Bugsy Malone [DVD] [1976]

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Williams felt that "... the challenge for me was to provide songs that reflected the period... and yet maintained an energy that would hold the young audiences attention." According to Parker, Williams was writing while on tour, recording songs in different cities, and sending the completed tapes to Hollywood. Arriving during the first pre-shoot rehearsals, the songs had to be accepted and used as they were, with voices by Williams, Archie Hahn, and others.

Two rival gangsters battle for turf and a new, strategically important armament during the Prohibition Era -- a cliche if the entire cast weren't children. I had quit the business, because I didn’t like driving into Manhattan. Well, the long and the short of it is that I wanted to play with my friends after school, but it happened to be raining that day, so I went to the city to meet with Alan Parker. I read it, but I just barely read it. I didn’t even want to be there. He was English, but I didn’t even know what that was. He was just this weird guy with long hair, and I didn’t know what he was. [Laughs.] So I sort of read the script, threw it at him, and walked out the door. That was it: I’d gotten the part before I got home. [13] The song "Ordinary Fool" has been covered by numerous artists including Ella Fitzgerald and The Carpenters. film Bugsy Malone makes its Blu-ray debut in August". HighDefDiscNews. 11 June 2021 . Retrieved 12 June 2021. a b Alexander Walker, National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties, Harrap, 1985 p 86AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original on 16 July 2011 . Retrieved 19 August 2016. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link)

Also, the music is all lip syched with the voices provided by adults. This is the beginning of the film dropping its intelligent conceit, a denigration that is made complete during the final shootout. By the end of the film, it has broken all its own rules, and I couldn't help but feel quite disappointed. A 2003 television documentary called Bugsy Malone: After They Were Famous features a reunion and interviews with Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, John Cassisi, and Florrie Dugger. The British actors who played Fat Sam's gang are also reunited at Pinewood Studios. The documentary reported that Dugger, who (unlike her co-stars) had never acted again, had chosen to pursue a career in the United States Air Force Medical Service. [35] [11] In 2003, it was voted #19 on a list of the 100 greatest musicals, as chosen by viewers of Channel 4 in the UK. [7] In 2008, Empire ranked it 353rd on their list of 500 greatest movies of all time. [8] a b "100 Greatest Musicals – Broadcast Christmas 2003, Channel 4 (UK). Presented by Denise Van Outen". thecustard.tv. The Custard. 2003. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007 . Retrieved 18 June 2008.Bugsy Malone to tour the UK in 2022 | WhatsOnStage". www.whatsonstage.com . Retrieved 21 December 2021. The story is an homage to the archetypical gangster films of yore: Fat Sam (John Cassisi) is a mob boss who finds himself in conflict with his rival Dandy Dan (Martin Lev) when the latter uses new weaponry to muscle into Sam’s territory. Low-level mug Bugsy Malone (Scott Baio) finds himself drawn into the conflict even though he just wants to romance the ingenue Blousy (Florence Garland), with Sam’s moll Tallulah (Jodie Foster) waiting in the wings. The narrative is standard fare for the genre, but that familiarity was necessary to anchor the quirky reimagining as a children’s musical. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Bugsy Malone is an ambitious and largely successful example of creative world-building, with all of the standard gangster film tropes translated into a childhood milieu—right down to the pedal-powered cars. The songs by Paul Williams are hardly accurate for the period, but they're catchy and they work surprisingly well. What doesn't work is that the singing voices are dubbed by adults, which sounds disconcerting when coming out of the kid’s mouths. It’s a rare example of the film not being true to its concept, and while neither Parker nor Williams were happy with the results, they simply ran out of time to do anything differently. The cast is uniformly excellent, even the inexperienced actors, with kids like Babyface (Dexter Fletcher) really standing out—it’s no accident that he was one of the few in the film to make a career out of acting. At 93 minutes long, Bugsy Malone doesn't wear out its welcome, but it does end abruptly and somewhat awkwardly—it feels like Parker ran out of ideas and had to just bring things to a close. Still, the final number by Paul Williams is a classic, and it sends the film off on an upbeat note. a b The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time – #400–301 empireonline.com; Empire Online. Retrieved 3 June 2010.

Siskel, Gene (19 November 1976). "... and 'Bugsy Malone,' where kids cut the custard as adults". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 1. Neither the director nor the songwriter were comfortable with the results. Williams later wrote "I'm really proud of the work and the only thing I've ever doubted is the choice of using adult voices. Perhaps, I should have given the kids a chance to sing the songs." Parker also commented: "Watching the film after all these years, this is one aspect that I find the most bizarre. Adult voices coming out of these kids' mouths? I had told Paul that I didn't want squeaky kids' voices and he interpreted this in his own way. Anyway, as the tapes arrived, scarcely weeks away from filming, we had no choice but to go along with it!" [15] Filming [ edit ]

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Parker cast Baio after he slammed down the script and stormed out of his audition. [9] Baio later remembered: