Midweek Mention... Bugsy Malone

Bugsy Malone

Sidey: Often masturbated to seldom reviewed Bugsy Malone.

Pete: Yes, indeed. Is this our first erotic film that we've reviewed or

Sidey: yes, I think it is.

Pete: Excellent. Yeah.

Cris: Was this,

was this erotic.

Pete: Yeah,

Sidey: Depends who was watching it.

Pete: Yeah, it depends if you. What yeah. Mindset you brought to the to the viewing

Sidey: out of the gate though.

1976. Yeah. This is around before.

Pete: Before I was around. Yeah.

Sidey: Which surprised me.

Reegs: Released on the 26th of June of 90 76. So just a month before the 26th of July.

Yeah,

Sidey: had seen this a million times when I was a kid. I had it on VHS like taped off. the. Yes. And watched it a lot.

Pete: I, maybe I borrowed that off you, but things as I didn't

Sidey: know I wouldn't have given it up. No, I wouldn't

Pete: have no. Yeah, yeah. Mine I think probably me and my old man had watched it take it in turns to watch it three, four times a week.

Reegs: Wasn't there a school play of it as

Sidey: were in it, weren't you? No,

Reegs: not me. [00:01:00]

Pete: No, no.

Right. So the reason why I selected this is

Sidey: Oh no, you were, Tinkerbell. Yeah,

that's,

right.

Pete: What you actually were think about

Reegs: it. Yeah, man. Yeah.

Pete: So the reason why I selected this is, is twofold. I'd completely forgotten it even existed. And then a guy that I do some work with, like we have regular teams, catch up, catch ups, and his son was the lead, was Bugsy Malone this week in, or last week, sorry, in his like primary school play, right?

Sidey: Right.

Pete: And that kind of like set the mind racing.

I was like, wow, what a film. And then I was like, oh, is that still as horny as I remember it? And. As well. It was also So at, did you go, you didn't go to Prep, did you? Did you go to Vic Prep? Yeah. Okay. So Vic Prep, you know, you did the school play obviously Tinker be,

Reegs: yeah.

Pete: So our year was, 'cause you were year below me, weren't you?

Yeah, our year was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But I remember sort of backstage, especially when all the, like, the bits were getting made, they made something for Charlie and the truck factory, but it used to be a splurge gun. 'cause the older [00:02:00] year, the year older than us. Had done Bugsy Malone. I was so fucking jealous that, I mean, Charlie and Chocolate Factory's pretty solid.

Yeah. But still Bugsy Malone as the school

Reegs: when they do it in kindergartens in America, they just bring in their real machine

Pete: Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. So, yeah. Anyway.

Sidey: It's a, so it's a gangster thing. you Know the telling of the story, but it is an all child

cast.

Pete: It is. And I, I assumed that Boxy Malone was like a, like an Al Capone, like a real,

Sidey: No, it was a boxing promoter.

Oh, is it? Yeah.

Pete: But no, so this is after the boxing promoter or the boxing promoter named himself after the film, or it's a real Per, it's a real person with that real name. Who cares? So yeah, but I just, I just thought, oh, it's like a, they're taking like an adult story and making it a kid's thing, but is that how what it is?

I haven't done any

Sidey: I think that's what, that's, that's the gist of And this starts off with a fucking gangland execution. Yeah.

Roxy Robinson.

He's

Pete: And the

Sidey: Ginger? I think so. Fucking,

Pete: yeah. And, but really [00:03:00] weedy, although apparently he was like a bodyguard or something like that, so that didn't really stack up.

But yeah, he gets executed in an alleyway in what looks like, you know, New York, Chicago. Chicago, Chicago. Right. Okay. And but instead of bullets splurge, we have what splurge, but is, it's basically like cu what Americans called cud pies, even though it's clearly not custard.

Cris: cream.

Pete: It's cream.

Yeah.

Sidey: it's a Bit

like

Squirty cream. Whipped cream cream. Yeah.

They, so that, then that sets the tone. So these guys have got the latest tech, whereas Fat Sam and his crew, they're still throwing like fucking

Luddites like pies. And that's, that's why they're on the decline because they can't compete.

Pete: It's also worth saying that I don't think you're left in any doubt that.

Although into the end, like, so the, I, it's a bit ambiguous as to whether you die when you get hit

Sidey: they

just say, they just say they're finished.

they

Pete: finished. Although,

Reegs: you ever see them again in the

Sidey: No, it's,

Pete: I don't wanna jump too far ahead, but Knuckles is, is definitely dead.

Sidey: Yeah. They sort [00:04:00] of, it is like it or something. You just tagged her out the game. It's sort of, sort of like that. They're not really killing kids.

I don't think. Oh,

was the,

pity,

Reegs: Is it as many, it's the cast as Star started as a sort of Hazily remember, or,

is that it?

I

Pete: yeah.

Cris: so, and Michael

Reegs: is there not like

Pete: Dexter Fletcher.

Oh, fucking Bonnie Langford, who's really irritating.

Sidey: the only one who doesn't have her singing dubbed.

Oh

Pete: Yeah, which

Cris: one? And Michael Jackson.

Sidey: It's just someone

called

Pete: but it's not the Michael Jackson.

No, true, true

Sidey: That's

true. It doesn't matter. You're right. It

doesn't matter. So we're introduced to this sort of gang line setting, and then we see Scott Bow as

Pete: boxy Malone.

That's

Sidey: the

guy. And he goes to a bookshop.

Pete: Well, you've got the title track playing

Sidey: as well.

Yeah, yeah. well I was about to get into one of the fucking great songs. yeah, yeah.

So they, they, He goes to book and he is sort of saying about how he's known and blah, a bit of voiceover and the guy at the book kind of puts like a dollar bill or something into his book and he goes, and we all know this isn't really a bookstore.

Knocks on the bookcase. Some guy sticks, his head through, [00:05:00] passes the book Arrow to Fat, Sams

Speak Easy.

Reegs: That's

Pete: absolute

Sidey: truth. It's a fucking bang

Pete: Straight into what? As soon as I started watching it, I was like, I forgot about your absolute hatred of child actors. And I thought this would be, but some of them are, are like wooden as fuck.

Like

Sidey: when Jodie Foster appears, you can see their levels to

this game.

Pete: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like Fat Sam is, is a bit,

did

Sidey: you hear how he was cast?

They went to a school and said, we need your naughtiest kid. And they're like, him.

Pete: Oh, no way. He's got really yellow teeth as well.

Reegs: Is he fat?

Sidey: Yeah,

Yes. He, He says it

and his own And they said

Reegs: and they said naughtiest, not fattest.

Sidey: Yeah. They said worse behaved, I think. And then he's in his own voiceover he

Reegs: turned out the worst behaved kid was fat.

Sidey: Yeah. He, he describes himself that way in his own voiceover. I'm Fat Sam on a cat of my appearance or something like

Pete: that.

Yeah, yeah,

Sidey: a cat of my,

Cris: he narrates because he says about Bugsy Malone, that he's too popular with broads.

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: All right. Talks about himself in the third person. Yeah.

Sidey: And [00:06:00] we also meet at the same time, blousey Brown,

who's trying to get a a gig singing, she wants to be a singer, but also wants to crack Hollywood but she's fucking miles away. She's in Chicago. But

so yeah, this race is known and obviously they, if this was like real gang stuff, the police would've been paid to, you know, look the other way and all this stuff. Proper nightclub sort

Pete: thing.

Yeah. Like the production of this is pretty good.

Sidey: right? So that's what we need to say. This is not just some silly, You

Might have a different

take.

on it. flimsy little kids thing. This is like so earnestly, like well done and Yeah. And

Reegs: It, it's like a school play, but on

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like what school plays could be if you just chucked loads and loads of money at them. Yeah,

Sidey: know, they do.

It is not like a wink, but like when they're in the cars, and they do a getaway.

You see them pedaling. it's like a no, like a little joke. but

Pete: but the cars are brilliant.

Cris: Yeah. The cars

are

Sidey: cars cost to make the same as a mini At the time.

Pete: That's

Reegs: amazing.

Sidey: they went All out on the detail.

Pete: Yeah, they, they definitely did. We've also been introduced 'cause what, what you're seeing like [00:07:00] interspersed with like scenes and songs and stuff like that is, other little breakaway scenes where the fat Sam's rival, dandy Dan, his guys are like just taking over the, like the hoodlum what's the word? War

Sidey: in? Yeah. Because in

Pete: this, in this town and they're, but because they've got these splurge guns, they can just go in and this is like

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete: thing.

So Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: So anything that, you know, we're like fat, Sam's places are making moonshine and stuff like that. They're just going in and splurging everyone and like using

Sidey: smashing up the gaff. yeah. Yeah.

Pete: the sorts of scenes you've seen before in real, like gangster films, but yeah, I, I think it's, but it's, it's Sas Barella isn't it?

Cris: Oh no. They've taken over the Sapar

Sidey: I don't think I've ever had SAS Barilla

Pete: no I haven't.

Reegs: I've looked up what it is on the internet a few times before, but I still can't remember.

I'll

Pete: I tell, yeah.

Sidey: Is it a drink like dandelion and BirdDog? It's like fairly weird?

Reegs: Well, I think it's a lcu though, isn't it, of some

Pete: Is

it 'cause like Coke used to be like a syrup, like a syrup that you then [00:08:00] mix with like carbonated water, I guess.

And I think SAS Barella is a sim, same sort of thing perhaps if anyone knows, they should write in

Sidey: we're getting it looked up right now.

Reegs: get some

Cris: tropical wine from the Similac genus, known for its use in flavoring beverages like root beer and for its historical use as a medicinal herb is native to tropical regions of the world, including South America and parts of Asia. Once it was once popular ingredient in remedies and soft drink, its use has declined in some areas due to the availability of other flavoring agents and concerns about this medicinal.

Properties.

Sidey: Okay. So, sort yeah, like you say, it's a syrup sort of thing Yeah. That they're putting

Cris: Into moonshine or

whatever.

Pete: I, I feel like we're laboring the sapar thing.

Sidey: I wanted to know though,

Pete: a little too long, but Yeah. Now, you know res Yeah. Like,

Reegs: that's

Sidey: So Dan, did, Dan has effectively moved in on the fat slams turf, and it'd be very good at it. and they call Parlay

Pete: They do. Can I just say, I thought the Dandy Dan Act was fucking brilliant.

Sidey: little

pencil. touch. great little pencil

Pete: touch. He's actually [00:09:00] British and

Sidey: and it

Pete: but he's putting on a

Sidey: Paul

Pete: Yeah,

Sidey: His butler. I

thought his Butler was very good as well. Yes. So they go out to the middle of the woods and I was like, this is just like Miller's

Reegs: Yeah, I was just thinking that as you were describing it.

Sidey: And it's a setup, obviously they've got their guys with their stupid little custom pies and they call Dan.

Dan out, and As soon as they appear to throw, his, is like it's a set

Pete: it's a double cross

Sidey: their guys appear out the bushes and just fucking

execute everyone. It is

Pete: I forgot his name. Looney something or other that they hire because, well, for whilst like his like Sapar racket and everything is getting, he's getting like, you know, destroyed

all of his

Reegs: what is sa Barella? Could we just,

Pete: But all his, all the fat Sam's henchmen are getting splurged like to fuck.

Sidey: is just left for him.

And Knuckles.

Pete: Yeah.

Reegs: It's a splurge

Pete: and Knuckles. Knuckles called Knuckles. 'cause he keeps cracking his knuckles. And the running joke is that Fat Sam gets really irritated every time he cracks his knuckles and he's saying, but my nickname is Knuckles.

I have to do it. So

Sidey: There's been a sort of subplot of [00:10:00] Bugsy. He's got a thing with

Tallulah.

Pete: I think there was previous there. Yeah.

Sidey: they, They've definitely fucked. Yeah.

Reegs: Have we had the song yet? My name is Dula or whatever. That one, no,

Pete: Don't sing it like

Reegs: Rod '

Pete: cause I, I'm wearing shorts,

Sidey: But he's also got the hots for

Blasey Brown.

Yeah.

That's his real, real love interest. So he's been I think he just likes the thrill of the chase. So anyway,

Pete: yeah. Well

Sidey: the thing

Pete: a hit with the broads,

Sidey: the broad, he promises

the world to her, but she catches. It's really innocuous, but I think Tolu gives him a kiss on the forehead.

Pete: Oh, yeah,

Sidey: And She

gets the ass about that. She's didn't fucking way too much, bother Blousey Brown to

Pete: Do you know what I, I, I distinctly remember this as a, a young pre-teen lad watching this going like,

Sidey: just get with

Pete: he gets with Toulu. Yeah. Blossy was like a complete flannel.

Sidey: Yeah. But she then gets the gig.

that, So Fat Sam at this point is just like, we've got to keep up appearances. We've got no crew, we've got what's that stuff?

Spar.

But we can't make it look like we're on the way out. You know, we've got to make it [00:11:00] look like we're still strong. So they're trying to like, get this bird into sing, keep the club going, make it look like everything's okay.

When in reality they're fucked. And he is starting to enlist. bugs. He's help. he promises Blousey that he's gonna buy her tickets to Hollywood. Yeah. Do all this stuff. 'cause he's got. a Few quid from,

helping out. Fat Sam. But he gets mugged in the street. and, and this guy, this fell, comes along. See you wanna be a boxer? Oh,

Reegs: oh, that's, yeah.

Pete: What a tune.

Sidey: He

he pommels These eight guys that have mugged Bugsy and they recruit all these guys. They're basically the down and outs, but they're all black.

Reegs: Alright,

Sidey: so there's like a sort of racial thing

Pete: Yeah. His name Smith, Leroy Smith. Yeah. I dunno.

Sidey: I

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sidey: yeah, yeah. Takes

him to the gym and then they recruit all these guys to be in the gang.

To fight

back

Pete: they get, they basically, I th

Sidey: They

Pete: of that is so that he's like, you know, he's gonna turn him into like fat Sam's proper,

Sidey: because that's what he is. He's a, but he's also a boxing promoter. That's what Bugsy is,

Pete: right? Ah, okay.

Sidey: He sees, he sees him as, I can make you a champ. [00:12:00] Let's go to the gym.

But also at the same

time, yeah,

they get all these guys to

become soldiers. in the

Pete: Sam is, yeah. Is

Sidey: they, they start to spi, They get a bit cleverer, They do some intel. and Find out where the splurge guns are coming in. They do

a wreck

Cris: dock 17 or something and they see on, obviously it's written on the box of the

Sidey: gun

corpse or

something.

It's called Stupid

like that.

Pete: This after, so they've been also been to see like the down and outs and get them recruited as well. So they've got numbers again now

Reegs: what, when you say down and outs, like children are hobos

Cris: Yeah, it's homeless. It's basically a homeless shelter because this is where they keep the guns

Pete: Oliver Twist.

Cris: in the docks

Sidey: They're easy to

Cris: across the street from the docks is the homeless shelter. And they seem to, when they recruit these people, they seem to recruit the girls as well that are serving there, is quite funny.

But anyway,

Pete: why not?

Sidey: So they've got a muscle, now they've got the sloe gun. so we're heading towards the thing.

They they've basically. Got everyone set up. It's

Reegs: like, kind of like the end of Scarface or something, but

Pete: [00:13:00] it's, it's more intense than that, I'd say. Yeah.

Cris: and it's

Sidey: We should we, before we get to this, we do have Tall Lulu song. I mean, Jody Foster, like obviously she's fucking heads and shoulders above

everyone

Pete: Yeah.

Cris: She also looks a bit older than them, though.

Sidey: She's maybe a couple of years older. Yeah,

Pete: I think, I think how she was like 12 or

Sidey: she was 12. Yeah. In the forties.

Cris: film. Really? Yeah.

Sidey: maybe, maybe she's taller, but Alan Parker, not the.

Guy from Siwan, but the director of this film

he said that if, if he'd had, if he'd, you know, been taken Ill, I,

Jodi Foster would've just run the whole thing like herself It would've been,

Pete: is this, is this pre taxi driver or post?

Sidey: 76 Tax River. I think it's 78. is

Pete: Alright, so this is, this is probably her first big she'd probably done like child stage production type stuff anyway, but this, yeah.

But yeah, she, she, I wouldn't say she carries the whole thing 'cause it carries itself pretty well, but

Sidey: it's, she just

has the scenes that she's

1. Yeah. She just fucking,

like dominates it. You see, she's a proper actress and the rest of 'em are just kids. So she does her song and it's like, next Yeah. Even though I think it's dubbed, but she still

Yes [00:14:00] Acts the fuck out.

Reegs: It's not her singing it

Sidey: not her singing

Pete: All, all this and all the singing is done by adults.

And then, and then dubbed over child

Cris: Yeah. You can see them. The kids singing is not, it can't be them singing.

Pete: Yeah. 'cause it's not like the, the little laddy works at Fat Sam's and like sweeps the floor.

Like he's got

Sidey: Michael Jackson.

Pete: Jackson. Michael. No, Michael Jackson's a piano player. He's the one that sings Fat. Sams Grand Slam. Like, what a tune. Can we play that? Here.

Sidey: Yeah, I think we should, yeah. I knew, I remembered like most of the words when it came. on. I

haven't seen it for like 30 years.

Pete: so this is exactly the same. I had about five different videos, six maybe, and this was one that I just watched over

Sidey: This Waynes world for me were on rotation.

But it it gets to the climax film. And I don't actually like the end of this film.

Pete: I don't either because it just,

Sidey: makes a mockery of the whole fucking thing. Like it's been really serious. In its conceit of its gangs. Against each other. And they just have a food fight.

Pete: They

Sidey: fucking stupid.

And You can see that they're all laughing and they're having fun.

I'm like, no,

you should be dead.

Yeah,

Pete: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You want, [00:15:00] you want.

Yeah. And then, and then in the midst of

Sidey: it, it lets itself down here

Pete: in the midst of the chaos Bugsy and Blossy, like, they seem to clean up like really, really quickly considering they were covered in splurge.

Is

Reegs: it supposed to be a blood bath?

Pete: Yeah. It was meant to go that way.

Because like Dandy Dam bursts in, but he doesn't know that they've got the splurge guns. So then obviously now it becomes like a proper shootout.

Reegs: should have been like the pig, the snake, and the whatever, where they just gunned them all down.

That would've

Sidey: Jodie Foster takes a Huge load to the face and she wipes off and she goes. oh, So this is this is show business. or something. Is she Yeah.

Reegs: All right.

Cris: So that was a sign for things to come.

Pete: Yeah.

And it is yeah, I, I know what you mean with it. It doesn't, it, it's not the ending that I would've chosen, but it doesn't for me detract from the brilliance

Sidey: of it's 95% brilliant. And then I just dunno why they didn't stick with the, you know, proper conceit. of the film. I didn't really get it. Kids, I suppose.

Pete: Yeah. Yeah. And, and they look like at the end they just like kids genuinely having lots of fun. Yeah. With

Reegs: I can [00:16:00] see you wincing at that

Sidey: I know that's annoying in Its own right?

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: What kids having fun?

Sidey: Yeah. This is so good.

Pete: I think, I think we've already shown our cards in terms of how much we love it.

Reegs: The songs as you mentioned them, just one liners. I was think, oh, they're just firing synapses

Sidey: I quite like that era as well, especially in America. The the, you know,

Reegs: The roaring

Sidey: Charleston and all that sort of stuff.

And you've got the flapper girls on stage, at fat slams doing the dancing, and it all, it's all so period accurate, you know? And the songs are great. I just instantly knew so many of the

lyrics. Yep. And it, you know, you do have the nostalgic. Touch fit, but I still really enjoyed it anyway. Yeah.

Reegs: Chris,

Pete: what's your hot take on?

Sidey: you'd never seen

it before,

Chris,

Cris: I've

Pete: you? And you'd never heard anything about it, knew anything about it?

I told anything

Cris: about it,

Reegs: So it had no kind of cultural significance like it does

Cris: I, I, I was waiting. The only thing I've heard about it before was

Pete and his relationship with Tallulah. And once it started. [00:17:00] Kira kept singing the Ula song.

Like she was with, we kind of watched it together and, and she kept singing the song even

Sidey: so she

Cris: yes. But even when the song wasn't on, because it's only one time in the whole fucking

Pete: my name is Tall.

Cris: Oh, honestly

Pete: was harder? Her singing it or watch? In the actual film itself. Which one turned you on the most? Oh, okay.

Reegs: What I would say is that you told us about spending a long time not being able to watch films and having to listen to them, and this has got a pretty good soundtrack. No.

Cris: I liked all the songs.

Yeah. I like the costumes and I quite like that, that that style ex,

Sidey: I.

like a hat and there's great hat,

Cris: Yeah. Hat content. And I do like the, the suits and the, the way they dress and the girls and boys like the, you know, and, and I've been to a few parties like that where it's like, you know, like a fancy dress, but it's, that's the theme.

Gangsters and like a Capone, Chicago, all that. So it's quite, I, I quite like that. Everything [00:18:00] else is a bit too much these kids too

Reegs: They kera enjoy it.

Cris: I think so, yeah. She was there constantly with me just staring at the screen, so

Reegs: I

Cris: she

liked it and she kept singing the

Sidey: was, I watched it yesterday afternoon and then when I was making dinner, I was like, say you

just going through so many earworms.

Yeah, it's

Cris: It's

I'm gonna say. So, no, it's, I have a conflicted feeling about it because it's in a way similar to, to, you know, the main feature of this week, which is I,

This is not really, if, if I, if you would ask me, like, you tell me this is what it's gonna be and this is what it is, I'm gonna tell you to fuck off.

But after watching it, it's actually not that bad. Yeah. I do agree with the end scene. I would, I would've wanted it to be the, the way they've done it with

Sidey: someone to win and someone to

Cris: The Roxy thing, the knuckles, everyone kind of disappeared after they've been splurged, but at the end it's all [00:19:00] free for all and everybody's all

Pete: Yeah, it's an

Cris: I'm surprised they didn't bring the ones from the dead, all the, all the other ones. So. And that's pretty much it. It's, it's all right. And it's not too long either, so we kind of breathe,

Sidey: you

know, something that's been made for kids. it's fucking so good. Like the way the, the attention to detail, you know, it is fucking brilliant.

I think.

Would,

Pete: Is it, would, would Melon watch it do you think? Is would it?

Sidey: it, I didn't want her to spoil my enjoyment of it, so I watched it without

her.

Pete: okay. But is it something you think you'll give? Give her, give it a try. I mean, she's, she's, how old is she? 12, right? Yeah. So she's prime tall, Lula. Sort of eight. Oh, well, and when, when I say that, like obviously it's, I'm re I'm remembering like 12-year-old me fancying

ULA and stuff.

Like

Sidey: But you stayed, you've kept with her though.

Pete: okay. And that's what, and that's what I was doing when I was masturbating this

Reegs: time.

Pete: around.

Sidey: I'm gonna give it a strong recommend.

Pete: it. Is it res anything to add? No. Excellent. Strong recommend.