Bugsy

1991 136 min ★ 6.4 Crime, Drama, Mystery

New York gangster Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel takes a brief business trip to Los Angeles. A sharp-dressing womanizer with a foul temper, Siegel doesn't hesitate to kill or maim anyone crossing him. In L.A. the life, the movies, and most of all strong-willed Virginia Hill detain him while his family wait back home. Then a trip to a run-down gambling joint at a spot in the desert known as Las Vegas gives him his big idea.

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Cast

Warren Beatty

Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel

Annette Bening

Virginia Hill

Harvey Keitel

Mickey Cohen

Ben Kingsley

Meyer Lansky

Elliott Gould

Harry Greenberg

Joe Mantegna

George Raft

Bebe Neuwirth

Countess di Frasso

Bill Graham

Charles "Lucky" Luciano

Lewis van Bergen

Joe Adonis

Wendy Phillips

Esta Siegel

Details

Director

Barry Levinson

Tagline

"Glamour was the disguise."

Status

Released

Original Language

EN

Budget

$30,000,000

Revenue

$49,114,016

Production

TriStar Pictures, Mulholland Productions, Baltimore Pictures

Reviews

J

John Chard

May 18, 2014

★ 6.5/10

Benjamin Siegel. Bugsy is directed by Barry Levinson and written by James Toback. It stars Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould and Joe Mantegna. Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Allen Daviau. Film is a biography adaptation of Benjamin Bugsy Siegel, a notorious American mobster who rose to prominence in the 30s and 40s. Barry Levinson’s ...

G

GenerationofSwine

January 12, 2023

★ 1/10

I just reviewed Reds, a movie where they managed to make John Reed boring and now I am reviewing Bugsy... a movie where they manage to make Bugsy Siegel boring. And honestly, like with Reds, Bugsy helped Luciano rise to power in what is one of the most interesting mafia stories in American history... which you really don't see here. In fact, it's hardly even mentioned. But... after Bugsy did...

C

CinemaSerf

April 2, 2026

★ 6/10

This is based, very loosely, on the real-life shenanigans of Benjamin Siegel - aka “Bugsy” (Warren Beatty) as he evolves from small time, womanising, brute to aspiring property developer in an embryonic Las Vegas just as the Hoover Dam was coming on-stream with copious amounts of cheap electricity. Along the way, he ditches his wife and children as he falls hook, line and sinker for would-be actre...