Florence Garland as Blousey Brown and Scott Baio as Bugsy Malone Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy View image in fullscreen Florence Garland as Blousey Brown and Scott Baio as Bugsy Malone Photograph: Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Bugsy Malone ‘We were kids dressed as gangsters, running riot’ – Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone at 50, by its cast and crew Jodie Foster hated her 6am starts, Parker couldn’t stop swearing, Dexter Fletcher was traumatised by his haircut … There was as much drama off-screen as on during the making of this classic movie
Prefer the Guardian on Google When Bugsy Malone was released 50 years ago, no one had seen anything like it. The wise-talking, rip-roaring spoof poked fun at gangster films with extravagant musical numbers, a cast made up entirely of child and teen actors, and “splurge guns” shooting cream instead of bullets. It was hilarious, startlingly original and a delight to watch.
Scott Baio played plucky Bugsy, a broke boxing promoter who gets tangled up in a turf war between two rival gangs led by Fat Sam (John Cassisi) and Dandy Dan (Martin Lev). Jodie Foster , the most experienced of the cast, played the femme fatale Tallulah. Most of the other young actors were unknown, although many would go on to become celebrated TV and film stars.
We look back with the cast and crew on why it has endured as a classic.
Director and writer Alan Parker came up with the idea for a spoof film about gangsters played by child and teen actors thanks to his own children.
Bonnie Langford , the diva-esque singer Lena : Alan had a house in Derbyshire, and he used to put the kids in the back of the car in London and drive up the motorway. On the way there, he would tell them stories, and they came up with the idea of this gangster movie for kids. He used to tell stories of Fat Sam and Dandy Dan and the splurge guns.
Sheridan Earl Russell , Fat Sam’s knuckle-cracking sidekick , Knuckles : He had a terrible time getting finance. He had never made a full-length feature film before. He put it to people: “It’s all with children.” They would say: “Yeah, next!” It took a very long time to set up.
Parker visited drama clubs and stage schools to find new talent.
Dexter Fletcher , fresh-faced thief Baby Face : I went to a drama club in Islington, north London, where Alan came from, called the Anna Scher Theatre school … for kids who were excluded or weren’t academically high achievers. Alan came down with one of the early video cameras, and we all learned a scene and performed it. I was one of the lucky kids who he plucked out. My brother Graham ended up in the film, too.
View image in fullscreen Hands up! Martin Lev as Dandy Dan. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy BL: I had an audition with Alan at his offices, which were in Camden, north London, quite glamorous. The world and his mother were auditioning. There was a much smaller pool of young actors then, so everybody who performed ended up in that film.
SER: The whole school that I attended, Corona Academy, auditioned for him. The unusual thing was that Alan hated stage schoolchildren. He’d always worked with children off the street. So I was very lucky to get that part. I was the second oldest on the film. I was 16.
Jeff Stevenson, Louis , a hoodlum in Fat Sam’s crew: I was 13. I happened to have done about three or four commercials for Alan, so I knew him already. He remembered me.
SER: Casting Fat Sam, the story goes, Alan went to Cassisi’s schoolroom…