Bugsy Malone (Scott Baio) is caught up in a gang war between rival mobsters Fat Sam (John Cassisi) and the dapper Dandy Dan (Martin Lev), which Dandy Dan is winning through deployment of a new weapon: the splurge gun.
Scripted by its director Alan Parker as an entertainment for his kids, this eccentric musical was a pastiche of all those nineteen-thirties gangster movies starring Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney, the novelty being that all the roles were played by children. I loved this film when I was little, and seeing it now it's still very appealing in the way it sends up the genre clichés in its own good-natured way.
Bugsy might be the star, but it's the loud, desperate, club-owning Fat Sam who's the best character. Still, it's kind of disconcerting hearing adult voices singing the songs which the children mime to, and Tallulah's song seems a bit, erm, inappropriate, although anyone who's seen Freaky Friday will know Jodie Foster always acted older than her years. Nevertheless, the casting helps things run efficiently with a pleasing, slightly amateurish style, and makes the concerns of the gangsters amusingly petty, like a overdressed game.
On the whole, with bullets replaced by cream or custard the film is like a frantic cross between Little Caesar and Tiswas, and the seriously tuneful songs of Paul Williams are great, such as "Fat Sam's Grand Slam", "So You Wanna Be a Boxer", "Down and Out" and the wistfully optimistic finale, "You Give a Little Love". If the smooth Bugsy is a little overshadowed in his own movie, at least none of the other kids grate too much on the nerves - apart from the ones who are supposed to, that is. Watch for: future celebrities Bonnie Langford and Dexter Fletcher in small roles. "So this is showbusiness?"
Stylish British director, from advertising, with quite a few musicals to his credit: Bugsy Malone, Fame, Pink Floyd The Wall, The Commitments (possibly his best film) and Evita. Elsewhere he has opted for serious-minded works like Midnight Express, Shoot the Moon, Birdy, Angel Heart, Mississippi Burning and The Life of David Gale. The Road to Wellville was a strange attempt at outright comedy.
