Bugsy
(1991)
R | 135 mins | Drama | 13 December 1991
Director:
Barry LevinsonWriter:
James TobackProducers:
Mark Johnson, Barry Levinson, Warren BeattyCinematographer:
Allen DaviauEditor:
Stewart LinderProduction Designer:
Dennis GassnerProduction Company:
TriStar PicturesIn a 9-15 Jan 1992 Hollywood Drama-Logue article, actor-producer Warren Beatty stressed that the script was based on fact, although chronology was somewhat altered and various events were compressed “for dramatic unity.” A 20 Dec 1991 Las Vegas Review article noted the following inaccuracies: in the film, Beatty’s “Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel” promises investors that Las Vegas, NV, depicted as a small, old-fashioned frontier town, will experience a boom when the Hoover Dam is finally completed, while in real life, Las Vegas was already a bustling city when Bugsy Siegel arrived, and the Hoover Dam had been finished nearly a decade earlier in 1936; HR founder William “Billy” Wilkerson broke ground on the Flamingo Hotel before Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky became involved, therefore neither the name of the Flamingo, which the film implies is based on actress Virginia Hill’s nickname, nor the hotel was the result of Bugsy Siegel’s singular vision; the Flamingo opened one day later than depicted, on 26 Dec 1946 instead of Christmas Day, and had a successful opening night as opposed to the failure shown in the film; and finally, the Flamingo did not close the day after its grand opening but a month later in late Jan 1946, with a re-opening in Mar 1947, during which time Bugsy Siegel remained alive and in charge of the hotel until his murder on 20 Jun 1947.
Bugsy was said to be in development for eight years, with Warren Beatty funding script development and providing pre-production financing before a studio came on board, as noted in a 5 Oct 1990 DV brief. Columbia ...
In a 9-15 Jan 1992 Hollywood Drama-Logue article, actor-producer Warren Beatty stressed that the script was based on fact, although chronology was somewhat altered and various events were compressed “for dramatic unity.” A 20 Dec 1991 Las Vegas Review article noted the following inaccuracies: in the film, Beatty’s “Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel” promises investors that Las Vegas, NV, depicted as a small, old-fashioned frontier town, will experience a boom when the Hoover Dam is finally completed, while in real life, Las Vegas was already a bustling city when Bugsy Siegel arrived, and the Hoover Dam had been finished nearly a decade earlier in 1936; HR founder William “Billy” Wilkerson broke ground on the Flamingo Hotel before Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky became involved, therefore neither the name of the Flamingo, which the film implies is based on actress Virginia Hill’s nickname, nor the hotel was the result of Bugsy Siegel’s singular vision; the Flamingo opened one day later than depicted, on 26 Dec 1946 instead of Christmas Day, and had a successful opening night as opposed to the failure shown in the film; and finally, the Flamingo did not close the day after its grand opening but a month later in late Jan 1946, with a re-opening in Mar 1947, during which time Bugsy Siegel remained alive and in charge of the hotel until his murder on 20 Jun 1947.
Bugsy was said to be in development for eight years, with Warren Beatty funding script development and providing pre-production financing before a studio came on board, as noted in a 5 Oct 1990 DV brief. Columbia Pictures reportedly expressed interest before TriStar Pictures took on the project. Around the time Bugsy was announced as his next film in the 9 Aug 1990 HR, Beatty was rumored to have abandoned two other projects, according to a 10 Nov 1990 Screen International item, including: The Doctor at Walt Disney Studios; and Flamingo, a rival Bugsy Siegel project set up at Twentieth Century Fox.
Director Barry Levinson initially pursued Michelle Pfeiffer for the role of “Virginia Hill,” but Pfeiffer opted to star in Paramount Pictures’ Frankie & Johnny (1991, see entry). Ellen Barkin and Geena Davis were also considered for roles but did not appear in the film. A 22 Mar 1992 LAT brief quoted Levinson as saying he was baffled by the number of actors who turned down roles in the film, and noted that Ben Kingsley joined the cast only a week before shooting began.
In addition to Fox’s rival Flamingo project, several films featuring Bugsy Siegel as a character were in development or production around the same time as Bugsy, including Mobsters and The Marrying Man (1991, see entries). Beatty, who was fifty-three-years-old at the start of filming, was the oldest actor portraying Siegel, who died at the age of forty-one. Another project listed as a potential rival in the 9 Aug 1990 HR was Playland, with a script by Joan Didion and, her husband, John Gregory Dunne. The project went unproduced, but Random House eventually published a book of the same name by Dunne in 1994, featuring a character based on Bugsy Siegel named “Jacob King,” according to the 28 Aug 1994 NYT review.
A 29 Jan 1991 HR production chart listed the start of principal photography as 21 Jan 1991. The film had a seventy-two-week shooting schedule. A double for the Flamingo Hotel & Casino was built in the Mojave Desert between Ocotillo Wells and the Salton Sea, as noted in the 14 Jul 1991 LAT. While shooting in the desert, cast and crew stayed at the La Quinta Inn in Las Vegas. Production moved to Los Angeles, CA, where locations included Union Station, the Biltmore Hotel, and Chasen’s restaurant, as noted in a 24 Apr 1991 DV item. A Hancock Park mansion stood in for Bugsy’s Scarsdale, NY, home, according to a 31 Jan 1991 DV brief. Another mansion, built in the Craftsman style in 1893, was filmed in Pasadena, according to a 9 May 1993 LAT brief.
Although Beatty spoke in a “slight Yiddish accent” at the start of production, the accent was later scrapped. Presumably as a result, the film depicts Bugsy practicing unaccented American speech by repeating the sentence, “Twenty dwarves took turns doing handstands on the carpet.”
Costume designer Albert Wolsky’s clothing budget was $1.5 million, as stated in the 27 Dec 1991 LAT. Beatty’s clothes and shoes were all custom-made and sewn by tailors at Western Costume, while Annette Bening’s costumes were sewn by Bill Hargate Costumes.
Composer Ennio Morricone’s score for 1990’s State of Grace (see entry) was used as a “temporary soundtrack” during editing. Filmmakers subsequently “fell in love” with the State of Grace score, and Morricone agreed to create a “reasonable facsimile” for the Bugsy score, according to a 2 Mar 1992 Newsweek item.
The 14 Jul 1991 LAT reported the film came in a million dollars over budget and one week over schedule. Although a 25 Nov 1991 Var article listed the budget as $32 million, prints and advertising costs were reportedly rising due to competition from Steven Spielberg’s Hook (see entry), another TriStar release, set to open on a wider scale two days before Bugsy. Various sources cited higher budgets, including the 9 Jan 1991 DV, which stated the film would cost roughly $50 million.
A special screening took place 10 Dec 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, with an after-party at the 21 Club. A 12 Dec 1991 Los Angeles premiere followed, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), as noted in a 16 Dec 1991 LAT.
Critical reception was largely positive, with consistent praise for Beatty’s performance and Levinson’s direction. A 1 Apr 1992 LAT brief stated the film had grossed $48 million, to that time, and quoted TriStar chairman Mike Medavoy as saying the film was doing “very well” overseas.
Bugsy won Academy Awards for Art Direction and Costume Design, and received the following Academy Award nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Beatty); Actor in a Supporting Role (Harvey Keitel); Actor in a Supporting Role (Ben Kingsley); Cinematography; Directing; Music (Original Score); Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen); and Best Picture. The film also won the Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association award for Best Picture and a National Board of Review award for Best Actor (Beatty).
Columbia Tri-Star International launched its first-ever national promotion supporting a pay-per-view release for Bugsy, which was set for a 12 Aug 1992 pay-per-view debut, according to the 29 May 1992 DV. The promotion included thirty and sixty-second television commercials, print advertisements, and a “Desert Dream Sweepstakes” with a four-day Las Vegas vacation as the grand prize, and a Sony color television and camcorder as second and third prizes.
According to many sources, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening fell in love during production. By the time the film opened, Bening was pregnant with Beatty’s child, and the couple was married soon after in Mar 1992.
End credits include the following statements: “Special Thanks to: Dr. Leroy Perry, Jr., The International Sports Medicine Institute”; “Research drawn from the book We Only Kill Each Other: The Life and Bad Times of Bugsy Siegel written by Dean Jennings”; "Scarface footage courtesy of MCA/Universal”; and, “Filmed in part at The Culver Studios, Culver City, California.”
New York gangster Benjamin Siegel, whose erratic behavior has earned him the nickname “Bugsy,” is sent to Los Angeles, California, by his bosses, Meyer Lansky and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. Bugsy has orders to take over an illegal gambling operation run by small-time gangster Jack Dragna, and return home in four days. However, on his first day in Los Angeles, Bugsy visits George, an actor friend, on a movie set and becomes smitten with Virginia Hill, a spitfire actress known to date mobster Joey Adonis. Abandoning his wife, Esta, and two daughters in Scarsdale, New York, Bugsy buys opera singer Lawrence Tibbett’s Beverly Hills mansion for $50,000 in cash. He forces Jack Dragna to turn over his gambling rackets to Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano in exchange for a twenty-five percent stake in the business, and begins dating Virginia Hill. One day, Dragna reports to Bugsy that Mickey Cohen has robbed $56,000 from one of their gambling parlors. Bugsy confronts the short-tempered Cohen, who finally admits to stealing $42,000 and informs Bugsy that Virginia has a reputation for dating a lot of men, including musicians and bullfighters. Bugsy offers Cohen a job in return for the stolen money, and threatens Dragna at gunpoint for trying to steal from him by over-reporting the losses. Cohen takes Bugsy and Virginia on a road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, where gambling is legal. He suggests Bugsy buy an existing gambling parlor, but Bugsy and Virginia are unimpressed by the dusty saloon Cohen shows them. Instead, Bugsy experiences a vision when they drive through the desert, and conceives of a high-end hotel and casino he wants to build there. Promising Virginia he is going ...
New York gangster Benjamin Siegel, whose erratic behavior has earned him the nickname “Bugsy,” is sent to Los Angeles, California, by his bosses, Meyer Lansky and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. Bugsy has orders to take over an illegal gambling operation run by small-time gangster Jack Dragna, and return home in four days. However, on his first day in Los Angeles, Bugsy visits George, an actor friend, on a movie set and becomes smitten with Virginia Hill, a spitfire actress known to date mobster Joey Adonis. Abandoning his wife, Esta, and two daughters in Scarsdale, New York, Bugsy buys opera singer Lawrence Tibbett’s Beverly Hills mansion for $50,000 in cash. He forces Jack Dragna to turn over his gambling rackets to Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano in exchange for a twenty-five percent stake in the business, and begins dating Virginia Hill. One day, Dragna reports to Bugsy that Mickey Cohen has robbed $56,000 from one of their gambling parlors. Bugsy confronts the short-tempered Cohen, who finally admits to stealing $42,000 and informs Bugsy that Virginia has a reputation for dating a lot of men, including musicians and bullfighters. Bugsy offers Cohen a job in return for the stolen money, and threatens Dragna at gunpoint for trying to steal from him by over-reporting the losses. Cohen takes Bugsy and Virginia on a road trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, where gambling is legal. He suggests Bugsy buy an existing gambling parlor, but Bugsy and Virginia are unimpressed by the dusty saloon Cohen shows them. Instead, Bugsy experiences a vision when they drive through the desert, and conceives of a high-end hotel and casino he wants to build there. Promising Virginia he is going to ask Esta for a divorce, Bugsy flies back to New York and pitches his idea for the “Flamingo Hotel and Casino” to Lansky, Luciano, and their gangster cohorts. Although Lansky fears publicity, Bugsy assures him that the legal gambling venture would legitimize their organization. He convinces the men to give him $1 million for the project. That night, Esta asks Bugsy if they should get a divorce, but he assures her everything is fine. Back in Los Angeles, he finds Virginia with another man and throws him through a window before discovering it is her brother, Chick. Nevertheless, Bugsy becomes increasingly suspicious and orders Cohen to follow Virginia. He also makes her the bookkeeper for the Flamingo. She struggles to pay the bills as Bugsy’s vision for the project grows and the budget balloons to $6 million. In the meantime, World War II ends, and Bugsy finally asks Esta for a divorce. He is arrested for the murder of Harry Greenberg, a gangster who informed on Charlie Luciano. Although guilty of the crime, Bugsy is held only a short time. Of the remaining $3 million needed to finish the Flamingo, Lansky agrees to give Bugsy $1 million but cuts future ties with him. Bugsy is forced to sell his belongings and one-third stake in the hotel. Meanwhile, Cohen continues to spy on Virginia and discovers she has stashed $2 million in a foreign bank account. Bugsy refuses to believe she would betray him. However, when Virginia sees him talking to a starlet seeking a job at the casino, she flies into a jealous rage and packs her things. Bugsy accuses her of stealing from him, but she denies it. Virginia returns to Los Angeles, while Bugsy remains in Las Vegas. Shortly before the Flamingo is set to open on Christmas Day, Charlie Luciano holds a meeting in New York. He tells Lansky and several other associates that Virginia stole $2 million of their money, and Bugsy was likely involved. Lansky defends Bugsy, arguing that he is a “dreamer” who was blinded by his love for Virginia, and there was no way he knew about the stolen money. Nevertheless, Luciano reports that Bugsy has oversold shares in the Flamingo, marking up its value by 400 percent. He worries that a fiasco will ensue when it is time for shareholders to collect their profits. Lansky suggests they wait to see how the Flamingo performs: if it is a success, they will leave Bugsy alone; if not, Lansky will handle the problem himself. On Christmas Day, the Flamingo’s grand opening is thwarted by a thunderstorm. No guests arrive, and the power goes out. A defeated Bugsy announces to the staff that the hotel will close, and have a grand re-opening at a later date. He receives a phone call from Lansky, who gives him orders to meet gangsters Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum in Los Angeles that night. Turning somber, Bugsy urges Lansky to hold onto his shares in the Flamingo, as they will be valuable someday. At the airfield, just before he boards a plane to Los Angeles, he is intercepted by Virginia, who has come to apologize. She confesses to stealing the money and offers him a check for $2 million. He tells her to rip it up, suggesting they save it for a rainy day, instead. He promises her he will be back in two hours and kisses her goodbye. However, when he arrives home in Los Angeles, Bugsy is shot dead by an unseen assailant. Soon afterward, Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum enter the Flamingo and announce that they are taking over operations. When she learns that Bugsy is dead, Virginia goes silent and wanders into the thunderstorm outside. In time, she returns the $2 million she stole to Meyer Lansky, then commits suicide in Austria. The Flamingo goes on to generate $100 billion in revenue by 1991.
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