Bugsy Malone at 50: original drawings and cartoons from the making of Alan Parker’s kids-with-splurge-guns classic

Featuring kids playing every part in a vision of Prohibition-era New York, Bugsy Malone was released in UK cinemas 50 years ago on 23 July 1976. Earlier this month we celebrated the anniversary of Alan Parker’s musical masterpiece at BFI Southbank with a special screening joined by members of the (then) all-child cast and the film’s executive producer Lord Puttnam, who reflected on their memories of making the film and its lasting legacy as a movie still beloved by audiences today.

In 2018, Parker donated his archive of working papers to the BFI National Archive. Affectionately known by as the ‘Parkive’ this unique collection spans a period of 45 years, from Parker’s early work in advertising through to his career as an internationally renowned, award-winning director, offering a fascinating insight into his ways of working. 

Half a century on from the film’s release, we dive into the ‘Parkive’ to take a closer look at Bugsy Malone’s beginnings. Everything is here in the details, the genesis of a film that would go on to be nominated for eight BAFTA awards and win five, and which would launch the careers of Parker and many of his young cast.

Famously, Bugsy Malone started as a story Parker told to occupy his children on long car journeys, inventing a world of gangsters and showgirls set in New York City which at his children’s insistence was peopled by kids rather than adults. In these early Parker drawings we see ideas develop for the film with quickly drawn sketches of a dance hall, the ‘boss’, pianist, pool table, boxing ring and dancers with handwritten notes on possible characters. He also tries out names looking at the impact of a splurge or splosh gun.

On leaving school, Parker joined the advertising industry, eventually moving to Collett Dickenson Pearce (CDP), one of London’s most prestigious ad agencies. Here he met future producers David Puttnam (whose papers are also preserved by the BFI National Archive) and Alan Marshall, both of whom he went on to work with on Bugsy Malone. Parker’s background in advertising was put to good stead in creating a visually engaging film pitch to film financiers

The original film pitch included six original coloured concept drawings (on board) by British cartoonist and illustrator Graham Thompson (who went on to illustrate the Bugsy Malone graphic novel), which are evocative of the period detail, colour palette and energy of the film’s action. The pitch also included Parker’s notes addressing how to frame a musical gangster film for children as well as providing context for individual characters and suggested lyrics for songs written by Parker. Parker later approached celebrated songwriter Paul Williams who wrote the lyrics and music for the finished film.

Parker’s sales pitch was initially met with less than enthusiasm. As he wrote in his memoir of making the film, “Stunned silence might be a better description. ‘It’s a fusion of two genres – the Hollywood musical and the gangster film,’ I would enthuse. ‘Oh [cough], and it will have a cast entirely of kids, average age twelve.’ Needless to say, we were always politely shown the door.” Parker and Alan Marshall teamed up with Puttnam who closed a deal on the film with the Rank Organisation and the then government body, the National Film Finance Consortium. 

This is Parker’s original illustration for what the splurge gun would look like, with side view of the gun, the pellet and a splurge hit to the face. 

The ballistic challenges of the ‘splurge gun’ have become legend. With the obvious logic that a gangster story needed guns but a kids’ film didn’t, Parker envisaged a projectile version of the silent movies’ custard pie. The original models were powered by compressed air and fired a missile of cream encapsulated in a sphere of wax. Needless to say, with the greatest of efforts, and hours of experimentation, they never really worked as well as Parker had hoped. He and Marshall were the original guinea pigs for the prototype gun, but the considerable impact of the wax pellets meant that they had to change direction. In the end the guns fired ping-pong balls and what actually arrives on their targets – thanks to the magic of Gerry Hambling’s editing and a dollop of whipped cream – was a well aimed custard pie, usually thrown by Parker himself or the prop man to the side of the camera. Over a thousand custard pies were thrown using 100 gallons of artificial cream.

Filming for Bugsy Malone at Pinewood Studios began on 21 July 1975 and ran throughout the summer and autumn. It was completed in 70 days across multiple stages as well as the gardens at Pinewood and Heatherden Hall, Huntley & Palmers Biscuit Factory in Reading (for the Down and Outs scenes) and Richmond Theatre.

In these cartoons, Parker is able to reflect on the industry reaction to the film’s successful opening and remember the response to the initial pitch. Parker started drawing cartoons in his first advertising job and he continued to draw throughout his career, mostly as a response to what Parker called “the insanity of making movies while trying to get a film made – a time when dealing with studio executives, agents, lawyers, actors and the rest, encourages one to consider negative thoughts and very often grievous bodily harm.”