BUGGY

BUGSY (1991)
dir: Barry Levinson

BUGGY
MAD #321, July 1992
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

In their later years, the movie parody was expected to be in every issue, so often there would be two or three instead of one. This meant the number of pages often had to be reduced, which meant scenes were sometimes melded together. Often like in this case they didn't bother parodying the characters' names.

This is a biopic about Bugsy Siegel, the gangster who helped make Las Vegas what it is today, for good or bad.

One thing to note is that Harvey Keitel's role as Mickey Cohen, his partner is a big part in the movie but isn't even used in the parody. They do use Ben Kingsley but forget to mention his name.

Ben “Bugsy” Siegel has a life as a gangster on the east coast, but has aspirations to be a movie star. He hates his nickname and repeats a saying over and over again to practice his diction. Despite being married he has affairs on the side (typical for all gangsters).

When he goes to the west coast, he gets a taste of the Hollywood life and decides to stay. He buys a house just by going into one and giving money to the guy who lives there (in a scene not used here).

When he meets someone who is a countess (Bebe Neuwirth) whose husband is friends with Mussolini, one of his big plans is to get close enough to Mussolini and assassinate him. (This supblot in the movie is later thwarted when Mussolini is assassinated anyway). He has met actress Virginia Hill and is jealous of her previous lovers. During a fight “the boys” come over and she overhears of his life (here she sees it) as a violent gangster.

The mob was to buy a casino out in the middle of nowhere in Nevada which he turns down after realizing what a dump it is. While out there, he has a vision. There are acres of barren land out there and they can build a hotel out there. It's close enough to Los Angeles and the state has legalized gambling and they can open a state-of-the-art casino out there.

Now Siegel's friend Harry Greenberg (Elliott Gould), who he had loaned money to earlier, has come to visit and has squealed to the mob. Siegel has no choice but to have him killed.

This looks nothing like Gould which is weird because they parodied several movies with him previously so would obviously have reference. He gained a bit of weight since those earlier films but not that much. Also, this scene takes place on Los Angeles and not Las Vegas, but let's not nitpick.


The casino keeps costing more and more. Siegel's had to sell all his possessions, get at least 400% from investors, and get the board to front him money to keep his dream alive. Meanwhile, it turns out Virginia has been embezzling funds all along.

On opening night of the hotel, nobody shows up and the mob rubs him out for wasting their money (Beatty's previous picture was Dick Tracy.