The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

"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 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.

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.

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 (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.