Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

SnoopyStyle Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) owns the burlesque club Crazy Horse West in California. Business is a little slow. After paying off his gambling debt, he promptly loses $23k more at a private casino. The boss calls in the debt and forces him to kill a minor Chinese bookie to clean the slate. Only the minor figure turns out to be a major gang leader.There is something hypnotic about John Cassavetes' directing style. Ben Gazzara is charismatic. I watched the 135-minute version. Even the long rambling burlesque shows are fascinating. It's supported by a gangster story that provides the movie with its drive. I do wish that Cassavetes would film the action with more intensity. His style doesn't work as well with the action scenes. Also after the final shootout, I rather have the movie end quicker.

Ore-Sama "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie", the original 1976 cut, was the first movie by Cassavette I had ever seen. I went in, only knowing the basic premise and that it was not a usual picture, and I was blown away. It completely changed my perception of how a film could be written, and opened me not just to his other films, but many other kinds of films in general. Now some time and many films later, and my opinion has changed very little on this particular piece."The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" revolves around strip club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man who carries himself with swagger and dignity, who loves his joint, the Crazy Horse West, who loves the workers within it, but who is a man of great vice. After paying off one gambling debt, he falls into another, but this time from mobsters who offer him an alternative to paying: to murder a Chinese bookie.The experience of this film will differ depending on the version. Many prefer the 1978 recut, which is a very tight film, and it works as a moody neo noir picture. It has scenes not in the longer cut, but overall focuses entirely on plot.However my preference is easily for the original version. The leisurely, prolonged pace helps create a unique feel to the film, and also creates more of a balance. Whereas the 1978 film is dark, almost nihilistic, the 1976 version has much more heart to it. We see much more of the relationship between Vitelli and not just his workers, but the club itself. Thus one sees the true struggle, in a man being torn between committing a heinous act, or losing the thing he loves most. Add to that, the pace also creates more of a build up to the fated crossroad where Cosmo will either kill the bookie, get killed, or back out, resulting in that fateful scene meaning so much more. Cassavette made this film as an allegory to his struggles as an independent film maker, and in the 1976 cut this is much more apparent. Even apart from the thematic and narrative, though, the 1976 cut feels unlike almost any other film. Beyond the merits of it's story, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" is an experience, akin to the films of Andrei Tarkovsky in giving the sense that when the movie's done, one has not simply seen a great movie but been on a journey (while the 1978 version feels almost rushed in comparison)On a technical level, the film is low budget and it shows, but like films such as "Breathless" and "Mean Streets", the low budget, raw feel enhances the mood, especially of the night scene. Two pivotal scenes towards the end that take place at night posses a near unrivaled mood, and this is in great part thanks to hand held, almost documentary style that the movie is made in. The night club scenes are also a visual highlight, filmed in colored gels that make the club feel like a world all it's own.and of course like most Cassavette films, the dialogue has a very improvised feel (many to this day believe his films were improvised), which means people talk over one another, topics can change at any time, and there's no cinematic manipulation to enhance the impact of certain lines. While there's far less of the rapid and sudden emotional twists and turns within a scene that are a mark of most of his films, there's still plenty for fans of his to be familiar.If you haven't guessed by now, this is NOT a typical mobster film. It's nothing like "The Godfather" or the gangster films of Scorcesse (and no, I'm certainly not trying to put down those great films), or like any other. It's a very slow, methodical, non stylized picture that to this day will baffle the unprepared viewer. If you watch this and aren't familiar with Casavette's other films, know that it's not going to be quite like anything else you've seen.You can get this film either through the five DVD John Cassavette collection or the Criterion DVD. I can't vouch for the former, but the criterion has both the 1976 and 1978 cuts. While I by far prefer the 1976 version, you may as well get both and come to your own conclusion.

pontifikator I saw the 1976 edit. The movie stars Ben Gazzara as the lead character, Cosmo Vitelli. The movie also features the underrated Seymour Cassel and Timothy Carey, one of the most bizarre, original actors to appear on the big screen.Cosmo is shown in the opening paying off a debt to a loan shark, swearing he'll never be in that position again. He goes back to his strip joint for the night's performance where we meet his performers and where he meets the owner of another joint who's out for the night to see Cosmo's club. Mort, played by Cassel, invites Cosmo over for some gambling. Cosmo promptly looses $23,000, which he can't pay. (In the mid-seventies, that was a couple years' worth of salary for most Americans.) When asked if he can write a check for it, Cosmo says he doesn't keep that much money in the bank; he puts most of his profits back into the strip joint, which he says does very well for him. We've seen his joint and the lack of a crowd, so we know the strip club is not doing well. This is a point that needs some off-screen elaboration. According to IMDb, Gazzara was having trouble figuring out Cosmo's character and motivation. In a discussion with Cassavetes, the director (who wrote the screenplay) started to cry as he described to Gazzara the film as a metaphor for big studios: the gangsters Cosmo was involved in represented the people trying to steal Cassavetes's dream of producing movies. Cosmo is Cassavetes, and the mobsters are the heads of big studios; the strip joint represents, in my opinion, Cassavetes's independent productions of his films. So in the scene where Cosmo explains he keeps his money in his joint, I'm hearing Cassavetes's voice saying he earns his dough as an actor so he can make his independent movies, none of which has been a blockbuster for him.Back to the plot: Cosmo can't pay the debt. Mort acts as Cosmo's friend and offers him a meeting with the bosses to see what can be worked out. It's a shocker: The bosses tell Cosmo he can kill a certain Chinese bookie, and the debt will be cancelled. They actually give him a decent briefing on the location, where the bookie is to be found, how to get there, what security is present and so forth. They give him a stolen gun and a stolen car, let him tear up the marker for the $23,000 and send him on his way. It's clear that if he doesn't follow through, he's a dead man.Surprisingly, Cosmo actually succeeds in the assassination. Cosmo earns the respect of Mort and Flo, another of the underlings used as muscle by the boss. (Flo is played by Carey.) This respect does him a good turn or two, but the bottom line is that the hoods did not expect him to succeed and since he has, he's got to be rubbed out because they fear he'll tie the killing to them. Cosmo's luck keeps running, and he survives their attempts to kill him. However, Cosmo has been shot in the torso. He returns to his club and makes sure it's still running as it should, then goes outside to stand on the sidewalk, as he often does. His jacket is red with his blood, and we leave Cosmo there. I'm in doubt of his survival -- if the wound doesn't get him, I can't believe the mobsters will let him live. But we don't find out.One of the problems with the movie is that for all Gazzara's charm, the character of Cosmo Vitelli is not a charming man. He has little to no interest in his dancers as people, using them as escorts when he goes out. Rachael (Azizi Johari, a Playboy Playmate) is clearly in love with him, but he doesn't return it. Cosmo's goal is to have a joint that draws a crowd. With a character that is basically not likable, many people have trouble relating to the film.Another issue with Cassavetes films is that Mr. Cassavetes is fascinated by character, so he does character studies. The plot does not drive the film, the characters do. "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" is driven by Gazzara's performance as Cosmo. The issues are (1) for whatever reason, Cosmo is in love with the concept of being the owner of a strip joint -- it's his view of himself, it's what makes him happy; (2) Cosmo is deeply flawed; (3) to preserve his view of himself, Cosmo will do anything, including murder. I wonder how much of Cosmo is Cassavetes. I'll never know, but my take on it is that what Cosmo goes through is a metaphor for the blood, sweat, and tears Mr. Cassavetes goes through for each movie he made. For Cosmo, the blood is real, and his survival is in doubt at the end of the movie. I'm confident Cassavetes felt that at the end of each movie he pulled off.The character of Cosmo may be Cassavets, and I wonder about his views of his cast and crew after seeing Cosmo's relationship with his performers and Cassavetes's casting and scripting of the performers. Some have problems with Mr. Sophistication and the performances at the club, but I wonder if they relate to Cassevetes's problems with cast and crew making movies. It's another thing I'll never know, but it's difficult to believe Cassavetes was that cynical about his cast and crew. I have no clue. For another view of the director as manipulative jerk, see William H. Macy in David Mamet's "State and Main."My favorite Cassavetes movie is "A Woman Under the Influence" starring Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk. Ms. Rowlands was nominated for an Academy Award for this role. She was married to John Cassavetes, and they made ten films together.

DJay888 This is to everyone who gave this film a poor review, saying that it is masquerading as a gangster picture or that the dialogue was improvised. If Cassavetes heard you saying the film belonged in the gangster genre he would have cried. And he said that himself. He admitted that the plot was that of a crime film, but as a whole the film is not about the crime. It is about the people surrounding Cosmo and the way they interact. It is about love and the lack of love as that was all Cassavetes was interested in. When he is going out to the bookie's house we do not focus on why he is going there, we focus on the people that are around him or that he talks to on the phone. The crime theme is only to set up the downfall of Cosmo's character, which is how he ultimately loses some of the love he had in his life. As for the dialogue being improvised, there was only one scene in which the dialogue was improvised (when Cosmo goes to his girlfriend's house after being shot and talks to her mother). There was only one film that Cassavetes made that was almost completely improvised which was Shadows (another great film). And anyone who calls Cassavets an amateur or says his visual style is amateur is completely false. The scenes I'm guessing you are referring to are the ones filmed on the hand-held camera (by Cassavetes himself). Here he is going for the raw style and loves to get as close in to his actors as possible so we can see their expressions clearly and become uncomfortable and more involved in their emotions. That is probably my favorite thing about Cassavetes filmmaking, especially here, is that he does not move the camera if someone steps in front of it, and he allows his actors and camera to move freely with one another. "Chinese Bookie" is his best.