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 Culver Studiosdios, Culver City, California.” More Less