Bugsy Malone (1976)

 

The gimmick of exclusively using child actors in a gangster movie makes Bugsy Malone a clever film overall. Adding songs to the mix and you have a quite intriguing genre, the gangster movie musical. Much of the plot is about the rivalry between Fat Sam (played by John Cassisi) and Dandy Dan (Martin Lev), two crime bosses trying to take control of the city. Dan’s gang seems to be coming out on top because they have the use of “splurge” guns, which “kill” people by hitting them with pies (or the makings of a pie) rather than bullets, so no blood. Since it’s a kid’s movie, you don’t actually see anyone truly die, but there are lots of faces and bodies splattered with pies before the film ends. Bugsy Malone, the character, is played by a very young Scott Baio in his first major role. Bugsy is one of those characters on the fringes of the gangster milieu, but he has to step up to help Fat Sam after most of Sam’s underlings get splurged. The biggest star in the movie, Jodie Foster, plays Sam’s moll and the lead singer at Sam’s speakeasy, but she obviously finds Bugsy attractive and makes a play for him. Bugsy, however, only seems interested in Blousie (Florence Garland), an aspiring singer and dancer who really wants to go to Hollywood so she can get her big break. Bugsy tries to help her but faces the obstacle of keeping enough money to buy their tickets while constantly fighting off members of Dan’s gang. Adult situations performed by child actors isn’t an easy feat to pull off, but Bugsy Malone mostly works because it’s meant to be fun, and it is. However, the film is not without its controversial depictions. Most of the Asian actors play laundry workers although one is a member of Dan’s gang. Most of the African American actors are drivers or boxers, and the film does traffic in stereotypes of Americans of Italian and Irish descent. It is very much a product of its time in those respects. Most of the actors are clearly non-professionals, but Foster and Baio demonstrate a clear star quality that led them to have long careers. Foster had a great year in 1976, performing in Taxi Driver and earning an Oscar nomination. Cassisi as Fat Sam is also a highlight; he seems to know that the film calls for a big personality, and he certainly has one. The costumes and production design are first rate, very evocative of the period in which the movie is set, the 1930s. The music, written by one of my favorites, Paul Williams, is also delightful, but it is very disconcerting that the actors are lip synching to tracks recorded by adult singers. Surely, it would have worked just as well to let either the young actors sing or to have younger singers provide the soundtrack. Williams himself sings many of the songs, and that distinctive voice of his is often a welcome addition to the soundtrack. By the way, the final song of Bugsy Malone, “You Give a Little Love,” is the best, but its message gets a bit muddled because it’s “performed” by a lot of people who have just been involved in an epic pie fight. I’ll admit that it is disconcerting at times to watch kids perform as gangsters and molls and other underworld types, especially when the dialogue requires them to crack wise in ways that would suggest a world weariness far beyond their ages, but I suppose that winds up being a large part of its charm.

Oscar Nomination: Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score