Billy Bathgate

Drama, Crime, Action

Steve Buscemi	Irving
John Costelloe	Lulu
Loren Dean	Billy Bathgate
Steven Hill	Otto Berman
Dustin Hoffman	Dutch Schultz
Billy Jaye	Mickey
Timothy Jerome	Dixie Davis
Nicole Kidman	Drew Preston
Stanley Tucci	Lucky Luciano
Bruce Willis	Bo Weinberg

Director	Robert Benton
Producer	Arlene Donovan; Robert F. Colesberry
Writer	Tom Stoppard; E.L. Doctorow

The story is based loosely on underworld characters from the 1920’s and 30’s on the East Coast. Billy Bathgate (Loren Dean) is a poor Bronx teenager who made his fortune in organized crime: rising quickly from errand boy to second in command in a gang run by the infamous gangster, Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Schultz becomes Billy’s mentor and teaches him the tools of the underworld where money and risky behavior go hand in hand. The gangsters take Billy to their hideout in upstate New York where they are awaiting trial. For a time, Schultz converts to Catholicism and becomes a respected member of society. Young Billy falls for Schultz’s girlfriend Drew (Nicole Kidman) when he is asked to look after her. They pretend to be a couple in Saratoga. When Billy realizes that Drew is to be killed off, he starts to question a life of crime and contacts Drew’s husband Bo (Bruce Willis) in NY to warn him of the plans. At the trial, Schultz is acquitted; however the Attorney General comes up with additional charges which send the gang into hiding for a second time. On an errand to deliver news from the Attorney General, Billy and a bartender are the only survivors when rival gangsters murder the gang.