Bugsy Malone
Read the story behind the beloved film – now available in Essential Modern Classics.In Prohibition-era New York City, Fat Sam runs one of the most popular speakeasies in town – but his rival Dandy Dan is trying to shut him down. It’s up to the baby-faced Bugsy Malone to save the day…Packed with thrills and spills (and more than a few custard pies and splurge), this is a mobster story with a twist – the stars are kids!
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HarperCollins Childrenâs Books
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain in Armada by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd in 1976
This edition published by HarperCollins Childrenâs Books in 2011
Text copyright © Alan Parker 1976
Why Youâll Love This Book copyright © Lauren Child 2011
Alan Parker asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this ebook is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007441228
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007514830
Version: 2016-11-24
Why Youâll Love This Book by Lauren Child
14. Al Is Is Git. Or Not So Git
Someone once said that if you can open with a really good first line then you are halfway to writing a really great book. The opening sentence to Bugsy Malone is one of my all-time favourites.
Someone once said that if it was raining brains, Roxy Robinson wouldnât even get wet.
This is a perfect first line. You know right away that thereâs going to be some snappy dialogue and some hardboiled characters. It also has a sort of âback in the olden daysâ feel to it, and the name Roxy Robinson somehow suggests gangsters and old-time New York. But above all, what this one line tells you is that this is going to be a funny book.
I saw the film of Bugsy Malone when I was about ten. We were in Norfolk for my cousinâs wedding, the weather was dismal and we had a free afternoon with nothing to do so we all went to the cinema. My whole family went, including my cousins, my aunt, uncle, great-aunt, great-uncle and grandmother. We all loved it. Those of us who are still alive still talk about it. We still quote lines from it.
âWhatâs your name, anyway?â
âBrown.â
âSounds like a loaf of bread.â
âBlousey Brown.â
âSounds like a stale loaf of bread.â
Of course Bugsy Malone is a great film, but itâs also a great book. It reads beautifully. The characters â and there are a great many of them â are all described in such a way that in just a few lines you feel you could almost draw them: she had the kind of face that needed a personality behind it. She was built like a Mack truck and her shoulders would have done credit to an all-in wrestler.
The names are pretty descriptive too; Pop, Fizzy, Jelly, Bangles, Tallulah. I meet quite a few Tallulahs these days â goldfish and children â which isnât surprising because, as characters go, Tallulah isnât a bad one to be named after. She is sassy and bewitching and snaps out great one-liners: âIâll go manicure my gloves.â
Thatâs the thing about this book, the female characters are given good roles too, they arenât just there to wander in and out of scenes without too much personality. As a child I was always rather fond of Blousey Brown. She might be the romantic interest but sheâs no sap, thatâs for sure.
Bugsy: Can I give you a lift?
Blousey: You got a car?
Bugsy: Er⦠no.
Blousey: So how you gonna give me a lift, buster? Stand me on a box?
We donât get to meet Bugsy until chapter four, itâs a nice way of building him up; we know weâre going to meet him because his name is, after all, the bookâs title â somehow not meeting him right away makes him all the more charismatic.
Bugsy Malone is that perfect hero, antihero. He has edge but we know heâs a decent guy. He is just the right side of honest, but every now and then push comes to shove and he has to step over the line. Heâs a nice-looking fellow but heâs not vain. Heâs got style but it doesnât have to do with what he is wearing â his suit isnât great â money is certainly on the tight side but he gets by. One of the things that make Bugsy such an appealing character is that he is aware of his shortcomings but he doesnât let them hold him back.
