''The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight'' is a 1971 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed by

James Goldstone James Goldstone (June 8, 1931 – November 5, 1999) was an American film and television director whose career spanned over thirty years. Early life and education Goldstone was born in Los Angeles, the son of the Hollywood agent and early televi ...

and written by

Waldo Salt Waldo Miller Salt (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an American screenwriter. He wrote the Academy Award-winning screenplays for ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) and ''Coming Home (1978 film), Coming Home'' (1978). Early life and career S ...

, based on the 1969 novel by Jimmy Breslin, which, in turn, is based on the life of gangster

Joe Gallo Joseph Gallo (April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972), also known as "Crazy Joe", was an Italian-American mobster and a captain in the Colombo crime family of New York City. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his youth, Gallo became an enforcer in the ...

. The film stars

Jerry Orbach Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical and global celebrity on te ...

Leigh Taylor-Young Leigh Taylor-Young (born January 25, 1945) is an American former actress who has appeared on stage, screen, podcast, radio, and television. Her best-known films include '' I Love You, Alice B. Toklas'' (1968), '' The Horsemen'' (1971), '' The Gan ...

, Jo Van Fleet,

Lionel Stander Lionel Jay Stander (January 11, 1908 – November 30, 1994) was an American actor, activist, and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He had an extensive career in theatre, film, radio, and television that spanned nearly 70 years, ...

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director, and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of List of awards and ...

and Irving Selbst. It was released on December 22, 1971, by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Plot

Kid Sally Palumbo grows jealous of his older, mobster boss Baccala, who has little respect for the crew that Palumbo commands. Baccala allows Kid Sally to supervise a six-day bicycle race (for the purposes of keeping the money generated), and among the 12 Italian cyclists brought into the city is Mario Trantino, a budding thief. When the bicycle race does not take place due to outside interference, Sally is demoted to serving Baccala as a

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

, and Trantino stays in New York City to run his own cons, which includes masquerading as a priest. Kid Sally's mother Big Momma urges him to take down the old, entrenched mobsters in power, but it appears that the only fatalities are in his own camp, and the increase in violence draws the attention of the city police.

Cast

as Salvatore 'Kid Sally' Palumbo *

as Angela Palumbo * Jo Van Fleet as Big Momma Palumbo *

as Baccala *

as Mario Trantino * Irving Selbst as 'Big Jelly' Catalano *

Hervé Villechaize Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize (; April 23, 1943 – September 4, 1993) was a French actor. He is best known for his roles as the evil henchman Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film '' The Man with the Golden Gun'' and as Mr. Roarke's assistant ...

as Beppo 'The Dwarf' * Joe Santos as Ezmo * Carmine Caridi as Tony 'The Indian' *

Frank Campanella Frank Campanella (March 12, 1919 – December 30, 2006) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous television series, as well as a few films and Broadway productions. Early life and career Campanella was born in New York City, the son of P ...

as Water Buffalo * Harry Basch as Joseph DeLauria *

Sander Vanocur Sander Vanocur (; born Alexander Vinocur, January 8, 1928 – September 16, 2019) was an American television journalist who focused on U.S. national electoral politics, primarily for NBC News and ABC News. Life and career Vanocur was born i ...

as Television Commentator''The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight'' (1971) – American Film Institute (AFI).
Retrieved February 18, 2020 *

Phil Bruns Philip Bruns (May 2, 1931 – February 8, 2012) was an American television and movie actor and writer. He portrayed George Shumway, the father of Mary Hartman on the 1970s comedic series '' Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,'' and Morty Seinfeld, the f ...

as Gallagher * Philip Sterling as District Attorney Goodman * Jack Kehoe as Bartender * Despo Diamantidou as Mourner * Sam Coppola as Julie DiBiasi * James Sloyan as Joey * Paul Benedict as 'Shots' O'Toole * Lou Criscuolo as Junior * George Loros as Jerry * Harry Davis as Dominic Laviano *

Burt Young Gerald Tommaso DeLouise (April 30, 1940 – October 8, 2023), known professionally as Burt Young, was an American actor. He played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the ''Rocky'' film series, his performance in the f ...

as Willie Quarequio * Jackie Vernon as Herman * Ted Beniades as A Black Suit * Fat Thomas as A Black Suit * Roy Shuman as The Mayor *

Alice Hirson Alice Corinne Hirson (née Thorsell; March 10, 1929 – February 14, 2025) was an American actress best known for her roles on television. She began her career on stage, before roles on daytime soap operas. She was best known for her roles as Mav ...

as The Mayor's Wife * Michael V. Gazzo as A Black Suit * Robert Gerringer as Commissioner McGrady * Walter Flanagan as The Super * Dan Morgan as Muldoon * Dorothi Fox as Meter Maid * Robert Weil as Circus Supply Manager *

Margo Winkler Margo Winkler is an American actress, who often played minor roles as receptionists, clerks or judges. She is known for her minor roles in several of Martin Scorsese's films which her husband Irwin Winkler produced. She is best known for her roles ...

as Airline Clerk * Leopold Badia as Old Waiter * Fran Stevens as Baccala's Wife * Florence Tarlow as Police Matron * Rita Karin as Mrs. Goldfarb * Tom Lacy as Religious Salesman * William H. Boesen as Jury Foreman * Gary Melkonian as Greek Racer * Gustave Johnson as Detective Jenkins * George Stefans as Greek Captain * Alisha Fontaine as Jelly's Girl * Lorrie Davis as Jelly's Other Girl * Frank Jourdano as TV Reporter * Elsa Raven as Mrs. Buffalo * Gloria LeRoy as Ida

Production

According to Irwin Winkler,

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppo ...

asked to write and direct the movie, but Winkler turned him down, feeling that Coppola did not have the skills to make a

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

film.

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...

was originally cast in the lead, but during rehearsal, he pulled out to play the role of

Michael Corleone Michael Corleone is a fictional character and the protagonist of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel ''The Godfather (novel), The Godfather''. In the The Godfather (film series), three ''Godfather'' films, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael was portr ...

in ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American Epic film, epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling The Godfather (novel), 1969 novel. The film stars an ensemble cast inc ...

''. He was replaced by Robert De Niro. Shot on location in

South Brooklyn South Brooklyn is a historic term for a section of the former City of Brooklyn – now the New York City borough of Brooklyn – encompassing what are now the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Winds ...

, the film was the subject of a

Robin Green Robin Green (born July 31, 1945) is an American writer and producer. She was a writer and executive producer on the HBO series ''The Sopranos'' and was the co-creator and executive producer of the CBS series '' Blue Bloods''. In the 1970s, Gre ...

-written November 25, 1971, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' article, "Shooting the Gang That Couldn't", which is described in its subtitle as "a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of a Robert DeNiro icmovie". Hervé Villechaize made his feature film debut, but his lines were dubbed by

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986), better known as Paul Frees, was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass and Walt Disney the ...

to conceal his French accent, for he was playing an

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

character. Winkler, in his memoirs, wrote that he felt that the director was more interested in sticking to the schedule than working with the actors. He felt that the final film was neither funny nor dramatic.

Reception

The movie received mostly negative reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a score of 20%, based on 10 critic reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave it 2 stars out of 4, writing, "Maybe part of the trouble is James Goldstone's direction, which tends toward the heavy-handed", and, "The performances are too broad, the characters are too many, the plot is too indifferent to the structure of the movie, and - surprisingly - the movie is too sweet." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reviewer Howard Thompson called the film "a tasteless mess" and Jo Van Fleet's performance "terrible". His only praise was for the interaction between Leigh Taylor-Young and Robert De Niro. J. Oliver Prescott of the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...

'' wrote a positive review, praising Jo Van Fleet and the other actors, although he had reservations about the screenplay.

Rex Reed Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, journalist, and media personality. Raised throughout the southern United States and educated at Louisiana State University, Reed moved to New York City in the early 1960s to begi ...

of the ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

'' wrote an unreservedly positive review.

Home media

The movie has been released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

In popular culture

Arizona State House Speaker Russell Bowers referred to the book during the January 6 Select Committee hearings when asked to express his thoughts on the

2020 Trump campaign Donald Trump, a member of the Republican Party, sought re-election in the 2020 United States presidential election. He was inaugurated as president of the United States on January 20, 2017, and filed for re-election with the Federal Electio ...

's fake electors scheme.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight 1971 films 1970s crime comedy films American crime comedy films 1970s English-language films Films scored by Dave Grusin Films about the American Mafia Films based on American novels Films based on organized crime novels Films directed by James Goldstone Films produced by Robert Chartoff Films produced by Irwin Winkler Films set in New York City Mafia comedy films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1971 comedy films 1970s American films English-language crime comedy films