Bugsy Siegel was a gangster as dangerous as he was debonair.

In Hollywood of the early Forties, he saw himself as a patriot - and maybe a star.

He also had a dream - to build a gambling casino in Las Vegas that would create a city.

This film attempts to tell the story of that dream, and Bugsy's obsessive relationship with good time girl Virginia Hill.

At the same time, it cannot escape the criminal origins of its story; and it lacks the urgency of the best gangster films, despite Warren Beatty's dynamic portrayal of Siegel, a man who could ooze charm and be subject to savage fits of anger in the same hour.

Ida Lupino-lookalike Annette Bening does solid work as Virginia, as do Ben Kingsley as Bugsy's partner, and an overweight Elliott Gould as a squealer.

Long, stylish and sombre, it prowls on towards an end that even those who don't know the history of this true story will see coming a mile off.