SYNOPSIS: John Cassavetes engages film noir in his own inimitable style with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays gentlemen’s club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. When he runs afoul of a group of gangsters, Cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last-ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life. Suspenseful, mesmerizing, and idiosyncratic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a thought-provoking examination of desperation and masculine identity.
| Cosmo Vitelli | Ben Gazzara |
| Flo | Timothy Agoglia Carey |
| Mort Weil | Seymour Cassel |
| Phil | Robert Phillips |
| The Boss | Morgan Woodward |
| The Accountant | John Red Kullers |
| Marty Reitz | Al Ruban |
| Rachel | Azizi Johari |
| Mama | Virginia Carrington |
| Mr. Sophistication | Meade Roberts |
| Director | John Cassavetes |
| Producer | Al Ruban |
| Screenplay | John Cassavetes |
| Associate producer | Phil Burton |
| Sound and music | Bo Harwood |
| Lighting | Mitchell Breit |
| Camera operators | Frederick Elmes and Michael Ferris |
| Supervising film editor | Tom Cornwell |
| In charge of postproduction | Robert Heffernan |
| Production design | Sam Shaw |
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
By September 20, 2004
In John Cassavetes’ personal cinema, the director was always trying to break away from the formulas of Hollywood narrative, in order to Read more »
November 18, 2008
Just when you thought it was safe to return to the tripod, he’s baa-ack. “Cassavetes earned a belated place in film history,” writes Darrell Hartman in his Read more »
