15 September 1976 (USA)
Alan Parker
Scott Baio ... Bugsy Malone
Florrie Dugger ... Blousey Brown
Jodie Foster ... Tallulah
John Cassisi ... Fat Sam
Martin Lev ... Dandy Dan
Paul Murphy ... Leroy Smith / Gangster
Sheridan Earl Russell ... Knuckles
I can only imagine how an ordinary person would react to a film like Bugsy Malone, do they just see it as a harmless kid's movie and move along, or like myself, are their eyes glued to the screen completely hypnotized by the humgummery! You see, the gimmick of this movie is that it stars a complete child cast, so it's kind of like Terror of Tiny Town only kids instead of midgets.
Now this will actually be the second time I've written a review for this movie, the first time was when I wrote a review for it for a history class assignment. But my teacher wouldn't accept it, said it wasn't really history; what does she know.
The first thing that will strike you about this movie, besides the fact that it stars a young Scott Baio, is that the title song sounds like it's being sung by octogenarian. However, this is Paul Williams who I'm told was somewhat popular in the 70s, but doesn't have any hits that I know of.
We're soon taken to Fat Sam's Grand Slam the hippest speakeasy in town and everybody that's anybody goes there. Now it's kind of strange seeing a bunch of underage dancing girls in a prohibition era dive, it's like what were they thinking? But hey they was simpler times. I suppose it was quite alright for little girls to dance in speakeasies in the 1920s.
You'll also notice a familiar face in the guise of Jodie Foster. She pretty much plays a hooker. I mean, it's a kid's movie so they're not going to come right out with it, but you can tell. She plays Tallulah, Fat Sam's girl and Bugsy's secondary love interest.
So the next song is still Paul Williams but a young black child piano player is lip synching to it, kinda creepy to hear the voice of a faux-octogenarian coming from the mouth of a young black child. The underage dancing girls sing along and boy, it's a catchy song but their voices sound like the Chipmunks only sped up. I guess it was performed by adults trying to sound like kids.
Bugsy meets Blousy Brown here and ridicules her and hits on her and they exchange witticisms, heh, it's kinda like an episode of Moonlighting, only funny. Their charming t'te-'-t'te is cut short however when a gang of rival mobsters crashes the party with their splurge guns that shoot pie cream. After this the mobsters go around shooting people.
Bugsy now stalks Blousy as best he can and lays on the charm, his persistence pays off and they stop for dinner at a nearby greasy spoon. So Bugsy is a boxing talent scout it seems and Blousy divulges her dreams of being a Hollywood starlet. He pulls some shenanigans where he traps the waitress in the telephone booth in order to do a dine and dash. It's kind of funny because the trombone music in the background kinda sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher.
Fat Sam's gang members do this song and dance number where they proclaim to be 'bad guys.' It's been said that this is one of the few kid's movies with moral ambiguity as both sides of the gang war are bad and Bugsy himself is a gangster and a 'sinner, candy-coated.' Fat Sam knows he's got to get a hold of some splurge guns because the old fashioned cream pie just isn't going to cut it anymore. Things go wrong though and their whole gang ends up killed off, expect for Knuckles, Sam's sidekick.
Bugsy shows up at the Grand Slam for some reason, and he meets Tallulah there and she uses her feminine wiles on him. She kisses him just as Blousy's walking in, of course as clich' love triangles go, she doesn't bother waiting for his explanation and just jumps to conclusions. She auditions for a job at Fat Sam's and she gets it, yay.
Tallulah now sings this song about being a prostitute, it's not even clouded with metaphor, she's pretty much just coming right out with it. Maybe it was this movie that caused John Hinckley's obsession with Jodie Foster?
Fat Sam hires Bugsy to be his driver on his next escapade where he tries to assassinate Dandy Dan his rival. At least I guess that's what he's trying to do, it's not like they let the viewer in on these things. It doesn't go well, but they survive and Bugsy makes some quick dough. So he uses the money to take Blousy out on a date and repair things.
Later on Bugsy gets mugged in an alleyway, and if it wasn't for Leroy Smith who rescues him. Bugsy decides that he would make a great boxer and takes him to Slugger's Gym to meet Cagey Joe. They then perform which is in my opinion one of the better songs. I used to sing it in school all the time.
Things go from bad to worse for Fat Sam though, as Dandy Dan takes out his operations and Knuckles dies in a horrible splurge gun accident. He sends Tallulah out to get Bugsy for help. But now since he's helping out Fat Sam he can't take Blousy to Hollywood as he promised earlier and she's throwing a pissy fit again.
Dandy Dan's base is too heavily fortified for Bugsy and Leroy to gain entrance so they enlist the dregs of society at the local soup kitchen. They're pretty easy to coerce, Bugsy just sings at 'em. So they break into the base and steal a whole bunch of splurge guns.
What follows is the cream pie filled climax where neither side really wins, they just starts signing together about being 'good guys.' Heh, who cares, it's a catchy song. Even though up until now being hit with a cream pie meant instant death, the kids seem perfectly fine no matter how many pies they get hit with. Does this mean Knuckles and Co. aren't really dead? I can only hope so. Poor Knuckles.
