This post contains all the spoilers and discusses the movie with the assumption that you've seen it. You can watch the trailer at the bottom of this post.
The Credits
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is directed by John Cassavetes and stars Ben Gazzara, Timothy Agoglia Carey and Seymour Cassel.
The Plot
Cosmo Vittelli (Gazzara) is the owner of a strip club on the Sunset Strip who has just finished paying off his debts. He goes out to celebrate with 3 of his strippers and ends up taking them to a high stakes poker game. He ends up in debt for $23,000 ($100,000 in today's money). Unable to pay, the gangsters who ran the card game coerce him into killing a rival Chinese bookie. He is led to believe he is killing a small-time rival, but he turns out to be the boss of the Chinese crime syndicate. The men who sent Cosmo did not expect him to get out alive. Being a combat war veteran in Korea, he manages to escape but takes a bullet in the side, which he refuses to have removed. The gangsters attempt to kill him, but he kills a number of them instead. He goes to his girlfriend's home but her mother kicks him out since he won't treat the bullet wound. He returns to his strip club, but will seemingly die as he is still bleeding from the bullet wound when the film ends.Thoughts on the Film
This movie is good but far from perfect. It's confusing at times and some aspects of it are just weird. John Cassavetes films can be challenging and not for everyone. I watched half of the original 1976 release before discovering there was also a director's cut. I decided to watch the director's cut from the beginning instead. It makes much more sense. Many scenes are reordered and there is some different dialogue. It is about a half hour shorter. Many of the strip club scenes are cut.The strip club scenes are strange as it doesn't resemble any sort of strip club I've ever seen. The club puts on stage plays with musical numbers. But there is no music. Instead the show is led by an older man named Mr. Sophistication who sings while the mostly clothed women occasionally expose a breast.
Despite the confusion and weirdness, the movie is a great character study. The influence on Buffalo '66 is clear in both the strip club scenes and the casting of Ben Gazzarra as the lead character's father. I wish I had seen this before writing my post on Buffalo '66.
Cosmo is elated when he finally pays off his debt. What compels him to quickly get back into debt? He lives a life that appears to be of luxury. He has a limo driver. He spends so much to appear powerful that he has no actual cash. Perhaps he does not know how to live within means and will always need to be a step above his own worth. He says he just puts all of the money back into his club. He is a man defined by his status as a strip club owner. This is the one place where he feels powerful. There is a scene I omitted from the plot summary above. After the poker game, he is forced to sign papers stating he owes $23,000. He drops off the strippers at their homes, then goes to a cafe. The waitress asks to audition for him. Returning to the club, he feels his power status return as he gets to watch a girl dance nude just for him. His girlfriend (one of his dates that day) comes into the club and attacks the auditioning dancer. He tells his girlfriend "I'm a club owner. I deal in girls."
He is hesitant to kill someone. He even cuts a deal to cut his debt in half in exchange for merely leading the bookie to the strip club where someone else can kill him. But he doesn't even go through with that. But when he finally is unleashed, he turns out to be a quite capable killer. This is also the one instance where he most loses his identity and status. On the way to kill the bookie, the car he originally takes breaks down. Instead he takes a taxi cab, giving a fake name. This also calls back to the beginning of the film when he took a cab to pay off his original debt. After the murder he escapes first on a bus before switching to another cab. These are more the transportation of the common person, not a of a man like Cosmo who prefers to be chauffeured.
When they discover he was successful in executing their rival, Cosmo becomes hunted by the very men who asked him to do the job. He obtains power by killing some of them. He is the one with combat experience after all. But all he really wants is to return to the strip club where he is like a king.
Why not just sell the strip club to pay the debt? His very identity is more valuable to him than the life of a bookie or even his own life. He cannot go to a doctor as he would go to jail for murder. His status allows him to get away with things that no ordinary person would consider possible, such as being able to bring three women out on a date. Still nobody is truly close to him. His friends betray him and his girlfriend leaves him. But at least he is still a strip club owner, even if it kills him.
This trailer is the property of the Criterion Collection.
