The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

In an absorbing performance Ben Gazzara plays small-time Sunset Strip entrepreneur Cosmo Vittelli, owner of the Crazy Horse West night spot. An obsessive showman, Cosmo navigates a murky world of loan sharks and crooks to keep his club afloat, but when a gambling debt spirals out of control he is blackmailed into accepting a murderous commission. Featuring stand-out turns by Seymour Cassel and Timothy Carey as the underworld racketeers out to fleece Cosmo, John Cassavetes' portrayal of one man's hubristic descent subverts the conventions of its genre to explore the darker side of the American dream.