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The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
John Cassavetes (writer)
Release Date:
8 October 1977 (Sweden)
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Plot:
A proud strip club owner is forced to come to terms with himself as a man, when his gambling addiction gets him in hot water with the mob, who offer him only one alternative. full summary | add synopsis
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User Comments:
Weird but Compelling
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Ben Gazzara | ... | Cosmo Vitelli | |
| Timothy Carey | ... | Flo (Gangster) (as Timothy Agoglia Carey) | |
| Seymour Cassel | ... | Mort Weil (Gangster) | |
| Robert Phillips | ... | Phil (Gangster) | |
| Morgan Woodward | ... | John (Head gangster) | |
| John Kullers | ... | Eddie-Red (as John Red Kullers) | |
| Al Ruban | ... | Marty Reitz (Gangster) | |
| Azizi Johari | ... | Rachel | |
| Virginia Carrington | ... | Betty, the mother | |
| Meade Roberts | ... | Mr. Sophistication | |
| Alice Fredlund | ... | Sherry | |
| Donna Gordon | ... | Margo Donnar (as Donna Marie Gordon) | |
| Haji | ... | Haji | |
| Carol Warren | ... | Carol | |
| Derna Wong Davis | ... | Derna |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
135 min | 109 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
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Fun Stuff
Trivia:
This was actually a story idea developed by John Cassavetes and Martin Scorsese years previously.
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Quotes:
Cosmo Vitelli:
I'm a club owner. I deal in girls.
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Movie Connections:
Spoofed in "South Park: Imaginationland (#11.10)" (2007)
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Soundtrack:
Imagination
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Like other (usually US) films The Murder... is disturbing and mesmerizing. The dirty quality of images (in some moments bewilderingly amateurish, ins others incredibly sophisticated), the acting, the disjointed plot, the weirdness of some scenes (like the one in the car parking), Gazzara's sublime acting, the wonderful choice of places and times... it all gives you an impression of the States like they really are, not the sanitized image you find in so many Holy-Wood flicks (not all of them, I admit, but about 85%...). Such a movie is like The Searchers or Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, unfathomable and greater than life, but in some way disturbingly like life. And the character of Cosmo Vitelli is one of those enigmatic figures that leaves you wondering whether you have been shown the story of an idiot or the story of a saint. Unforgettable.