(no subject)

[skygiants]

SCENE: innerbrat and rushin_doll 's apartment, living room, evening
PLAYING: the television

DEBI: Hah, I see, that character is the Tallulah!
BECCA: . . . what?
DEBI: You know, like from Bugsy Malone.
BECCA: . . . what?
DEBI and ANA, IN HORRIFIED UNISON: You've never seen Bugsy Malone?!?!
BECCA: . . . what?
ANA: It's a musical! About gangsters! They all have funny moustaches! It's made for you!
DEBI: Also, there aren't any cast members over the age of fourteen!
BECCA: . . . what?


Needless to say, I have now seen Bugsy Malone, and have upgraded my '. . . what?' to an 'oh my god, WHAT?'

Bugsy Malone is indeed a musical about gangsters. To be specific, it is a musical about a brutal gang war.



Except instead of real guns, all the gangsters wield 'splurge guns', which shoot out cream. I am not making this up. NOR AM I COMMENTING. Simply presenting you with the facts.



A splurge-shot gangster goes catatonic and then disappears, though, so the principle is probably not actually all that different. Also, all the gangsters are indeed played by kids aged 10-14. Occasionally wearing false moustaches.





They built the whole set to scale - tiny shops, tiny pedal-cars. Tiny ponies! I have to admit it's impressive.

The only things not child-sized are . . . the singing voices. Because SOMEONE thought it would be a brilliant plan to travel around the country, recording all the songs AS SUNG BY ADULTS, and then have the kids lip-sync them. The result is . . . well.

This is Our Hero, charming and dashing ladies' man Bugsy Malone, attempting to convince a bunch of broke soup-kitcheneers to join him in a gangster raid. No one noticed that it might be A LITTLE STRANGE to a.) have a manly voice coming out of prepubescent Scott Baio, and b.) have Scott Baio occasionally shout lines of dialogue in the middle of the song IN HIS OWN VOICE.

Also kind of disturbing are the tiny preteen showgirls, led by baby Jodie Foster, who does a pretty good job of playing a femme fatale gangster moll considering that she was about thirteen at the time.



In her signature number, she does her very best to vamp her way through a room full of children in moustaches sipping milkshakes, singing about how no one will ever treat you finer, and just . . . I'M SO CONFUSED.



Here, she is attempting to seduce Scott Baio away from his love interest. Eventually she scandalously kisses him on the forehead.

Sidenote: aside from launching Scott Baio's career and confirming Jodie Foster as a talented and yet confusing actress, by the way, this film also marked the first onscreen appearance of one Dexter Fletcher, aka 'Babyface.'

I . . . I just . . . I have no room to talk, I know. I mean, I love Newsies. I am a wholehearted supporter of ridiculous fake moustaches and of terrible child-actor dancing in musicals. And yet . . . there are SO MANY CHOICES HERE I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I remember when that movie hit the theaters. And my thoughts then were pretty much, "OMG, WHY?!?!"

Somehow, I managed to avoid seeing it, though it played regularly on HBO or Cinemax, back in the day 80's. I'm still not sure how (sheer diligence, perhaps?).

[skygiants]

Apparently the director wanted to make a movie starring all kids, for his kids? Which: noble endeavor! And yet . . .

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love Bugsy Malone to pieces, partly because it's on such crack, and partly because I saw it when I was a kid, and the kids in the film seemed to engage in much the same kind of play-acting that we did.

Although the kid playing Fat Sam apparently played himself. Which is kind of scary and awesome at the same time.

If you're confuzzled in a positive way and not in a "TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME" way, I really recommend the reunion.

*goes to find it*

Hm, I'm not sure this is the right video, but it might be:

[skygiants]

I think my OVERWHELMING CONFUSION has overwritten positive OR negative feelings! I can't even tell!

. . . I will totally be investigating this reunion thing, tough.

(Haha, I loved that anecdote on wikipedia - that he just went into a Brooklyn classroom and was like "okay, point out the naughtiest kid in class." And they all pointed to Fat Sam UNANIMOUSLY.)

[blacksheep91.livejournal.com]

Dude I was in Bugsy Malone. I was Fat Sam! (...Well...I'm a girl...but it doesn't matter I killed it!)

[skygiants]

HAHAHA AWESOME. That must have been a heck of a role. (Did they dub your voices over with adult voices? . . . does Fat Sam actually sing?)

[schellibie.livejournal.com]

Well that looks like the most glorious thing ever.

[skygiants]

IT IS PRETTY AMAZINGLY RIDICULOUS.

(However I still maintain the superiority of Christian Bale's gloriously terrible dancing in Newsies over all comers, when it comes to hilarious child musicals.)

[ceitfianna]

I've seen parts of it and remember being confused. I'll stick to Newsies for my musical and child actor loves.

[skygiants]

Newsies is ALWAYS a good choice.

[agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking this for the team.

[skygiants]

I think you might owe me a drink to make up for the alcohol I did not have (and needed) while watching this in your stead.

[bravenewcentury.livejournal.com]

Get this: I had to read Bugsy Malone for school. In fact, as our English teacher was fond of making us do when we read plays, we had to read aloud in lessons with different people being assigned to different characters (I was indifferent to the inherent dorkiness of this exercise so normally got the biggest part. I read a mean Bugsy. And if you think the film is weird, try imagining it all being read by awkward thirteen year old British girls).

Thankfully we didn't also have to sing (nor were adults brought in to sing on our behalf). I had forgotten how BIZARRE that sounded.

[skygiants]

. . . much like my reaction to the film itself, I can't decide if that is terrible or awesome. (But I can tell you that my thirteen-year-old self would have been all over the opportunity to read as Bugsy.)

IT IS SO BIZARRE. And to add to the strangeness, they are very obviously using different singers in every song, including the ones that are supposed to be sung by the same character . . . giving the vague impression that they are all being possessed by a rotating cast of singing demons.

[furikku.livejournal.com]

You know that feeling where you didn't know something was missing in your life until you find it?

Yeah.

[skygiants]

Ahahahaahahaa yeah.

And believe me, there is nothing else that could have filled this particular void.

[sublunarfields.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have actually seen this movie some time when I was a child. I'd forgotten more or less everything about it, except what you say here. Gangster movie, with kids playing adults. Weird. I don't even remember what I thought about it at the time. Hm. I'm not sure this comment adds anything to your post, but well, take it or leave it. LOL.

[skygiants]

Well, it will reassure rushin_doll and innerbrat, who were shocked, SHOCKED to find so many people had never heard of it! *laughing*

[sandrylene.livejournal.com]

...can we re-watch this in November? This sounds like I might laugh until I cry.

[skygiants]

I am PRETTY SURE there will not be objections to that. :P

[elle-white.livejournal.com]

I remember watching parts of that film as a teenager. And being too BEWILDERED BY IT ALL TO FORM ANY SORT OF OPINION ON IT. Children singing in adult voices and thirteen-year-old Jodi Foster playing a femme-fatale? Suffice to say, the WTF factor was somewhat overwhelming for me as well. :p

I mean, with something like Revolutionary Girl Uten there's a clear purpose to all the WTFKERY, but here ... you're not exactly sure what the people behind it had in mind when they concocted it?

[skygiants]

TOO BEWILDERED TO FORM ANY SORT OF OPINION is exactly the state I am in now!

. . . but now I am just going to blame all the weirdness in that movie on Akio. THANKS.

[shati.livejournal.com]

What.

[skygiants]

It may be weirder than HSM, and you know I don't say that lightly!

[fulselden.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I remember coming down on the AWESOME side after watching this a few years ago. It's sorta as though someone took a pastiche of film noir and then pastiched that. And then decided to cast kids. And then the silly-string guns. And then Tallulah. Um. Yeah.

It is LIKE AN ARTEFACT FROM ANOTHER WORLD. A WORLD MOST PECULIAR.

I remember it as essentially being saved by BEING TOTALLY EARNEST ABOUT EVERYTHING IT WAS DOING ALL THE TIME. But ... my memories are admittedly vague. Obviously I must rewatch!

[skygiants]

I could not even figure out if it was parodying itself, or totally straightfaced! MY HEAD IS SPINNING. I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ANYMORE.

. . . I like the 'artifact from an alternate universe' hypothesis, though. MAYBE THAT HELPS.

[ashen_key]

...whut.

[skygiants]

THAT IS THE APPROPRIATE REACTION.

[moonyazu9.livejournal.com]

That's kind of a creepy concept to have adult voices coming out of children. *shudders* Sounds…odd, to say the least. Probably will not ever watch this. I am perfectly happy with my Newsies.

[skygiants]

It is kiiind of creepy in execution too, I gotta say.

[lacewood]

AHAHAHA WHAT. ... Actually, this sounds weirdly familiar, I'm pretty sure my junior college did this musical at one point. omg I had no idea it was... apparently based on this movie?!?!?!

(Also, this kind of makes me want to rewatch Newsies ahaha)

[skygiants]

APPARENTLY a lot of non-US places have adopted this musical to their hearts! I guess it's because you all view us as heathens who press our children young into hard-bitten lives of silly-string-shooting crime.

(Rewatching Newsies is always a valid life decision.)

[weaverandom.livejournal.com]

So we did Bugsy Malone in high school, when I was in year 12.

It remains one of the lowlights of my musical theatre career. (Except for Tomorrow, I still love that song. Maybe because I wasn't involved.)

[skygiants]

HAHAHA WHO WERE YOU? Inquiring minds need to know!

(Tomorrow is an excellent song but it was, again, kind of disturbing in this production as sung by a sad deep-voiced man and lip-synced by an eight-year-old. And the poor kid did not even get to dance! They brought in a chorus girl to dance instead. I feel that if I am promised the best tap-dancer in the world, he ought to at least get to tap-dance in his own number.)