606. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
1976
Directed by John Cassavetes

Wait, is this a John Cassavetes film that I actually like.  It can't be...

Cosmo Vitelli owes money to the mafia (with a name like that, it's kind of expected).  He agrees to perform a hit on a rival, but the target might be bigger than he anticipated.  It's a very simple story, but it still took Cassavetes over two hours to tell it in his original cut, according to some online digging I did.  Apparently, once it was received poorly, Cassavettes reedited it to be 108 minutes.  I don't have a lot of respect for a director who needs hours and hours of our time to tell a basic story.

I suppose I did end up liking this, mostly because it felt like a Martin Scorsese movie pretending to be directed by someone else. I did find the ending to be rather cliche at this point.  I might need to amend my spoiler rule so I don't always have to end with vague statements like that.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

One of the few John Cassavetes movies that do not feature his wife Gena Rowlands.