The Killing of a Chinese Bookie Review

• 24th Jul 2013

When John Cassavettes makes a gangster film you know that it’s going to be a very different kind
of gangster film about lowlifes and those who gravitate around this world. The Killing of a
Chinese Bookie was made in 1976 and is shot in Cassavettes’ usual veritas style as the camera
follows the central character around. It stars Cassavettes regular Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vittelli,
the owner of the Crazy Horse West strip club in downtown Los Angeles. Vittelli thinks he has it all:
girls, money, champagne and is living the high life. However, he has a problem with gambling as
the film opens with him paying off a previous debt to seedy loan shark Marty Reitz (played by Al
Ruban, the films producer). Celebrating the paying off of his debt he takes out three of his girl from
the club, drinks champagne and takes part in a poker game with local Italian mobsters. Over the
night he incurs a new debt of $23,000 and struggles the next day as to how he can pay back the
debt with his bad credit. Does he return to the loan shark or does he find another alternative? He
agrees with the mobsters that he will pay off the debt, but they have a solution as to how he can
pay off his debt. They persuade him to carry out a hit for them against a wealthy Chinese mobster.
This challenges Vittelli’s morals, his ego and his pursuit of the American dream.
John Cassavettes filming style works well as his camera tracks Gazzara’s character and gets to
understand the human drama being played out. On paper the viewer should find Gazzara’s
Cosmo Vittelli an unpleasant and seedy lowlife, but instead we get to know and sympathize
strongly with his character. Like the director’s previous film, A Woman Under the Influence
(1974) in which the director’s camera tracked the central character of this film, namely a middleaged
housewife suffering a nervous breakdown we get to know our central characters and feel the
pain and human drama that they are going through. This is what makes John Cassavettes a most
un-American director with his slow measured style. Much of this is aided by Gazzara’s excellent
performance as well as the camerawork and direction by Cassavettes, Mitch Breit and Ruban
(who as well as acting and producing also was one of the cinematographers) as they shoot not
only the late nights and early mornings but also the very seventies red lights and lens flares.
The film is presented in dual format DVD/Blu-ray from BFI in two versions on the disc: the 130
minute edition that was first released in 1976 and the 1978 108 minute re-edit that was released in
1978. However, the latter is not merely a cut version of the first release but they both include
scenes not in the other version and edited completely differently. For example the shorter 1978 cut
opens with the final shots of the longer version with Gazzara standing outside his club. However,
the context of both shots are very different. Which is the better of the two is in the eye of the
viewer. Alas neither version did very well at the box-office and were both pulled after only a week.
Also included on one of the discs of extras is a curious short set in a barbers and starring
Cassavettes called ‘The Haircut’, an interview with the short films maker, Tamar Hoffs who
explains how Cassavettes gave her the opportunity to make the her student film. The one other
extra is a feature length documentary about Cassavettes as a filmmaker and his career with many
interviews with those who’ve worked with him as a part of his regular team of actors and
technicians that he gathered around him as well as other directors such as Sam Fuller. As usual
with BFI there is a comprehensive 24 page booklet with several essays including one by film
historian Tom Charity and an interesting one by producer Ruban who recounts the moral dilemma
that Cassavettes had in actually killing the bookie in a film giving some insight into the director’s
ethics as a human being.
John Cassavettes is a very different independent filmmaker to those films we consider
independent or indie today. Today an indie film is usually considered being a certain style and
contain an intellectual cult appeal and can even be considered indie with backing by the
Weinsteins, but John Cassavettes is a truly independent filmmaker in the real sense of the word.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, however, almost bridges the gap between a more mainstream
approach and narrative that he was beginning to struggle with until he made the far more
commercial Gloria in 1980. It is a film worth viewing as both a filmmakers film and a study of
human nature that, with a little patience will draw the viewer/audience in. Presented here in two
versions this is as complete a version of the film as you can get.
Chris Hick