A year beforeThe Godfatherwould revolutionize the crime genre, Robert De Niro replaced its star Al Pacino in the cast of a critically panned gangster comedy,The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Jimmy Breslin,The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straightis a comedic retelling of the life of gangster Joe Gallo. Jerry Orbach starred in the lead role as Salvatore “Kid Sally” Palumbo, whilean early-career De Niroplayed the supporting role of Mario Trantino.
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straightwas directed by James Goldstone, who had previously helmed a couple of season 1 episodes ofStar Trek, from a screenplay by Waldo Salt, who wrote the Oscar-winning scripts forMidnight CowboyandComing Home. It was released on August 21, 2025, just a few months beforeThe Godfatherwould become a blockbuster box office hit.The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straightwas nowhere near as successful — andit could’ve kept Pacino from playing Michael Corleone.
Al Pacino Left The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight For The Godfather & Was Replaced By Robert De Niro
Francis Ford Coppola Wanted To Direct The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight Before The Godfather
Producer Irwin Winkler, who would win the Academy Award for Best Picture a few years later for his work onRocky, opened up about what went wrong withThe Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straightin his 2019 memoir,A Life in Movies: Stories from Fifty Years in Hollywood.Pacino was the first choice for De Niro’s role, but he dropped out when he got the opportunity to join Marlon Brando inthe cast ofThe Godfather. De Niro, who would later win an Oscar for his role inThe Godfather Part II, was brought in to replace him.
Winkler’s memoir also notes that Francis Ford Coppola originally asked if he could write and directThe Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Winkler turned him down, becausehe didn’t think Coppola had the chops to make a movie about the mafia. After being denied the job, Coppola would get to work on the definitive mafia movie,The Godfather— and poached one of Winkler’s actors to play his lead character.
Why The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight Failed
It Just Isn’t Very Funny
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straightwas widely panned by critics, earning a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of just 20%. The fact of the matter is that, for a comedy, it just isn’t very funny;the performances are too broad and the direction is too heavy-handed.
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In his memoir, Winkler wrote that Goldstone was more concerned with keeping the schedule than working with the cast on their characters, so the final product didn’t really work as a comedy (or even just as a story).
Source:A Life in Movies: Stories from Fifty Years in Hollywoodby Irwin Winkler
