The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Directed by John Cassavettes. Starring Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel, Azizi Johari, Morgan Woodward, Meade Roberts, Robert Philips, Virginia Carrington, Al Ruban.

Somewhere in this puzzling and periodically pretentious arthouse film is a crime story related to strip club owner Gazzara being set up by gangsters to kill a Chinese bookie, a hit he’s not supposed to walk away from. But every time it starts to get going, the narrative suddenly meanders away, lost and dejected, as if trying to find the missing script pages. Indulgent even by Cassavettes’ standards, with several extended club acts that are about as entertaining as picking at a wad of gum stuck to a sneaker, and headache-inducing camerawork that often looks like footage from amateur home videos. Some stretches feel like an assemblage of scenes from the cutting room floor of other crime dramas, moving on to the next bit right before the interesting/important stuff happens. Gazzara’s performance, however, is indelible within the confines of the director’s self-gratification, and Carey is always fun to watch when playing a quirky low-life. Originally released at around two-and-a-quarter hours, then edited down by almost thirty minutes for a re-release; that newer version still goes on too long (a Cassavettes trademark).

43/100