The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
by John Cassavetes
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ben Gazzara, Morgan Woodward, Robert Phillips, Seymour Cassel, Timothy CareyDirector: John Cassavetes
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-04-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Movie Reviews of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Movie Review: Ben Gazzara plays so well the club owner with a personal touch
Summary: 5 Stars
Ben Gazzara's character is a classic in this story of a strip club owner's troubles with the underworld. It's one of my favorites too with its dark and sleazy atmosphere and the characters that drive this story. The gangsters are not cartoon characters. They actually have personalities. In fact, this film has many colorful characters. The Criterion version is longer and exposes more of this tawdry world but it is part of an expensive five film collection. This film deserves to be seen in the longer version.
Summary of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
A small-time Los Angeles night club owner falls for a lavish invitation to gamble at a private club. After losing high stakes on extended credit, he is pressured by a gangster to erase his debt by killing a rival underworld power referred to only as "The Chinese Bookie." Ben Gazarra, Seymour CasselAnyone expecting The Killing of a Chinese Bookie to be an action-packed film about a gangland murder is going to be sorely disappointed--the title is the only commercial element in this fascinating character study by writer-director John Cassavetes, who once again finds his cinematic soulmate in actor Ben Gazzara. Doing for sleazy Hollywood strip-joints and underworld bullies what Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets did for the denizens of New York's Little Italy, the film uses verit? technique to tell the story of Cosmo Vitelli (Gazzara), a strip-club owner whose growing debt to a local gangster (the chilling Morgan Woodward) can only be erased if he agrees to kill a rival Chinese gangster. Reluctantly, Cosmo carries out the job with startling efficiency.
As usual, Cassavetes employs his favorite actors (including Seymour Cassel and the fearsome Timothy Carey) and vivid improvisation to give Chinese Bookie a tense atmosphere of emotional urgency--the film's tone is one of keen desperation, as if we've been invited to witness Cosmo's dark night of the soul. Anyone who's unfamiliar with Cassavetes's style may find this film grating and impenetrable, but those in tune with the director's defiant independence will surely appreciate his emphasis on character, psychology, and revealing flashes of human behavior, captured on film as only Cassavetes could capture them. Watching this film, you can readily understand why Cassavetes has had such a steady influence on Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and a host of like-minded independent filmmakers. --Jeff Shannon
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