 Complete the following phrase:  De Niro returned to the crime genre with True Confessions 1981, adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne. Less challenging than his previous film, De Niro played a priest who clashes with his brother Robert Duvall, a detective investigating the murder of a prostitute. Vincent Canby of The New York Times thought the plot was hard to follow at times but praised the actors who work so beautifully together it sometimes seems like a single performance. To expand his range of acting roles and to prove his acting abilities, De Niro sought out films with a comedic tone throughout the 1980s. He found it in The King of Comedy 1982, in which he played the struggling stand-up comedian Rupert Pupkin. De Niro was first to bring the script to the attention of Scorsese, who then gave it a New York setting and darker tone. The film failed to find an audience, and was a box office disappointment, grossing only 2.5 million from a budget of 19 million. However, most critics praised De Niros performance. His next film credit was in Sergio Leones Once Upon a Time in America 1984, in which he plays David Noodles Aaronson, a New York City Jewish gangster. The theatrical cut, with a runtime of 229 minutes, premiered at the 