---
title: "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie"
year: 1976
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie"
fi1m_id: "the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie"
imdb_id: "tt0074749"
tmdb_id: 32040
wikidata_id: "Q1212252"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 57
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-26T00:08:48.120660+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-26T00:08:48.687004+00:00"
region: "IE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Directed by John Cassavetes · 2h 15m · Thriller, Crime, Drama

## Identity

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie
- **IMDb ID:** tt0074749
- **TMDB ID:** 32040
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1212252
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074749/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/32040, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1212252

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 57 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* Ben Gazzara owes the mob a fortune and would honestly rather be fixing the lighting cues

> John Cassavetes’s gangster film is barely interested in gangsters. It follows a strip-club owner who wants only to put on his show, and Ben Gazzara plays him so plainly that a shabby room with a painted Paris backdrop becomes worth dying for. Slow, ragged and hard to shake.

## Synopsis

Los Angeles, the Sunset Strip. Cosmo Vittelli (Ben Gazzara) owns the Crazy Horse West, a small strip club where the girls dance to a piano and an ageing MC called Mr Sophistication sings in a top hat. Cosmo has just made the final payment on the loan that bought the place, and he celebrates by taking three of his dancers, Rachel (Azizi Johari), Sherry (Alice Friedland) and Derna (Derna Wylde), to a private card game run by Mort Weil (Seymour Cassel) and a whispering giant called Flo (Timothy Carey). By morning Cosmo owes them more than he can pay. Their Boss (Morgan Woodward) offers a way out: a Chinese bookie across town needs killing. Cosmo wants only to keep his show running.

## Review

John Cassavetes writes and directs a gangster film in which the gangsters are the least interesting people on screen. Cosmo Vittelli (Ben Gazzara) owns the Crazy Horse West, a strip club on the Sunset Strip, and has just paid off the loan that bought it. Within a night he owes the mob again, and the mob has a job for him. That is the plot, and Cassavetes treats it as an interruption. What he cares about is the club, the dancers, the dreadful songs, and a man who has decided that this small room is his life’s work. It runs 135 minutes and is in no hurry.

Gazzara plays Cosmo in a tuxedo with a carnation, cigarette held low, talking to his dancers like a headmaster who adores his pupils. He never raises his voice at the moment you expect him to. When he loses at cards he goes on smiling; when Flo (Timothy Carey) and Mort Weil (Seymour Cassel) explain what he owes, he listens as if to a slightly boring anecdote. The performance is made of small things: a hand on a shoulder, a glance at the stage during a bad number, the way he says the club’s name. The reviews that admire the film mostly admire him, and they are right to.

Sam Shaw’s set is a stage the size of a garage with a painted Paris skyline behind it and a top hat the MC, Mr Sophistication, cannot keep straight. Al Ruban and Mitch Breit shoot it under the club’s own coloured lamps, so faces go red and blue and sometimes out of focus altogether, and the camera hunts for whoever is speaking and often finds them late. One early trade review called the photography poor. We think that misses what it is doing: the film looks like a night out you cannot quite remember, and that is the right look for this man’s life. Bo Harwood’s music, thin piano and a wobbling vocal, is the sound of an act that has played the same room too long and knows it.

The mob scenes are good in a low-key way. Cassel is all warmth and open hands, Carey enormous and nearly inaudible, and Morgan Woodward’s Boss speaks like a bank manager turning down an overdraft. The poker night is staged as a party that slowly stops being one. Then, for a stretch in the middle, Cassavetes shows he can build suspense when he wants to: a drive across the city, a house, a dog, a gate, and almost no dialogue. We will not say how the errand ends. What follows it is the film’s real subject.

Here is the moment that got us. There is a scene late on, which we will not place, when Cosmo stands at the back of his own club and watches the show he has fought for. The show is bad. He loves it. We had spent an hour finding the numbers embarrassing and then found we minded terribly that they might stop. Cassavetes lets you sneer at the thing until the man who loves it has become your friend, and then the sneer costs you something.

Most critics are cooler than we are; the reviews so far average out to a shrug, with two outright pans. Some of their complaints stand. The middle sags, scenes run well past the point where they have said what they have to say, and the sound is muddy enough that lines go missing in the dressing room. Azizi Johari’s Rachel and Virginia Carrington’s Mama are given scenes that promise a home life and then wander off. Tom Cornwell’s editing keeps long takes long when a cut would have helped. But the pans judge it as a thriller, and it fails as a thriller because it is not one. It is a film about a man and his work, and on those terms it holds.

Against Cassavetes’s own films this is the quietest. *A Woman Under the Influence* (1974) shouts; this one murmurs, and Gazzara is allowed to carry whole scenes on a look. See it late, on your own, with the sound up, and be patient through the first card game. The club will grow on you, which is exactly what it does to Cosmo, and he has paid far more for the privilege than you will.

*Fi1m score 78, published 26 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Killing of a Chinese Bookie worth watching?**

*The Killing of a Chinese Bookie* is worth watching for anyone who can sit through a slow, ragged 135 minutes for the sake of Ben Gazzara, and we scored it 78. It is a gangster film with little interest in gangsters, so viewers wanting a thriller will be frustrated. Be patient through the first card game; the club grows on you.

**How long is The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and what is it rated?**

*The Killing of a Chinese Bookie* runs 2h 15m. It is a thriller and crime film.

**Where can I watch The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in Ireland?**

*The Killing of a Chinese Bookie* is available to rent from Apple TV from €3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Killing of a Chinese Bookie* is an adult film about a strip club and a mob debt, rated R in the United States and never certified in the UK, and it is not for children. The dancers perform on stage throughout, the plot turns on a killing, and one mid-film stretch is built for suspense. The violence is sparse rather than graphic, but the whole setting is grown-up.

**How does The Killing of a Chinese Bookie compare to The Long Good Friday?**

*The Killing of a Chinese Bookie* is the quieter, stranger film; [*The Long Good Friday*](https://film.one/film/the-long-good-friday) is the one that works as a crime thriller. Both follow a gangster who thinks of himself as a businessman, but John Mackenzie's film has plot, jokes and menace, while Cassavetes treats the mob as an interruption to a man's love for his shabby show. Choose Hoskins for a tense evening, Gazzara for a mood you will not shake.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **The New Yorker** (80/100, inferred): The critic presents the film as a compelling, fatalistic crime drama. They praise Cassavetes’s staging of the gun battle and the club performer’s haunting routines. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie)
- **Empire**, William Thomas (75/100, inferred): The review is positive about the film’s improvised character study and its emotionally affecting nightclub world. It particularly praises Gazzara’s restrained performance and expressive small gestures. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/killling-chinese-bookie-review/)
- **The Guardian**, Derek Malcolm (75/100, inferred): Malcolm regards the film as flawed but unforgettable, capturing the absurdity and persistence of one man’s American dream. He especially praises Cassavetes’s dreamlike orchestration and the sincerity of the protagonist’s attachment to his club. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,4135,365683,00.html)
- **The New York Times** (47/100, inferred): The headline characterizes the film as a bland effort, indicating a negative verdict. No specific praise or criticism is available in the accessible page text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/16/archives/screen-chinese-bookiecassavetes-is-director-of-bland-effort.html)
- **Time Out**, MA (30/100, inferred): The review presents the film as waywardly plotted and skeptical of gangster conventions. It singles out the gangsters’ attempts to distract Gazzara from his loyalty as central to the plot. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (10/100, inferred): The critic pans the film as awful. They single out its cinematography as conspicuously poor, noting that no cinematographer is credited. [Read](https://variety.com/1975/film/reviews/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie-1200423616/)
- **HeyUGuys**, Ashley Norris (4.5/5): The critic calls the film a must-see, praising its enigmatic performances and striking visuals. Ben Gazzara’s precise, captivating portrayal of Cosmo Vitelli is singled out as the standout. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/blu-ray-and-dvd-round-up-19th-july-2013/)

## Details

- **Director:** John Cassavetes
- **Director:** John Cassavetes
- **Writer:** John Cassavetes
- **Cinematography:** Mitch Breit, Al Ruban
- **Editor:** Tom Cornwell
- **Music:** Bo Harwood
- **Production design:** Sam Shaw
- **Producer:** Al Ruban
- **Cast:** Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vittelli; Timothy Carey as Flo; Seymour Cassel as Mort Weil; Robert Phillips as Phil; Morgan Woodward as The Boss; Al Ruban as Marty Reitz; Azizi Johari as Rachel; Haji as Haji
- **Runtime:** 2h 15m
- **First release (the US):** 15 February 1976
- **Genres:** Thriller, Crime, Drama

## Where to watch in Ireland

- Apple TV: rent €3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy €4.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-26.*

Also available in: CA, GB, IE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Mikey and Nicky* (1976): Elaine May’s one-night mob story, as shambling and sad as this one.
- *The Friends of Eddie Coyle* (1973): Robert Mitchum as a small man owed nothing by the people he serves.
- *Le Samouraï* (1967): The same hitman errand, done in silence and a raincoat, immaculately.
- *Opening Night* (1977): Cassavetes and Gazzara again, this time with the show itself falling apart.
- *The Long Good Friday* (1980), Fi1m 88: Bob Hoskins’s London gangster also thinks he is a businessman; London disagrees. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-long-good-friday.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-killing-of-a-chinese-bookie