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starring: Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Nirodirected by: James Goldstone
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304411407
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 6304411405
Label: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Manufacturer: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Release Date: February 18, 1997
Running Time: 96 minutes
Sales Rank: 3787
Studio: Mgm/Turner Movie Classics
Theatrical Release Date: 1971
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Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 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, ... Read More
Rating:  - 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!
Rating: - The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
A lot of great talent but, Takes too long to get to the point. -- Don't bother
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
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