Every year brings a great movie. Every decade a great movie musical!
1976-07-22
N/A
93 min
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.
There is something cartoon-like about this gangster spoof. The characters are all played by children and instead of spraying their rivals with bullets, they find themselves being creamed to death. The plot centres around the turf wars between "Dandy Dan" (Martin Lev) and "Fat Sam" (John Cassisi) and the shrewd manoeuvrings of the eponymous character (Scott Baio). Add to the mix the seductive, sultry, "Tallulah" (Jodie Foster) and you have the makings of a gently comedic production. There's quite a decent list of songs to keep it moving - "Bugsy Malone", "Down and Out" and "So You Wanna be a Boxer". Not songs you might recognise by their titles, but ones your toes start instinctively tapping to when the ensemble break into their well choreographed delivery. It's an OK watch, this, but I found that the initially innovative joke wore a bit thin quite quickly and the scenarios prove just a little too repetitive. That said, Foster and Baio work quite well together and it does look good - sending up all things Al Capone! Worth a watch, but nothing great.
