Bugsy Malone, the film, made British director and screenwriter Alan Parker’s name in 1975. The musical, with songs by Paul Williams, is a parody of a Warner Bros gangster movie of the Prohibition 1930s, with stars such as Edward G Robinson, James Cagney, Paul Muni and Humphrey Bogart.
Parker’s originality was to cast children in all the roles. Their average age was 13. The kids behave like a bunch of gangsters or, if you prefer it, the gangsters behave like a bunch of kids. The hoods carry machine guns but they don’t fire bullets. They fire splurge.
