Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, The (1971)

Academy Award winner Robert De Niro stars as the Italian bicycle racer who falls in love with a mafioso’s younger sister in the middle of an underworld war being waged by the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

Baccala (Lionel Stander), the mafia don controlling Brooklyn, has survived through attention to detail. Every morning he has his wife start his car in case there is a bomb.

When he discovers one of his thugs, Kid Sally (Jerry Orbach), is getting greedy, Baccala orders him to arrange a six-day bicycle race at a local armoury. But Kid Sally is a very poor organiser, the race is a disaster, and Sally declares war on Baccala.

Meanwhile, Mario Trantino (De Niro), the racer Sally has brought from Italy, falls in love with Kid Sally’s sister (Leigh Taylor-Young). Now love blooms as the bodies pile up in this gangland comedy.

Based on the novel by Jimmy Breslin with the screenplay from Academy Award winner Waldo Salt (Coming Home, Serpico, Midnight Cowboy).

Kid Sally
Jerry Orbach
Angela
Leigh Taylor-Young
Big Momma
Jo Van Fleet
Baccala
Lionel Stander
Mario Trantino 
Robert De Niro
Big Jelly
Irving Selbst
Beppo
Hervé Villechaize
Exmo
Joe Santos
Tony, the Indian
Carmine Caridi
Water Buffalo
Frank Campanella
DeLauria
Harry Basch
Gallagher
Phil Bruns
District Attorney Goodman
Philip Sterling

Director
James Goldstone