Those Young Guns

IT'S NOT ANOTHER GANGSTER MOVIE. Not when the gangsters are played by children.

Bugsy Malone is director Allan Parker's first feature film, a musical loosely based on events in Chicago during the Al Capone era. The idea came from his son, who suggested an all-kid cast for a film he intended for children to enjoy.






Music was written and scored by Paul Williams, the man responsible for pop-hits We've Only Just Begun and Oscar-winning Evergreen. His work for Bugsy Malone produced some of its own gems such as Ordinary Fool and You Give A Little Love (and it all comes back to you) but his choice of using adult voices for the songs, which Alan Parker was not too happy about, indeed produced a discordant effect.

Imagine a 12-year-old boy singing with a 40-year-old man's voice.

Parker casted mainly unknown actors for the movie, save for a very young yet already exquisite Jodie Foster who was already a veteran actress at the time and a soon-to-be BAFTA awardee.


Screenshots from Bugsy Malone, 1976.