Cast:
Scott Baio (Bugsy Malone), Florrie Dugger (Blousey Brown), Jodie Foster (Tallulah), John Cassisi (Fat Sam Staccetto), Martin Lev (Dandy Dan), Paul Murphy (Leroy Smith), Sheridan Earl Russell (Knuckles), Albin 'Humpty' Jenkins (Fizzy), Paul Chirelstein (Smolsky), Andrew Paul (O'Dreary), Jeffrey Stevens (Louis), Donald Waugh (Snake Eyes), Peter Holder (Ritzy), Michael Kirkby (Angelo), and Dexter Fletcher (Baby Face) Directed by Alan Parker.
Review:
"It was a lunatic idea that one would only attempt at the beginning of a career, infused as it is with such ingenuousness, yet also with almost manic, devotion. Looking back after all this time, it’s easy to see that we must have been crazy even to have attempted it, but curiously, back in 1975, it never occurred to us for a moment that such an absurd creative notion would not work. As for the impossibly difficult logistics of actually filming it, that too eluded us."
Alan Parker was born in Islington, London, England with no aspirations to become a director. His first profession was in advertising, which he entered in 1962 when he was not even twenty years old. By 1968, he had gone from copywriting to directing TV advertisements. One of his numerous employers was Collett Dickenson Pearce, where he met David Puttnam and Alan Marshall, who each proved key in helping to produce this film years later. In fact, it was Puttnam that encouraged him to write what became his first screenplay in Melody (1971). He did a widely appreciated play on television with The Evacuees in 1975. Over time, he had written a handful of scripts, but most were rejected because they were deemed "too parochial" or "too English". Undaunted by this, he thus decided to write a script that seemed "American", despite having little knowledge of the country besides a few trips there to shoot commercials...but he did know American movies. The script that became this film was one inspired by the stories he told to his children to keep them occupied on journeys spent in the car, which involved gangsters and showgirls in New York. It was his eldest son who insisted that the characters were children. Parker did a tour of classrooms all throughout the States to go along with trips around American Air Force bases. Kids were cast from all around to the point where nearly 10,000 kids were seen in a cast that ultimately ended up being around 200 (with respective paperwork needing to be done for licenses, medical approvals, and you get the idea). Most of the filming was done at Pinewood Studios. So, we have a gangster film that is told with children that involves kids being splurged with cream (through the power of illusion, the guns shown shooting doughnut cream is actually done by editing shots of the gun shooting ping-pong balls to go with someone off-camera throwing cream at the actors). Parker described the film thirty years later as one where he has "ambivalent feelings of pride and embarrassment", one that seems quite different from the later films that Parker directed, although the mixed success of the film with audiences (a hit in the United Kingdom and less so in America) probably did not help. At any rate, he wrote a version of the film for use with amateur productions (which he took well), and a handful of stage productions have occurred since Parker's writing of the music book for a West End production in 1983. Over time he felt that as the years went by, the film still looked modern to him without looking dated and therefore was one he was proud of. Over the next three decades, Parker directed fourteen films, which included Midnight Express (1978), Mississippi Burning (1988), and Evita (1996); Parker retired in 2003 and died in 2020 at the age of 76.
It is indeed an odd film, but it is one that achieves the ideal any director would strive for: spontaneity. This is a film where Parker got exactly who he wanted for a palatable modern feel to a 1920s sound with Paul Williams as music composer, which means one hears kid actors having adults dub their voice for the songs in this gangster musical. It is that lives and dies on the effect generated by seeing a familiar story turned into amusement by seeing it with energy and all-around style that means one isn't going to be reminded of a glossier version of The Terror of Tiny Town (1938) or The Little Rascals. It isn't a movie that rides a joke down to the ground and stays there, instead being a film that earnestly has fun with committing to being a celebration of the gangster and musical genre that is pleasant. It is a movie that ends with a quality pie fight, how can one go wrong? Baio wanted to be on television when he was a kid, which resulted in a few commercials, but by the time he was approached to read the script for this film, he threw the script down and left - this show of spirit evidently won him the part, which was his first film role. He clearly is having a good time here with a role that encourages a bit of screwball zip without turning into sappy parody. Dugger was cast originally in a small role, but when the original actress cast for the female lead opposite Baio developed a growth spurt, Dugger became the lead in what became her only feature role (instead opting for a job in the military as a medical administrator and later ophthalmology). She proves fine for a role of mostly cliches, where chemistry isn't really important when the stakes are mostly kid hijinks. Cassisi was cast as a result of Parker's tour of classrooms all throughout the States (specifically a Brooklyn Catholic school) - when Parker asked a classroom who was the most badly behaved kid in the class, they all responded with Cassisi, and he is pretty amusing in a role that is basically the ham, which is generally amusing when paired against the other "kid boss" in Lev. Jodie Foster was Jodie Foster, a name already familiar with show business by the time she was 15. She has a good knowing sense of what to do in a supporting role that has good timing in terms of humor that obviously was destined for bigger things. The rest of the cast is fairly decent, giving credence to the plot not being lazy farce by giving their best to the odd material. The songs work to the level of the film in charm and timing without coming off as gooey or off-putting. As a whole, it may be an odd one to start a film career with, but Parker and company made a solid winner with this film in terms of bizarre charm that will likely be just right for the whole family.
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
Next up, a film from the Czechs.
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