The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Directed by John Cassavetes
Written by John Cassavetes
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Cosmo Vitelli: I’m a club owner. I deal in girls.
John Cassavetes makes a gangster film that is easily as intimate as his character studies.
Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) is a strip club owner. Â The entire operation is a product of his own imagination. Â He has written and choreographed all the numbers. Â Sad to say, his imagination is stuck in some kind of time warp and you could envision the same kind of show at a second-rate burlesque house in the 1930’s. Â There are various squabbles but the cast and crew form a kind of loving family.
Cosmo has many flaws, principally womanizing and gambling. On the very day Cosmo pays off an old gambling debt he is approached by fellow club owner Mort Weill (Seymour Cassel) and given free run of the premises and its illegal casino.  Seymour is easily led on until he is $23,000 in debt to the mob.  His creditors expect immediate payment.  Cash being unavailable the gang, including the super impatient Flo (Timothy Cary),  strongly suggest that assassination of  a Chinese bookie could compensate.
The rest of the film is concerned with the planning, execution, and aftermath of the crime. From this point we start also delving into Cosmos’s confrontation with his own mortality. The numbers at the strip club feature a fare amount of female nudity.
I thought this was a very interesting companion piece to Mikey and Nicky (1976). Â In both films the flawed protagonists are contemplating a violent end. Â It’s hard to pick between May’s film and this one. Â May has Cassavetes beat in the pacing and heart departments. Cassavetes’ film is clearly superior in the image department. Â It probably deserves another viewing and some thought before I form a firm opinion on this one. Â Nonetheless recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ztlsDq5luU
