Bugsy Malone (1976)

Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976). 

Alan Parker’s feature film directorial debut is really something special. A musical homage to 1930’s gangster movies with a cast made up entirely of children really shouldn’t work, but it does. 

Gang warfare rages in Prohibition-era New York as hoods Fat Sam and Dandy Dan battle for supremacy in the city. Armed with newfangled splurge guns (whipped cream firing machine guns), it looks like Danny Dan’s mob is winning. Speakeasy owner Sam engages good guy Bugsy Malone to help in his fight against Dan, while Bugsy has his sights set on aspiring showgirl Blousey Brown. 

Recalling both the classic Warner gangster flicks and early backstage musicals, Bugsy Malone is itself a film which largely avoids categorisation. It is a love letter to the Hollywood of the 1930s. The beautifully detailed sets of dimly lit back alleys and colourful speakeasies faithfully recalling the era of Cagney and Robinson. Paul Williams superb jazz inspired score provides perfect accompaniment to the visuals, while the witty, quick fire dialogue would befit a period screwball comedy. The soft focus camera work and plethora of brown on display gives the feel of an old sepia tone photograph and adds to the era atmosphere. 

All of which would matter nought, were it not for the engaging performances from its juvenile cast. An assured and charismatic performance by Scott Baio (later to find fame in TVs Happy Days) as Bugsy is surprisingly his first screen appearance. As was true of much of the cast. Florrie Dugger is touchingly melancholic as Bugsy’s gal Blousey in her only movie, while John Cassisi embodies gleeful roguishness as Fat Sam, one of only a handful of acting roles for the youngster. Only Jodie Foster, in the supporting role of showgirl cum moll Tallulah, was a veteran performer. Following a handful of Disney movies and, of course, her Oscar nominated turn in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Foster gives the first rate professional performance you would expect. But to the credit of the cast and director Parker, none of the kids put a foot wrong and are never upstaged by the more experienced star. 

It is hard to offer any genuine criticism of Bugsy Malone. It is a movie which sets out to entertain and it does just that. Narratively speaking, the movie’s climax is a little unsatisfactory; wrapping things up with a big song and dance number. However, so much imagination and creativity has gone into producing the rest of the film that this seems a minor gripe at best and, honestly, the sequence is so much fun that no one should really care! 

There really is nothing else like Bugsy Malone in cinema history. As artful as it is entertaining and equally enjoyable for children and grownups; a unique, unadulterated pleasure from beginning to end!