Connection
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a american film of genre Drama directed by John Cassavetes released in USA on 15 february 1976 with Ben Gazzara
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
If you like this film, let us know!
Add to a movie listThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a 1976 American art and crime film directed and written by John Cassavetes and starring Ben Gazzara.
A rough and gritty film, the formidable character Gazzara plays was based on an impersonation he did for his friend Cassavetes in the 1970s. This is the second of their three collaborations, following Husbands and preceding Opening Night.
Synopsis
The film, set in California, opens with Cosmo Vittelli (Ben Gazzara) making the final payment on a longstanding gambling debt to a sleazy loanshark (played by the film's producer Al Ruban). To celebrate his long-anticipated freedom, burlesque club owner Vittelli has an expensive night out with his three favorite dancers ("Margo", "Rachael" and "Sherry"). The evening culminates in a poker game in which Vittelli loses $23,000, returning him to the debtor's position he had just left. Using the debt as leverage, his mob creditors coerce him into agreeing to perform a "hit" on a rival. Vittelli is led to believe that his target is a small-time criminal of minor consequence, the Chinese bookie of the film's title; but in fact, he is the boss of the Chinese mafia, "the heaviest cat on the West Coast." Vittelli manages to kill the man and several of his bodyguards, but is severely wounded before escaping.Actors
Ben Gazzara
(Cosmo Vittelli)
Timothy Carey
(Flo)
Seymour Cassel
(Mort Weil)
Haji
(Haji)
Morgan Woodward
(The Boss)
Comments
Leave comment :
Suggestions of similar film to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
There are 143 films with the same actors, 12 films with the same director, 75984 with the same cinematographic genres (including 1409 with exactly the same 4 genres than The Killing of a Chinese Bookie), 1479 films with the same themes (including 406 films with the same 2 themes than The Killing of a Chinese Bookie), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, you will probably like those similar films :
Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
, 1h54Directed by John Cassavetes
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Actors Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Timothy Carey, Val Avery, Katherine Cassavetes, Judith Anna Roberts
Rating71%
Following a break-up, Minnie Moore, a museum curator, becomes disillusioned by love and meaningful relationships. But after a seemingly chance encounter, she meets Seymour Moskowitz, a parking-lot attendant. After this event, Moskowitz falls in love with Minnie, trying desperately to get her to love him back.
Staten Island (2009)
, 1h36Directed by James DeMonaco
Origin France
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Crime
Themes Mafia films, Gangster films
Actors Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Seymour Cassel, John Sharian, Julianne Nicholson, Ian Brennan
Rating59%
A Staten Island mob boss Parmie (D'Onofrio) was robbed by a septic tank cleaner Sully (Hawke) who had a pal Jasper (Cassel), a deaf deli employee moonlighting as a corpse chopper for Parmie.
The Outfit (1975)
, 1h43Directed by John Flynn
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Mafia films, L'Outfit de Chicago, Gangster films
Actors Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Robert Ryan, Timothy Carey, Sheree North
Rating69%
Two hitmen drive to Eddie Macklin's house to assassinate him as he builds a brick wall in his backyard. Meanwhile, Eddie's brother Earl (Robert Duvall) is released from prison in Illinois after a 27-month term for carrying a concealed weapon. His girlfriend Bett (Karen Black) picks him up and takes him to a motel. She informs Earl of his brother's execution by the Outfit. Earl deduces that the motel stay is a setup, and when one of the hitmen who killed his brother bursts into the room, Earl ambushes him and tortures him for information.
Dick Tracy (1990)
, 1h45Directed by Warren Beatty, Hayao Miyazaki, Robert Zemeckis
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Mafia films, Gangster films
Actors Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Glenne Headly
Rating61%
At an illegal card game, a young street urchin (Charlie Korsmo) witnesses the massacre of a group of mobsters named Shoulders (Stig Eldred), Stooge (Jim Wilkey), the Rodent (Neil Summers), the Brow (Chuck Hicks) and Little Face (Lawrence Steven Meyers) at the hands of Flattop (William Forsythe) and Itchy (Ed O'Ross), two of the hoods on the payroll of Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice (Al Pacino). Big Boy's crime syndicate is aggressively taking over small businesses in the city. Detective Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) catches the urchin (who calls himself "Kid") in an act of petty theft. After rescuing him from a ruthless host, Tracy temporarily adopts him with the help of his girlfriend, Tess Truehart (Glenne Headly).
Capone (1975)
, 1h41Directed by Steve Carver
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Action, Crime
Themes Films about immigration, Mafia films, Seafaring films, Transport films, L'Outfit de Chicago, Gangster films
Actors Ben Gazzara, Harry Guardino, Susan Blakely, Sylvester Stallone, John Cassavetes, Frank Campanella
Rating57%
The story is of the rise and fall of the Chicago gangster Al Capone and the control he exhibited over the city during the prohibition years.
The Professor (1986)
, 2h48Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Origin Italie
Genres Drama, Crime
Themes Mafia films, Prison films, Gangster films
Actors Ben Gazzara, Laura del Sol, Lino Troisi, Franco Interlenghi, Leo Gullotta, Maria Carta
Rating70%
In 1963 a young petty criminal, Raffaele Cutolo, kills a man who had harassed his sister Rosaria, and ends up in prison.
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
, 1h46Directed by David Mamet
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Heist films, Gangster films, Escroquerie
Actors Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman
Rating71%
Corporate engineer Joe Ross (Campbell Scott) has invented a very lucrative, very secret industrial process. While on a corporate retreat at the resort island of St. Estèphe, he meets a wealthy stranger, Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin), and attracts the interest of one of the company's new secretaries, Susan Ricci (Rebecca Pidgeon).
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
, 1h53Directed by John McTiernan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime, Romance
Themes Peinture, Heist films, Gangster films, Escroquerie
Actors Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Ben Gazzara, Fritz Weaver, Frankie Faison
Rating67%
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an attempted robbery of precious paintings fails when museum employees discover imposters posing as staff. In all the confusion of locking down the museum and capturing the robbers, Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) slips into an adjacent room and steals the painting of San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk by Monet. The insurers of the $100 million artwork send investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) to assist NYPD Detective Michael McCann (Denis Leary) in solving the crime.
Love Streams (1984)
, 2h21Directed by John Cassavetes
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about families, Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Diahnne Abbott, Seymour Cassel, Al Ruban, Doe Avedon
Rating75%
Undergoing a messy divorce, Sarah Lawson visits her brother Robert Harmon, an alcoholic playboy and writer who is in a relationship with a professional singer. Robert is visited by his ex-wife and forced to take care of their eight-year-old son, whom he has never met before, for twenty-four hours.
Husbands (1970)
, 2h34Directed by John Cassavetes
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Actors Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Jenny Runacre, Jenny Lee-Wright, Gena Rowlands
Rating70%
Gus, Harry, and Archie (Cassavetes, Gazzara and Falk, respectively) are three husbands with families in suburban New York. All are professional men. As the film begins, they are shaken when their best friend Stuart suddenly dies of a heart attack.