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.
Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel
Virginia Hill
Mickey Cohen
Meyer Lansky
Harry Greenberg
George Raft
Countess di Frasso
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Joe Adonis
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 that he built Vegas, that has to be a cool story, right? And... yeah, it is a pretty cool story, only they kind of ignore that and focus on a love story instead with the whole Vegas thing as a sec...