Baio: The Early Years

There's a gang war raging out there, and it's like nothing you've ever seen. Fat Sam's one participant, just trying to run his famous Grand Slam Saloon and do a little extra-legal business on the side. Dandy Dan's helming the opposition, and he's escalating matters with latest in weapons technology, the splurge gun. See, it's like a Tommy gun, except it shoots whipped cream instead of bullets. Oh, and Fat Sam and Dandy Dan, and everybody else come to think of it, are kids. They drive around in pedal-powered cars, drink soda instead of bathtub gin, and the boy who may be able to even the odds for Fat Sam is one Bugsy Malone, played by a very young Scott Baio. But all Bugsy wants is to revitalize his boxing promotions business, get with would-be singer Blousie Brown (Florrie Dugger), and avoid any romantic trouble with Fat Sam's vampy moll, Tallulah (Jodie Foster). Bugsy Malone, Alan Parker's idiosyncratic kids movie, is a hoot from start to finish. The film is a sort of delightfully weird coda to the Webster Film Series "I (Heart) Musicals" program, and it screens at 8 p.m. at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-968-7487 or www.webster.edu/filmseries). Admission is $4.
Wed., Aug. 5, 2009