The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

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.

Director:

John Cassavetes

Writer:

John Cassavetes

Stars:

Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Gazzara	...	Cosmo Vittelli
Timothy Carey	...	Flo (as Timothy Agoglia Carey)
Seymour Cassel	...	Mort Weil
Robert Phillips	...	Phil
Morgan Woodward	...	The Boss
John Kullers	...	The Accountant (as John Red Kullers)
Al Ruban	...	Marty Reitz
Azizi Johari	...	Rachel
Virginia Carrington	...	Mama
Meade Roberts	...	Mr. Sophistication
Alice Friedland	...	Sherry
Donna Gordon	...	Margo Donnar (as Donna Marie Gordon)
Haji	...	Haji
Carol Warren	...	Carol
Derna Wong Davis	...	Derna

Storyline

Cosmo Vitelli owns the Crazy Horse West, a strip joint in California. He's laconic, a Korean War vet, and a gambler. When we meet him, he's making his last payment on a gambling debt. Then, he promptly loses $23,000 playing poker at an illegal local casino. The guys he owes this time aren't so friendly, pressuring him for immediate payment. Then they suggest that he kill a Chinese bookie to wipe off the debt. Vitelli and the film move back and forth between the double-crossing, murderous insincerity of the gamblers and the friendships, sweetness, and even love among Vitelli, the dancers, a dancer's mother, and the club's singer, Mr. Sophistication.

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Plot Keywords:

strip club | nightclub | nude black woman | female nudity | gambling debt | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 October 1977 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Mordet på en kinesisk bookmaker

Company Credits

Production Co:

Faces Distribution

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min 109 min (1978 Re-Release)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shorter 108 minute John Cassavetes 1978, referred to on the DVD as the Director's Cut, has scenes in it not in the 1976 original 135 minute cut. The scenes in the later version also have different edits and different orders.

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Quotes

Cosmo Vitelli: Now, teddy. Teddy. Everything takes work. We'll straighten it out. You know. You gotta work hard to be comfortable. Yeah, a lot of people kid themselves, you know. They-they know when they were born, they know where they're goin'... they know whether they're gonna go to heaven,whether they're gonna go to hell. They think they know that. They kid themselves. Right? But the only people... who are, you know, happy... are the people who are comfortable. That's right. Now, you take, uh, uh, carol, ...

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Alternate Versions

Differences include: -The opening. The 1976 version opens with the credit sequence, in the style of an Asian movie, and then cutting to Cosmo following a loan shark to the back. The 1978 version opens with the "it'll pick up" scene, then cutting to much more western style opening credits, and then showing him arriving to meet the loan shark -The 1978 version removes all the stage performance scenes, which accounts for at least 15 minutes of the movie -The 1978 version includes an additional scene showing the gangster extorting a couple before they see Cosmo. -In the 1978 version, Cosmo's meeting with the gangsters is extended. This is where we learn Cosmo was in the Korean war. It also explains why Cosmo is out with the girls in the next scene. -The 1978 version cuts out most of the bits involving Cosmo picking up the girls to go to the club, including meeting with families and talking to one of them in the limo. -The 1978 version cuts out an early scene of Cosmo in the dressing room with Mr Sophistication and the girls.

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Connections

Referenced in Californication: Vaginatown (2008)

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Soundtracks

Rainy Fields of Frost and Magic
(uncredited)
Written by Bo Harwood
Played during the audition

User Reviews

It's hard not to be engaged by something this authentic

It's been said by many that "Chinese Bookie" is the toughest of any Cassavetes films to digest. There are many slow passages (here I'm referring to the 1976 original version), many moments of embarrassing awkwardness, as you are forced to watch extended sequences filled with players who aren't any more talented or skilled than those at your local summer stock production or junior high school play.

Yet, it's very difficult not to be compelled by the story, especially as embodied in the character of Cosmo Vitelli, who Ben Gazzara seems to channel effortlessly, as if he were a second, transparent skin.

Cosmo is a fascinating character. He owns a rather ratty strip club/cabaret joint on the Sunset Strip that fronts production values and performers of the qualities mentioned earlier, does middling business, and spends nearly every dime he makes "living the high life" or the "the image" of what someone in his profession should espouse. He swills $100 bottles of Champagne, cruises around town in his plush chauffeured Caddy, an entourage of bimbettes in tow, usually to a dive mob-run poker joint that inevitably lands him in massive debt.

He would be an easy character to scorn or mock in another film, but not as Gazzara and Cassavetes portray him. Cosmo is proud of his little world and his accomplishments, and further more, could not give a damn if anyone doesn't approve of them. "You have no style," he sneers at gangster Al Ruban early in the film after the thug condescends to him.

As weird as it sounds, you have to respect someone like that, even when he finds himself increasingly trapped by circumstances and succumbing to self-doubt. At the end of the picture he says how important it is to "feel comfortable" with oneself and while we don't believe for a second that Cosmo really feels this way, we know he *wants* to. It's a refreshingly human response in a movie that only contains more of the same.

It's not a conventional audience pleaser by any means, but if you've watched other Cassavetes pictures and like his candid stream-of-consciousness style, give the 1978 edited version of "Bookie" a watch before you see the original. Cass not only cut half an hour of footage, he did it with (what else?) incredible style and creativity, really tightening the structure of the film as a whole, considerably juicing its already engaging premise.

Quite possibly the most overlooked gem from one of the '60s and '70s most commercially under-appreciated directors.