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The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) dir. John Cassavetes
Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) is the owner of a night club, the gentlemans kind. Vitelli has directed and composed all the numbers performed on stage himself, and he's quite proud of his work. His clientele not so much, they are just there for the naked ladies. They couldn't care less what the girls are doing, as long as it involves taking off clothes. In the beginning of the movie, Vitelli makes the last payment on a gambling debt, telling the loan shark he never wants to see him again. Hardly is Vitelli debt free, before a rich client at his club, invites him to a high stakes poker game. Vitelli joins the poker game, bringing along three of the girls from the club as entourage. The girls don't bring much luck. Vitelli loses, a lot. By the end of the night he's down 20 grand, money doesn't have, and worse is, his creditors are mobsters. Vitelli is adamant he can pay back the money with his earnings from the club, but the mobsters sees an opportunity, they want him to work it off. They tell him to go and kill and chinese bookie, who have been giving them trouble. Reluctantly Vitelli agrees to do the hit, seeing it as his only option. What Vitelli doesn't know, is that the whole thing is a setup. He's not shooting a chinese bookie. He's shooting the head of the chinese mafia on the west coast. Against all odds Vitelli completes the hit, including a couple of bodyguards, and escapes the house again, however with a gunshot wound. Vitelli's mob friends however are not happy with Vitelli escaping alive, and start a hunt for him.
Last week we saw a prototypical gangster movie. This week it's a gangster movie again, but this time it's everything but prototypical. It's Cassavetes take on a gangster movie, and like everything he did, it's a unique take on the genre. If Scarface could be accused of glamorising gangster life, this movie surely cannot. Vitelli is a low life owner of a sleazy night club and a gambling problem. He has a weird connection to the 'artistic' performances put on in his club, which he takes great pride in. He cares so much about them, that he calls the night club while on the run from the chinese mafia, to check in on how it's going, and what piece is being performed. And he gets really angry when the person on the phone can't tell him, and the performers on stage doesn't match with the song being played or the background sets on the stage. The real mobsters aren't much better. They are scared little men, who's only known weapon is intimidation. They coerce people like Vitelli to do their dirty work, keeping their own hands clean and out of harms way. However when opposed they quickly cower when their intimidation doesn't work any more, and they are easily disposed of. Hardly someone anyone would look up to. It can probably be argued that The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is not really a gangster movie, even though it involves gangsters a lot, because it doesn't hit a lot of the typical tropes of the genre. Nonetheless I think it's interesting to see what the genre can also be, when you don't follow conventions and approach it from a different angle, and perhaps with different characters in focus than you would normally see in this type of movie. Normally Vitelli would be some sleazebag getting disposed of half way through the movie, here he's the center piece.
Vitelli starts the movie as a fairly harmless guy, doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to hurt anyone, and he really doesn't want to hurt anyone. But he has a history as an infantryman in Korea, and he knows what it's like to kill and what it takes. Perhaps a reason for his now harmless behaviour. But he gets pushed by the mafia, and his old instincts pop up again. He knows how to kill, and how to avoid getting killed, and neither situation appears to affect him very much. He's still much more concerned about whether or not the right numbers are being performed at the club. Nightclub owner Vitelli is a really interesting look at the "misunderstood artist". No one gets Vitelli's art, not even the audience. But he is very committed to it, he has spent a lot of time on each and every number being performed, he wants it performed exactly to his specifications. He wants responses on more than just the naked ladies, but he doesn't get it. Some would say he's chosen the wrong line of business if he wants to be appreciated for his artistic vision, and they might be right. He may not even be very good. But that doesn't lessen his struggles. In some way, Cassavetes may be projecting himself into Vitelli through this part of the character, since Cassavetes himself wasn't always a darling among the audience or the critics.
I've watched The Killing of a Chinese Bookie once before, and I think I watched the original 135 minute cut of the movie. This time I watched the re-release 108 minute cut. I liked it a lot more this time around. The movie doesn't need the additional 30 minutes. I remember it feeling very slow and long the first time I watched it. The movie doesn't become fast paced all of a sudden, but it flowed much better in the shorter cut, and it didn't feel like anything essential was missing from the story. All round it's just a much tighter and better movie. Cassavetes movies often feel heavy to get through, but I always feel I'm rewarded for sticking with them. He takes my mind places where it doesn't usually go, and it's always interesting to go there.
Cosmo Vitelli (Ben Gazzara) is the owner of a night club, the gentlemans kind. Vitelli has directed and composed all the numbers performed on stage himself, and he's quite proud of his work. His clientele not so much, they are just there for the naked ladies. They couldn't care less what the girls are doing, as long as it involves taking off clothes. In the beginning of the movie, Vitelli makes the last payment on a gambling debt, telling the loan shark he never wants to see him again. Hardly is Vitelli debt free, before a rich client at his club, invites him to a high stakes poker game. Vitelli joins the poker game, bringing along three of the girls from the club as entourage. The girls don't bring much luck. Vitelli loses, a lot. By the end of the night he's down 20 grand, money doesn't have, and worse is, his creditors are mobsters. Vitelli is adamant he can pay back the money with his earnings from the club, but the mobsters sees an opportunity, they want him to work it off. They tell him to go and kill and chinese bookie, who have been giving them trouble. Reluctantly Vitelli agrees to do the hit, seeing it as his only option. What Vitelli doesn't know, is that the whole thing is a setup. He's not shooting a chinese bookie. He's shooting the head of the chinese mafia on the west coast. Against all odds Vitelli completes the hit, including a couple of bodyguards, and escapes the house again, however with a gunshot wound. Vitelli's mob friends however are not happy with Vitelli escaping alive, and start a hunt for him.
Last week we saw a prototypical gangster movie. This week it's a gangster movie again, but this time it's everything but prototypical. It's Cassavetes take on a gangster movie, and like everything he did, it's a unique take on the genre. If Scarface could be accused of glamorising gangster life, this movie surely cannot. Vitelli is a low life owner of a sleazy night club and a gambling problem. He has a weird connection to the 'artistic' performances put on in his club, which he takes great pride in. He cares so much about them, that he calls the night club while on the run from the chinese mafia, to check in on how it's going, and what piece is being performed. And he gets really angry when the person on the phone can't tell him, and the performers on stage doesn't match with the song being played or the background sets on the stage. The real mobsters aren't much better. They are scared little men, who's only known weapon is intimidation. They coerce people like Vitelli to do their dirty work, keeping their own hands clean and out of harms way. However when opposed they quickly cower when their intimidation doesn't work any more, and they are easily disposed of. Hardly someone anyone would look up to. It can probably be argued that The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is not really a gangster movie, even though it involves gangsters a lot, because it doesn't hit a lot of the typical tropes of the genre. Nonetheless I think it's interesting to see what the genre can also be, when you don't follow conventions and approach it from a different angle, and perhaps with different characters in focus than you would normally see in this type of movie. Normally Vitelli would be some sleazebag getting disposed of half way through the movie, here he's the center piece.
Vitelli starts the movie as a fairly harmless guy, doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to hurt anyone, and he really doesn't want to hurt anyone. But he has a history as an infantryman in Korea, and he knows what it's like to kill and what it takes. Perhaps a reason for his now harmless behaviour. But he gets pushed by the mafia, and his old instincts pop up again. He knows how to kill, and how to avoid getting killed, and neither situation appears to affect him very much. He's still much more concerned about whether or not the right numbers are being performed at the club. Nightclub owner Vitelli is a really interesting look at the "misunderstood artist". No one gets Vitelli's art, not even the audience. But he is very committed to it, he has spent a lot of time on each and every number being performed, he wants it performed exactly to his specifications. He wants responses on more than just the naked ladies, but he doesn't get it. Some would say he's chosen the wrong line of business if he wants to be appreciated for his artistic vision, and they might be right. He may not even be very good. But that doesn't lessen his struggles. In some way, Cassavetes may be projecting himself into Vitelli through this part of the character, since Cassavetes himself wasn't always a darling among the audience or the critics.
I've watched The Killing of a Chinese Bookie once before, and I think I watched the original 135 minute cut of the movie. This time I watched the re-release 108 minute cut. I liked it a lot more this time around. The movie doesn't need the additional 30 minutes. I remember it feeling very slow and long the first time I watched it. The movie doesn't become fast paced all of a sudden, but it flowed much better in the shorter cut, and it didn't feel like anything essential was missing from the story. All round it's just a much tighter and better movie. Cassavetes movies often feel heavy to get through, but I always feel I'm rewarded for sticking with them. He takes my mind places where it doesn't usually go, and it's always interesting to go there.