Review of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) by Sam T — 19 Jul 2007

I'm all for character studies, and I'm a big fan of both Gazzara and Cassell (both doing excellent work here), but there's no getting around it - this film is incredibly slow; there's atmospherics, and then there's not having the discipline to lose extraneous material.

There's great stuff in here, it just needs pruning down (lose half of the club routines for starters.) I'd like to see the shorter version. Some would think it sacrilege, but this could be remade.

You'd want to get the casting right, though...