Sheridan Earl Russell Movies

Here's the basic "shtick" of Bugsy Malone: it's a gangster picture enacted by children. Acted out before scaled-down sets, the film details the career of Bugsy Malone (Scott Baio), who rises to the top of the criminal ladder in 1920s New York. Whenever gunfire is called for, the kiddie crooks substitute whipped cream for bullets. Paul Williams contributes several songs, which are performed by adult singers and lip-synched by the pint-sized actors. The cast includes John Cassisi as diminutive Capone clone Fat Sam, and then-13-year-old Jodie Foster as the sultry nightclub thrush Tallulah. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Burt Lancaster was too young to play alcoholic, disillusioned Doc Delaney in the 1952 film version of William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba. At age 70, Laurence Olivier was too old for the part, yet Olivier's performance is far more persuasive than Lancaster's in this 1977 TV-movie remkae of Sheba. Inge's basic plot is left intact: Delany feels trapped by his marriage to the whining, slovenly Lola (Joanne Woodward, in the role created on Broadway by Shirley Booth). Doc can't appreciate the fact that, despite her inadequacies, Lola sincerely loves him; his emotional blindness stirs up a lot of trouble when a beautiful young woman (Carrie Fisher) rents a room in the Delany home. Despite American subject matter and setting, Come Back Little Sheba was produced in Britain by Granada Television. It was one of six plays coproduced for TV by Laurence Olivier as part of his "Great Plays of the 20th Century" series. Sheba was first seen by American viewers on December 31, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi