Product Details

• Actors: Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Fleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Niro
• Directors: James Goldstone
• Writers: Jimmy Breslin, Waldo Salt
• Producers: Irwin Winkler, Robert Chartoff
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 18, 1997
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304411405
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,338 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOW this is Entertainment!, July 2, 2002

By 

Rick D. Barszcz (bristol, ct United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Unfortunely this movie was a sleeper in the theatres when it first came out. But check out the cast! Jo Ann Fleet (thoughtly modern millie) and Robert DeNiro in a comedy.An a comedy it is. It's just pure fun and a great uplifing movie if you have the blues. It's so funny and you won't be disappointed,,,i promise..

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Example Of Dark Comedy, August 30, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is such a funny movie, but not in the obvious slapstick or toilet humor vein that passes for modern movie comedy nowadays. In this spoof of the Mafia and an attempted "hostile takeover", the humor is dark, sometimes subtle, with hilarity that simmers just under the surface. It helps to know something about Italian families---both regular and criminal---, but this movie is painfully funny nevertheless, much in the same way as the great British series "Fawlty Towers". This is a very 70's type of comedy, demanding that the viewer have an attention span and a sharp eye for detail. Like British and other genre comedies, it may not be for everyone, but we found it very enjoyable.

The cast is terrific: Jerry Orbach is perfect for the part of the luckless Sally Palumbo, Jo Van Fleet gives an incredible performance as his creepy mother, Leigh Taylor-Young is both tough and sweet as his little sister, and a young Robert DeNiro is superb as the con-artist Mario. The others, including Herve Villechaize, Lionel Stander, Joe Stantos and Frank Campanella, are all great and there isn't a bad actor in the wide array of supporting players. The story line is also well-written, taking the viewer on one sick and crazy ride through the bowels of both the Mafia and a "typical" Italian family---and who can say which is worse?

Pay close attention when watching this; some jokes are more readily apparent than others. Our personal favorites included: the panties' check done on the little sister by the neighborhood thugs as she heads for school (After which they report to her mother that, yes, she's wearing them.), the attempted knife-throw that cuts the power line, the professional mourner at the funerals, the demolitions expert who gets blown up by the cops using their radio to report his suspicious activity, and Sally Palumbo feeding his pet lion the wrong brown paper bag. The list could go on for a mile, but we don't want to spoil things for folks who have never seen this movie.

In summary, this is a great example of a 70's dark comedy in which whatever can go wrong for this hapless gang will go wrong. If you prefer slapstick or obvious humor, you may not like this film, but most people should find it at least reasonably enjoyable. We felt like we got more than our money's worth, if only to get a look at DeNiro when he was a kid. "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" is a wonderfully good time, well-written and well-acted.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really, it isn't all that bad, November 27, 2006

By 

R. L. MILLER (FT LAUDERDALE FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (DVD)

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.