more than 40 years after it was made. Seeing it, it's easy to figure out why. In its defense, the movie gives an interesting look at a New York City that was seedy before it was cleaned up. It's also interesting to see a young Jerry Orbach, and the movie has the occasional mild chuckle. But for the most part, the movie simply doesn't work, and the problems come with the script. For some reason, the movie does not go into depth with ANY of its characters, and they all end up being pretty interchangeable with each other. Also, there really isn't much of a story here - instead, it's one seemingly unrelated vignette after another. The movie is never aggressively bad, but it still ends up being a big disappointment.

As a DeNiro fan i watched this film. But Leigh Taylor-Young stole my heart with her very natural way of acting. There was not a great storyline but it was good entertainment. It was fun to see Bobbie DeNiro as a priest. Later in his career he would play more spiritual roles in True Confessions, We're no Angels and Sleepers.