―A tongue-in-cheek movie-musical set loosely in 1929 prohibition era Chicago, stars an all child cast as gangsters and their molls and depicts a fantasy world where guns and bullets swap out for cream pies and illegal booze is sarsaparilla. The 1976 film is written, directed by Alan Parker, and produced by David Puttnam, the film stars Jodie Foster and Scott Baio as the title character, the music and lyrics are by singer-songwriter Paul Williams. The musical centers on Fat Sam's Grand Slam speakeasy and the on going gangland feud between Fat Sam and his arch cross-town rival Dandy Dan.
The plot concerns the arival of a brand new kind of custard pie slinging technology “The Splurge gun” being hit by one effectively “kills” the character and removes them from the game. This is a classic Al Capone gangland war, as Dandy Dan’s men muscle in on Fat Sam’s territory and uses their superior firepower (the splurge gun) to systematically knock off Sam’s business ventures one by one, the vegtable racket, the sarsaparilla stills. In a Chinese laundry, there is a cream-pie version of the St.
Valentines’ massacre and all of Sam’s henchmen are eliminated. This is an adult world, cleverly converted to a child’s back-yard fantasy. Characters drive in cars, which are powered by pedals.
Likewise, the unseemly theme of death is toned down. When characters are hit in the face with a custard pie, or “splurged” we never see them again, and we under-stand implicitly that they have been eliminated. However, it is clear even to young children that a custard pie is not harmful, which allows the themes of murder and death to be present in the film without causing alarm.
This is cleverly overturned in the final shootout, where the custard hurts no one. The characters all shake hands and make up and break into song: "If you give a little love it all comes back to you." ―A tongue-in-cheek movie-musical set loosely in 1929 prohibition era Chicago, stars an all child cast as gangsters and their molls and depicts a fantasy world where guns and bullets swap out for cream pies and illegal booze is sarsaparilla.
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