Main Cast: Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Azizi Johari, Meade Roberts, Seymour Cassel
Release Year: 1976
Country: US
Run Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
John Cassavetes takes a contemporary film noir turn (which he would return to in Gloria) after exploring domestic melodrama in A Woman Under the Influence with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo Vitelli, the owner of a sleazy Los Angeles strip joint, who loses $20,000 at a mob gambling club owned by a small time gangster (Seymour Cassel). Since Cosmo doesn't have the $20,000, he is forced to murder a Chinese bookie in order to clear his debt to the mob. What Cosmo doesn't know is he's part of a set-up. The bookie is actually a West Coast mob boss protected around the clock by bodyguards. The mobsters figure that Cosmo will be killed in an impossible hit and they can take over his nightclub. But Cosmo proves luckier than the mobsters think -- he manages to kill his target, and now the mobsters have to track down Cosmo and kill him. Initially, at 133 minutes, the movie was subsequently re-edited by Cassavetes to 109 minutes. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
John Cassavetes's elliptical mid-1970s picture walks a fine line between self-indulgent and inventive. Fascinating in its originality, the film is somewhat undercut by an unsteady blend of naturalism and artifice. Originally developed with Martin Scorsese, the movie is ostensibly a gangster film, but the genre is bent into a demented character study. Cassavetes regular Ben Gazzara delivers an absorbing performance as the man forced into a moral quandary and barely aware of it. The movie was originally released in 1976 at 135 minutes, but it was re-edited in 1978 to 109 minutes. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Alice Friedland - Sherry; Donna Gordon - Margo; Robert Phillips - Phil; Morgan Woodward - John the Boss; Virginia Carrington - Betty the Mother; John Kullers - Eddie "Red" (Gangster); Al Ruban - Marty Reitz; Soto Joe Hugh - Chinese Bookie; Jack Ackerman - Musical director; Val Avery - Blair Benoit; Vincent Barbi - Vince; Jean-Pierre Cassel; Elizabeth Deering - Lavinia; John Finnegan - Cabbie; Haji - Haji; David Rowlands - Lamarr; Hugo Soto - The Chinese Bookie; Frank Thomas; Kathalina Veniero - Annie; Jason Kincaid - Parking Lot Attendant; Gene Darcy - Commodore; Benny Marino - Sonny Venice
Credit
Phedon Papamichael - Art Director, Mary Hurne - Costume Designer, John Cassavetes - Director, Tom Cornwell - Editor, Anthony Harris - Composer (Music Score), Bo Harwood - Composer (Music Score), Bryan Ryman - Production Designer, Sam Shaw - Production Designer, Al Ruban - Cinematographer, Frederick Elmes - Cinematographer, Mike Ferris - Cinematographer, Michael Stringer - Cinematographer, Al Ruban - Producer, Bo Harwood - Sound/Sound Designer, John Cassavetes - Screenwriter
A rough and gritty film, it is comparable in form to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and indeed Scorsese helped Cassavetes in its inception. The formidable character Gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend Cassavetes in the 1970s. The actor and director collaborated for the first time on Cassavetes' film Husbands (1970) where Gazzara appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes himself. The collaboration of the two men culminated in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, with Gazzara taking the lead role of the hapless strip joint owner Cosmo Vitelli.
The film's original release, at 135 minutes in length, was a commercial disappointment and the movie was pulled from distribution after only seven days. At a May 17, 2008 George Eastman House screening in Rochester, Ben Gazzara said he 'hated' the original cut; 'it's too long', he told Cassavetes.
Eventually, Cassavetes decided to re-edit the film, and it was re-released in 1978 in a new 108-minute cut. The 1978 version is the one that has been in general release since that time, though both versions of the film were issued in The Criterion Collection's John Cassavetes: Five Films box set, marking the first appearance of the 1976 version since its original release.
True to Cassavetes' form, the 108-minute version is not just a simple edit of the 135-minute version. The order of several scenes have been changed, there are different edits of a few scenes, and there are a few segments that are unique to the 108-minute version. The bulk of the cutting in the 1978 version removed many of the nightclub routines that were in the 1976 version.
Plot
The film opens with Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) making the final payment on a longstanding gambling debt to a sleazy loanshark (played by the film's producer Al Ruban). To celebrate his long-anticipated freedom, strip club owner Vitelli has an expensive night out with his three favorite dancers ("Margo", "Rachael" and "Sherry"). The evening culminates in a card game in which Vitelli loses $23,000, effectively returning him to the debtors condition he has just left. Using the debt as leverage, his mob creditors coerce him into agreeing to perform a "hit" on a rival. Vitelli is led to believe that his target is a small time criminal of minor consequence; in fact, he is a major figure in the Chinese mafia. Vitelli, with difficulty, manages to kill the man and several of his bodyguards but is severely wounded.
In addition to the potentially fatal gunshot wound he sustains, Vitelli comes to realize that his mob employers are intent on his death. In fact, they had no expectation that he would survive his assignment. Again forced into a corner, Vitelli manages to kill or elude his assailants. The film ends without any positive indication of whether Vitelli can or will survive his ordeal.
