User reviews

My parents' taste in films they took me to as a kid was quite questionable. Yes, at age 4 I went with them to see "Rosemary's Baby". At 6, "Start the Revolution Without Me". And, at age 7, "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" and Woody Allen's "Bananas". No wonder I am a weirdo today.

I decided tonight to watch "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" as I can only recall tiny bits and pieces of the film...such as the mobster's wife starting his car each morning. After all, my parents loved the movie....and I have no idea if they were right or wrong about this one.

The first thing that struck me when I began watching was the very interesting cast. With the likes of Robert De Niro, Jerry Orbach, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander and, of all people, Hervé Villechaize (who is badly dubbed) it certainly isn't a typical movie!

So is this story of two rival mobs fighting each other any good? At times, yes...as watching the idiot gangsters killing themselves when they try to make hits is kind of funny...like in "The Ladykillers". And, while the film isn't the rollicking comedy that they intended it to be, there was enough enjoyable about it to make it a worthwhile time-passer.

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.

"Comedy" about two warring Mafia gangs in Brooklyn.

Purportedly the original book is hilarious and this movie has a great cast--but something went wrong. The jokes aren't very funny and the cast just seems to be unable to put across the punchlines. Flat direction doesn't help either.

I'm only giving it a 3 for Leigh-Taylor Young and Robert DeNiro (who are both very good and play a very appealing couple) and Jo Van Fleet who has the movie's only funny lines in a very broad, over the top, amusing manner.

But, all in all, this really isn't worth seeing.

This movie is a complete misfire, and a very talented cast (Jerry Orbacj, Lionel Stadler, George Loros, Joe Santos) is wasted thanks to a bad script and very sloppy direction. Comedy sequences fall flat; some scenes are so incomplete you can only guess they failed to get some shots; Herve Villacheve's dubbing is almost painful to watch.

The only reason to see this today would be if you are studying Robert DeNiro's acting career and want to see him in some early roles. He's actually quite good as an Italian biker come to New York who gets involved in a gang war. But he's not enough to save the movie, at least not for me.

"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.

Baccala is the rich, powerful mob boss of Brooklyn. His subordinate Kid Sally Palumbo (Jerry Orbach) hates getting cut out of the money and being disrespected. Baccala assigns him to supervise a six day bicycle race which is important for the Italian community. Mario Trantino (Robert De Niro) is one of the racers from the old country. He is coupled with Kid Sally's sister Angela.

This is an odd mix of very broad comedy, and an indie mobster movie. I wouldn't mind the indie mobster movie. The very broad comedy almost never works. The story telling is messy and there's a lion. I would cut out the bicycle thing. De Niro should simply be a young hustler from the old country. It is interesting to see him before he joined Scorsese and the early 70's NYC style. It does need to cut the attempted comedy and clarify the script.

Very bland so called comedy. Jo Van Fleet irritating as the mother with a fake Italian accent. You could tell this was DeNiro's first works; he seemed unsure of himself and should not be made the butt of the so called jokes.

Robert DeNiro has a comedic role in this movie as a member of an Italian cycling team who is stranded in New York City. It is the first movie in which I saw him, and I still recall his wonderful portrayal of a not too bright guy who raises money by impersonating a priest. He is very funny.

It is distracting how often it is the dialogue is out of sync with the action on screen.

when they're trying to be funny (pretty much the entire time) it's not funny; not even a little

The lion was probably mistreated. I don't like this.

I don't believe the midget's voice was authentic; rather, it was probably dubbed. This was also a distraction

"The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" was a blast in 1971 and it's just as funny today. Before the Godfather and The Sopranos, writer Jimmy Breslin and then-light comic and musical star Jerry Orbach had the hapless Bonnano crime family skewered. The gags alone would have made the film, but there's a brain at work here, too, in the portrayal of a benighted crime leader and his clownish goons.There's also a small part for an then-unknown unknown Robert DeNiro that forecast and anticipated what Bob would do. After Jerry Orbach's death, I was stunned that so few obits mentioned this film, suggesting his real movie debut was in Prince of the City. He was great in Prince of the City, but this one made him somebody to watch. Don't miss it. It still delights.

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.

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

I bought this film because it's one of DeNiro's first roles. Based on a book by Jimmy Breslin, the movie has a dated flavor to it that renders it rather stale; my kids didn't care much for it. However, it can still charm at times and the cast was very good overall. Orbach, without a drop of Italian blood in his veins, does a first-rate penny-ante mobster. There are plenty of sight gags, some more subtle than others, and many do make the viewer groan. The real problem is this type of movie requires a serious attention span on the part of the viewer, something sadly lacking in the modern era. DeNiro was no disappointment---he was fresh, funny and charming. The price of the video was worth every cent just to see him in such an unusually lightweight role. Who knew from watching this that he'd end up as one of film's toughest dramatic actors? In summary, not a great movie, but not awful, either.

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.

This is a fun and oddball comedy from the early seventies. Two gangs go to war and the smaller gang uses a lion to shake down people living in the other gang's territory. The police have to intervene and one of the gangs ends up without a boss. It's wacky, crazy fun even though it's not a great film by any means. It's strange to see a young Jerry Orbach (Law and Order) in this comedy.

This film is closely linked to the Godfather, and in some ways its unsuccessful, ridiculous, younger brother. The novel by Jimmy Breslin followed Mario Puzo's 1969 "the Godfather" novel by nine months. It made it to the best seller list, although nowhere as successful as "the Godfather" which lasted 67 weeks on the list compared to 27 weeks for "Gang." It followed "The Godfather" to the screen in 1972, opening four months later, but it flopped, while "the Godfather" was the biggest grossing movie of 1972.

Ironically, Al Pacino had been cast in the lead supporting part of Mario when he won the part of the Michael Corleone in "Godfather". Pacino went for the "Godfather" role and was replaced by little known actor "Robert Deniro" who had flopped his first audition for the Godfather. After "Gang" Deniro won critical acclaim for "Mean Streets" and "Bang the Drum Slowly," and ended up in "Godfather Part 2".

While "the Godfather" glamorized organized crime as good family men doing whatever was necessary to rise in the capitalist world, "Gang" made fun of the same world, showing it as filled with violent imbeciles. It invites us to laugh at the same kind of exploits that "the Godfather" made so thrilling.

While the acting is uniformly fine, two performances stood out. Jerry Ohrbach is simply hilarious as the Kid Sally (based on historical gangster figure Joey Gallo) the punk gang leader looking to rise and take over. Jo Van Fleet, who was fabulous in "East of Eden" and "Cool Hand Luke" in small parts also is hysterical as Kid Sally's brutal mother "Big Momma". Instead of wanting to protect her children from violence, she demands that they torture and kill for the family's honor.

Leigh Taylor Young as Ohrbach's Mafia Princess sister, gives a rather thoughtful and subtle performance, which is surprising considering how outrageous she was in "Alice B. Toklas". Lionel Stander gives a broad performance as Godfather "Baccata" that is as funny as Brando's was dramatic.

Robert Deniro plays Mario, a bicycle rider from Italy who steals and pretends to be a priest in order to stay in America. It is a quirky, naturalist performance.

A lot of the humor is slapstick and some of the humor is so New York, 1960's specific that not many people alive today will get it. For example, the police hold off a raid until a news channel can get its news truck there. The joke is that the channel turns out to be WABC, channel 7, which for many years in the 60's had the lowest rated television news show in New York and the lowest budget. Later, it adopted an "Eyewitness News" format and became number one in N.Y. news shows.

There's a lion roaming around which really sets the flavor for the movie and tells us what the movie really is: a 1970's screwball comedy just like "Bringing Up, Baby," or "What's Up, Doc," but one inside a realistic Gangster World.

In the Godfather, there is an outsider character, Michael Corleone, who allows the audience as outsiders to discover the Gangster World. Unfortunately, there is no parallel character to introduce us to this world. The real life news reporter, Sandor Van Oker kinds of plays that part, but as a television reporter, the audience doesn't identify with him at all. Because, we are just thrust into the middle of these mad characters without any reason for being there, the film has a major problem. There is really nobody for the audience to identify and root for. Even Robert Deniro's Mario who is not a part of "the family" is too crazy and bizarre, for us to identify with. The way to get into the film, I think, is to imagine yourself as the writer Jimmy Breslin. You have just seen "the Godfather" glamorizing and making heroic a bunch of vicious stupid jerks and punks that you have known all your life. You are going to tell the truth about them.

Once you approach the film this way, I think you will enjoy it. Although crazy, this is probably a more truthful picture of Italian Gangster culture than anything Francis Coppola gave us in all three swings.

Note, the screenplay was written by Waldo Salt. He wrote this after "Midnight Cowboy" and before writing "Serpico". The three films form an amazing trilogy of life in New York in the late 1960's.

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.

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.

This is one of those classics. Not only for the first starring role for Robert De Niro but also its a comedy that is lighthearted and funny. De Niro does a good job as Mario (with a well done Italian accent) as does the late and great Jerry Orbach as Kid Sally the hood who wants to be the boss but keep having it fall from his hands. Lionel Sander (from Hart to Hart fame) does well as Baccala, the main gangster that Kid Sally is trying to take over. I found this hilarious fairly slapstick in some parts but also some strong performances of a film of this calibre. It reminded me for the old 1920's silent films as some of it you could have watched with no speaking at all and you'd still understand what was going on. There are some great scenes with Orbach and his Mama which had me laughing a lot and there were some touching scenes to between Mario and Kid Sally's kid sister. It's one to be watched and not missed if you want to see De Niro and how he started before the greats like Mean Streets, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.

"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.

I went to see this movie with my mother when it first came out. Now I am waiting for this to come out on DVD because it is one of the few movies that I want to own. When we went to see it in 1971 I laughed so hard I thought I might either pee on myself or vomit. I'd never seen anything so funny…or so familiar. I'm sure that it helped that the action took place primarily in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn, but I believe this movie has something for everyone. The humor didn't seem subtle to me at the time but in light of the brainless fare that has become so popular this movie does require that you actually pay attention from beginning to end. If you get nothing else out of it, the realization that it's not possible to housebreak a lion is worth the price of admission. That and the valuable lessons about car bombs, but to talk about that would require a spoiler alert.