Bugsy Malone

1976 "Every year brings a great movie. Every decade a great movie musical!"
6.8| 1h33m| G| en| More Info
Released: 12 September 1976 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://alanparker.com/film/bugsy-malone/
Info

New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah who wants Bugsy for herself.

Genre

Drama, Action, Comedy

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Director

Alan Parker

Production Companies

Paramount

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Bugsy Malone Audience Reviews

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism
RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
hi_im_manic Bugsy Malone is a cutesy, fun and nostalgic film fit for family viewing,It will undoubtedly encourage kids to engage in imaginative roleplay (cop v. gangster, gangster v. gangster, broadway performer etc) and put down their electronic gadgets! The costumes and sets were excellent, very visually stimulating and so far as I can tell they were authentic to the time period (late 20's, early 30's). Even the phrases and dialogues were well done. The lip syncing left much to be desired. It was painfully clear that the performers weren't actually singing their songs. The songs stood on their on as great, and choreography was pretty well on point. I don't normally enjoy musicals but this one was so nicely put together that I found myself really engaged in the story, even though it was ridiculous/goofy. This one is suitable for all ages. There's no actual violence, no cursing, no sexual reference (the "worst" was a kiss on the forehead, and dancers wearing tight, swimsuit-like costumes), and the storyline is easily followed.
Sam Panico I often write about movies in the middle of the night, when the rest of the world is asleep. Sometimes, a movie will seem like a dream instead of something real. Imagine a musical gangster movie starring all child actors with music by Paul Williams. Yet, wonder of wonders, this movie actually was filmed.Sir Alan Parker's feature-length directorial debut (he also directed Pink Floyd's The Wall, Angel Heart, Fame and so many more), this is also Scott Baio's first movie and features a young Jodie Foster.Why kids? Parker said, "I had four young children and we used to go to a cottage in Derbyshire at weekends. On the long, boring car journey up there, I started telling them the story of a gangster called Bugsy Malone. They'd ask me questions and I'd make up answers, based on my memories of watching old movie reruns as a kid." His oldest son loved the stories and suggested that when he made the movie, children should play the roles. The strangest moment of the film is seeing kids sing with Paul Williams' voice. Parker agrees today. "Watching the film after all these years, this is one aspect that I find the most bizarre. Adult voices coming out of these kids' mouths? I had told Paul that I didn't want squeaky kids voices and he interpreted this in his own way. Anyway, as the tapes arrived, scarcely weeks away from filming, we had no choice but to go along with it!"The film starts with Roxy Robinson being splurged by another gang. In the film, guns shoot whipped cream instead of bullets and once you get splurged, you're done. We meet speakeasy boss Fat Sam and Bugsy Malone (Baio) with a big musical number. Fat Sam is played by John Cassisi, a kid who was selected by Parker after asking for the worst behaved child in his Brooklyn class. Interestingly enough, after he retired from acting, Cassisi became involved in construction, rising to the Director of Global Construction for Citigroup. However, he pleaded guilty to bribery in 2012 and was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison, pretty much making him a real gangster.Then, we meet Blousey Brown, a singer, and Dandy Don, the rival gangster who wants to take over Fat Sam's rackets and splurging all his men. Meanwhile, Sam's girlfriend Tallulah (Foster) tries to get between Bugsy and Blousey.Bugsy helps Sam survive a trap that Dandy Dan sets, drawing Bugsy deeper into the gangster life, despite his budding affair with Blousey. Finally, everyone but our young lovers gets splurged and realizes that they can all get along.This is a movie that defies my descriptions. You should just watch the trailer for yourself to confirm to me that this is all real and not a dream.
richieandsam BUGSY MALONEA gangster movie like no other.This is a musical, gangster film... it is already a bizarre mixture, but the film makers really went all out to make this film different. The whole cast are children.I knew all of this before watching it but really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I would like this or not. So when I saw this was on the TV, I thought I would give it a go. It actually worked really well.The story is actually quite bad. Not a lot really happens throughout apart from two leaders of opposite gangs are fighting for the same patch. If this film was made normally, it would not have worked anywhere near as well.One of the things that I like about this film is even though the whole cast is children, they are all made up as adults and act as if they are adults. Even their fake moustaches were really funny.A lot of the songs were really catchy. There were a couple of songs that were not that go, but generally they were very good. When the children were singing, you could clearly see they were miming. It was not especially done well, but maybe this was dine on purpose. When they were singing, all of a sudden the kids had very mature voices. It was really funny.Another thing that I thought was well done was the gun fights. They were all fighting and shooting tommy guns that were shooting pies and custard at everyone. But when they got shot it was as if they were dead. The cars were fantastic. They were the old style cars, but they were actually pedal cars. The funniest part was when they were peddling the cars around, you could hear car engines as if they were driving for real. A really good touch.The cast couldn't act at all... this is the perfect example of children tend not to be good actors. Some of the time it felt like a big budget school play. Bad acting and comical dialogue execution. But even though the acting was bad, it made the film a lot better. The bad acting worked really well with the comedy side of the film.The movie starred Scott Baio, Florrie Dugger, Jodie Foster & John Cassisi. The funniest character was Fat Sam played by John Cassisi. He was hilarious and was the star of the film, but acting wise I can see why Jodie Foster was the only actress to make it big after this. She was the best actress in the movie.This is relatively short movie, but it is worth a watch. It is funny, weird and confusing as hell to watch.I will give this film 6 out of 10."Someone once said, "If it was raining brains, Roxy Robinson wouldn't even get wet." Roxy had spent his whole life making two and two into five, but he could smell trouble like other people could smell gas. But believe you's me, he should've never taken that blind alley by the side of Parido's Bakery. Whatever game it was everybody was playing, sure as eggs is eggs, Roxy the Weasel had been scrambled."For more reviews, please like my Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordinary-Person-Movie- Reviews/456572047728204?ref=hl
BA_Harrison I first saw this film in the late 70s when it was shown at my school as a Christmas treat (on a real projector and screen, no less); now, over thirty years later, I'm watching it again in the company of my son and daughter (aged 10 and 8), and I'm finding it no less entertaining than when I was a kid myself.Starring Scott Baio in his greatest ever role (yes, he's even better here than he is in Zapped!), Jodie Foster looking unnervingly sexy for her age as vampish songstress Tallulah, and a very young Dexter Fletcher as Babyface (UK TV viewers my age will know who he is), and with superb direction by Alan Parker and brilliant music and songs by Paul Williams (the man behind the tunes for one of my other favourite musicals, Phantom of the Paradise), this is one of the most enjoyable films of the 70s, particularly when viewed as a youngster.I mean, is there a kid alive who wouldn't want their own splurge gun, an over-sized pedal car, or to take part in a massive pie fight?