A 12 months earlier than The Godfather would revolutionize the crime style, Robert De Niro changed its star Al Pacino within the forged of a critically panned gangster comedy, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Based mostly on the 1969 novel of the identical title by Jimmy Breslin, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight is a comedic retelling of the lifetime of gangster Joe Gallo. Jerry Orbach starred within the lead position as Salvatore “Child Sally” Palumbo, whereas an early-career De Niro performed the supporting position of Mario Trantino.
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight was directed by James Goldstone, who had beforehand helmed a few season 1 episodes of Star Trek, from a screenplay by Waldo Salt, who wrote the Oscar-winning scripts for Midnight Cowboy and Coming Dwelling. It was launched on December 22, 1971, just some months earlier than The Godfather would become a blockbuster box office hit. The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight was nowhere close to as profitable — and it might’ve saved Pacino from enjoying Michael Corleone.
Al Pacino Left The Gang That Could not Shoot Straight For The Godfather & Was Changed By Robert De Niro
Francis Ford Coppola Wished To Direct The Gang That Could not Shoot Straight Earlier than The Godfather
Producer Irwin Winkler, who would win the Academy Award for Finest Image a couple of years later for his work on Rocky, opened up about what went incorrect with The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight in his 2019 memoir, A Life in Films: Tales from Fifty Years in Hollywood. Pacino was the primary alternative for De Niro’s position, however he dropped out when he acquired the chance to affix Marlon Brando in the cast of The Godfather. De Niro, who would later win an Oscar for his position in The Godfather Half II, was introduced in to exchange him.
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Winkler’s memoir additionally notes that Francis Ford Coppola initially requested if he might write and direct The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Winkler turned him down, as a result of he didn’t assume Coppola had the chops to make a film in regards to the mafia. After being denied the job, Coppola would get to work on the definitive mafia film, The Godfather — and poached one in all Winkler’s actors to play his lead character.
Why The Gang That Could not Shoot Straight Failed
It Simply Is not Very Humorous
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight was extensively panned by critics, incomes a dismal Rotten Tomatoes rating of simply 20%. The very fact of the matter is that, for a comedy, it simply isn’t very humorous; the performances are too broad and the route is simply too heavy-handed. In his memoir, Winkler wrote that Goldstone was extra involved with conserving the schedule than working with the forged on their characters, so the ultimate product didn’t actually work as a comedy (and even simply as a narrative).
Supply: A Life in Films: Tales from Fifty Years in Hollywood by Irwin Winkler
