Bugsy Malone (1976) on Netflix
Fat Sam's gang is losing ground to Dandy Dan, whose men carry splurge guns that fire cream. Bugsy Malone, a boxing promoter, meets Blousey Brown, an aspiring singer at the Grand Slam.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/1021,135 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes79%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Prohibition-era New York, two mob bosses, Fat Sam Staccetto and Dandy Dan, are at war. Dan's men carry splurge guns, which coat a rival in cream and leave him finished, and they raid the Grand Slam, Fat Sam's speakeasy. Dan's crew also takes over Fat Sam's rackets one by one. Into this comes Bugsy Malone, a penniless boxing promoter who trips over the luggage of Blousey Brown, an aspiring singer who has arrived to audition. Fat Sam has no attention to spare for her. Bugsy is taken with Blousey immediately and tries to win her over. Tallulah, the speakeasy's chanteuse and Fat Sam's girlfriend, turns her own attention to Bugsy.
Cast
- Martin Levas Dandy Dan
- Albin 'Humpty' Jenkinsas Fizzy (as 'Humpty' Albin Jenkins)
- Paul Chirelsteinas Smolsky
- Davidson Knightas Cagey Joe
- Michael Jacksonas Razamataz
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bugsy Malone (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To find his Fat Sam, Parker visited a Brooklyn classroom and asked for "the naughtiest boy in class"; the students were unanimous in selecting John Cassisi, and Parker gave him the role.
- Parker was looking for a film project that was not "parochial" and settled on an American gangster setting: he had invented the story of a gangster called Bugsy Malone on long weekend car journeys to a cottage in Derbyshire with his four children, and his eldest son suggested children be cast as the "heroes".
- The "splurge firearm" proved problematic: after initial experiments with cream-filled wax balls proved painful, the guns fired ping-pong balls instead, and a fast cut to a victim being pelted with "splurge" was used to convey the impression of rapid firing.
- Neither the director nor the songwriter was comfortable with dubbing the young cast with adult singing voices: Williams wrote that perhaps he should have given the kids a chance to sing the songs, and Parker called it the aspect of the film he finds the most bizarre.
- In Los Angeles, Parker met a 12-year-old Jodie Foster, who at the time was about to start the filming of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, and cast her as Tallulah.
