World Famous Comics: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
Starring: Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Niro Directed By: James Goldstone Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 20, 2006 Running Time: 96 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1971
Product Description: Beppo Ezmo Mario...uh-oh! When Kid Sally and his gang of goodfellas come up with a plan to grab a piece of the mob action it'll be a no-brainer. The screen version of newspaperman Jimmy Breslin's best-selling comic novel about a Brooklyn turf war has all chambers firing. Jerry Orbach (Law & Order) plays Kid Sally a small-timer aiming for the big time by targeting rival Baccala (raspy-voiced Lionel Stander). And on-the-rise screen giant Robert De Niro plays Mario posing as a priest in the Kid's scheme to give Last Rites to Baccala. It's the perfect crime. Planned by perfect idiots.Running Time: 96 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569678217 Manufacturer No: 67821
Amazon.com: Take a glance at the credits and you'll see that director James Goldstone's 1971 comedy The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is the work of some mighty impressive names. Screenwriter Waldo Salt had already won an Oscar for Midnight Cowboy, and would go on to write Coming Home and Serpico. Jimmy Breslin, upon whose book the movie is based, was a celebrated New York newspaper columnist. The cast includes a young Robert DeNiro, Jerry Orbach (decades before being unforgettably cast as Det. Lennie Briscoe in Law & Order), film veteran Lionel Stander, the very appealing Leigh Taylor-Young, and even Herve Villechaize (yes, Tattoo from Fantasy Island, except here his every line of dialogue has been dubbed by someone without an accent). Unfortunately, the film is decidedly less than the sum of its parts. The cast acquits itself adequately, notwithstanding some heavy-handed stereotypes (Jo Van Fleet, as the Orbach character's knife-happy mama, wears out her welcome early in the first reel). But Goldstone's background was mostly in television, and he handles the film with a heavy hand more suited to a bad sit-com. The story, such as it is, concerns the efforts of the hapless Kid Sally Palumbo (Orbach) and his dumb cronies to usurp mob boss Baccala's (Stander) power. Sally and his gang are inept--it's they, not Baccala, who keep getting knocked off--but not as lame as the movie, which relies on obvious gags, poorly-timed physical shtick, and an unconvincing romance between DeNiro's Italian bike racer-con man and Taylor-Young's Angela (as Sally's sister, although she's about as Italian as Mary Tyler Moore). Some of the bits are amusing, especially those featuring a lion (don't ask) in Sally's charge, but by and large, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is a dull disappointment. The DVD includes no bonus material. --Sam Graham
C'est terrible I've read Jimmy Breslin's book on which this movie was based. The book is at least 10 times better than the movie. The book, which was great, has been so dissected here to make this very bad film. I cannot begin to understand how such a good story could result in such tripe. Robert DeNiro was very young and naive to agree to be any part of this, and it pains me to watch such a great actor be involved in this . Here are a few things in particular that make this such a disappointment. First, when you read the book Breslin goes into great detail about what happens in certain parts of the story. You'd think whoever wrote the screenplay would have taken this into account, but neglects to for some kind of convenience, or thinking that whoever sees this won't appreciate it. Second, DeNiro's character in the book decides to stay in New York to pursue an art career. They forego this aspect of his character in the movie, and you wonder why. This gives his character some added dimension in the book, and he encounters some interesting people because of this. Instead Mario (who DeNiro plays) is just made out to be a petty thief. Third, the Kid Sally Palombo character is diluted in the movie. In the book you really get a sense of who this guy is, and his importance in the story, as with some of his cohorts. In the film they're all just a bunch of keystone cop kind of wiseguys. I don't know if this review will help anyone. If you don't believe me, read the highly entertaining book then watch this, or vice versa. If you read the book first, prepare for disappointment when you see the film. This story offered a lot of potential and was dumbed down to make a film.
Bought This For A Friend I got this as a gift for a friend and he was really happy with it. He laughed so hard!
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight A lot of great talent but, Takes too long to get to the point. -- Don't bother
Really, it isn't all that bad This flick is getting panned by reviewers who measure it with the yardstick of DeNiro's other work and Orbach's later greatness as Lennie Briscoe in "Law & Order", but if the truth be known, it's a precursor of "Johnny Dangerously". Orbach plays Kid Sally Palumbo, a "young Turk" of the Mob, resentful of his boss Baccala (Lionel Stander), who has the cliche "moustache Pete" old-line contempt for Kid Sally's small faction. Urged on by his grandmother Big Mama (Jo Van Fleet), he follows her advice not to take anything from anybody. When the Palumbo faction is finally rounded up by the cops, she has a lot to say to news cameras after Kid Sally just flips them the bird. Her first two bits of invective make broadcast as they watch themselves on the news, but then censors start to bleep her out. At that point, she leaps to her feet and shakes her fist at the screen, denying that she'd ever said "beep". The later work "Johnny Dangerously" was dismissed as "puerile" by reviewers and so it was. So's this one, but there's a certain entertainment value to "dopey fun", as you see every night of the week on TV's "reality shows". But they don't get slammed very much. I wonder why.
Vintage De Niro in his pre-stardom prime Another one of De Niro's early film performances being released on DVD, following last year's release of The Wedding Party (De Niro's first film made in 1963 but only released in 1969) and Hi, Mom! (1970, the sequel to Greetings, 1968). As in the case of these three De Palma-directed films, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight featured De Niro in a comedic performance, shortly before he would become better known, later in the decade, for brilliant dramatic performances in landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974) and Taxi Driver (1976). This is probably also the first time that De Niro appears in a gangster film and his first performance as a priest at the beginning of a career in which he would regularly feature as either a doomed gangster (Mean Streets, Godfather II, Untouchables 1987, Goodfellas 1990, Casino 1995) or a compromised priest (True Confessions 1981, The Mission 1986, Sleepers 1997), mostly wrestling with his demons or struggling in a bleak environment of moral ambiguity. Here we see De Niro at the beginning of his career in a spoof about gangsters - three decades before De Niro himself spoofed his gangster persona in Analyse This (1999), Analyse That (2002) and Shark Tale (2004, the latter film collaborating with his old mentor Martin Scorsese, who directed eight top-notch De Niro performances from Mean Streets through to Casino).
De Niro's mock, money-seeking priest has traces both of his equally deceptive character Jon Rubin in the earlier Greetings and Hi, Mom! and his irresponsible, clownish, debt-ridden, small-time gangster Johnny Boy in the later Mean Streets. However cliche'd this may sound, De Niro's sweet performance, two years before he would make his major breakthrough with Johnny Boy, and his relationship with the one gangster's sister is one of the few moments in the film not undermined by the film's propensity for exaggerated Italian accents and mafia caricatures, instead showcasing De Niro's ability to make the most of a very modest role and (in contrast to his later performances in blockbuster comedies and the likes of Rocky and Bullwinkle 2000) put in a remarkably subtle and believable performance.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
