Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Scott BaioBugsy Malone
- Jodie FosterTallulah
- Florrie DuggerBlousey
- John CassisiFat Sam
- Martin LevDandy Dan
- Paul MurphyLeroy Smith
- Sheridan Earl RussellKnuckles
- Albin 'Humpty' JenkinsFizzy
- Paul ChirelsteinSmolsky
- Andrew PaulO'Dreary
Recommendations
- 100
The Telegraph
Writer-director Alan Parker's utterly delightful, tongue-in-cheek love letter to the gangster genre. - 90
Variety
It’s a brave, funny and winning pic which is nearly – but regrettably not quite – a triumph. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
In an uncanny way the movie works as a gangster movie and we remember that the old Bogart and Cagney classics had a childlike innocence, too. The world was simpler then. Now it's so complicated maybe only a kid can still understand the Bogart role. - 80
Empire
The songs and set pieces are still fresh and infectious and most of the child cast are mesmerisingly good. I defy anyone not to be caught up in the charm and nostalgia. - 70
Newsweek
A perversely appealing apotheosis of cuteness. Almost inadvertently, the film becomes an ultimate comment on American innocence that can only refresh itself by regression. The unseen patron saint of Parker's stylish movie is not Little Caesar but Humbert Humbert. [27 Sept 1976, p.89] - 40
Time Out
Paul Williams’ annoyingly hummable honky-tonk soundtrack punctuates proceedings, which graze the zenith of that seventies inclination towards sexualising teen performers (think ‘Minipops’ in America). - 30
The New Yorker
It operates on darlingness and the kitsch of innocence. The almost pornographic dislocation, which is the source of the film's possible appeal as a novelty, is never acknowledged, but the camera lingers on a gangster's pudgy, infantile fingers or a femme fatale's soft little belly pushing out of her tight stain dress, and it roves over the pubescent figures in the chorus line.
