Bugsy Malone

Paul Williams said later his greatest regret about the movie was that they didn't have child actors singing in their own voices.

But there's so much else weird with it. The kids guns that shoot whipped cream are called "splurge guns," and if you get splurged your en tire face is covered in whipped cream and you just stand there, blinking. It's supposed to be a way to show mobster violence without scaring the kids, but it has an obvious sexual metaphor which is pretty creepy, and the fact that you never see what happens to the kids who get splurged afterwards until the very end of the film (they all appear, covered in whipped cream, so you know they didn't really die) seems even creepier.

Was 1976 the height of hallucinogenic drug-taking in Hollywood?

Loved it when I first saw it because it was just so different, and very well crafted. Some of the songs were memorable. I doubt I would enjoy it now.

Didn’t they have weird pedal cars, like the Flintstone, except not with feet, but pedals?

I still sing that We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be song in my head.

With a little practice, we made every blacklist

[quote]R1 Paul Williams said later his greatest regret about the movie was that they didn't have child actors singing in their own voices.

This made the film unbalanced, and to a good degree unenjoyable. It really breaks up its flow.

I don’t think this was the original plan. They ran out of time.

I wanted one of the pedal cars. If they offered those today I bet there’d be a market for them.

Same with the splurge gun.

Didn't Scott rape Florrie too and that's why she left the business?

Alan Parker found John Cassisi by going to a Brooklyn schoolroom and asking the kids who was the naughtiest kid in the class. Apparently he was completely wild on the set.

Unsurprisingly he grew up to run a construction firm in NYC and was found guilt of bribery and sent to prison for several years.

Paul Williams has always had a disturbing sounding a voice, even more so coming out of a child.

Where’s my flower, boss?

Ah, that’s probably the closest thing Jodie has to a grade level memory of a time in her life.

Loved this movie as a kid.

Young Jodie Foster playing an adult female was just as self-possessed as any adult film actress. Truly astonishing.

I also thought Fat Tony’s rival, Dandy Dan was very convincing.

[quote]R18 Young Jodie Foster playing an adult female was just as self-possessed as any adult film actress. Truly astonishing.

It is obvious that she can actually ACT. The rest are just kids sputtering around her, playing dress up.

I don’t think it’s that she’s specifically “playing” an adult; she’s simply assured and direct, with a natural rhythm.

Possibly, r2. It's a pity that flim people switched to go-faster drugs like cocaine. The hallucinogenic era produced better cult movies.

Isn’t this movie sort of the same as the paintings of dogs playing poker?

Or cats, Bootsy.

I remember how excited I was when I found the soundtrack for this on CD at Tower.

I think I paid $24, or something outrageous like that, because it was an import.

I just checked Amazon (11/30/20) and it's now only $11.

"He' a sinner. Candy-coated. For all his friends, he always seems to be alone. But they love him...Bugsy Malone"

No one south of Heaven's Gonna treat you finer / Tallulah had her training In North Carolina

Can’t watch anything with Baio in it.

[quote]It's so weird it should be a flop

Why do you think it was a flop? Certainly wasn't on the east coast. Opened an exclusive engagement in NY on the upper east side, as good as a booking as you could get. Then later opened wide and came back as a double feature many times.

Coke commercial featuring "You Give A Little Love"

The young Lisa Vanderpump is supposedly in this - “Girl at Fat Sam’s Speakeasy”.