A novelty act: an all-juvenile cast, dolled up with double-breasted suits and slicked-down hair, re-enacts the underworld passions played out on the Warner Brothers lot in the Thirties by Cagney, Robinson, McHugh, Blondell, et al. The kids break into periodic song-and-dance routines, and the guns are loaded with lethal whipped cream. The whole show has a disorienting effect, something like those old kiddie movies in which midgets would dress up in cowboy duds and ride Shetland ponies. Once you adjust to the concept, though, there are not many surprises forthcoming. Alan Parker, who masterminded the project, seems rather patronizing of the children as well as of the gangster genre (juvenile moviegoers, if they had their druthers, would most likely prefer to see the latest Clint Eastwood movie). Still, there is a redeeming amount of aficionado affection in the reproduction of sleazy underworld settings and hard-boiled lingo. With Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, Florrie Dugger; music by Paul Williams. (1976) — Duncan Shepherd
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