Synopsis:

A streamlined edit of John Cassavetes’ “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” making it less of an arthouse piece and closer to a traditional gangster film.

Intentions:

The Killing of A Chinese Bookie was the first John Cassavetes film that I had even watched. I knew of him as a director and was aware that he made less traditional, off-beat films. This was his attempt at a gangster film although it still had the feel of an arthouse film. The 1978 version (the second cut of the film) that I watched felt very long and many scenes went on far too long in my opinion. After I finished watching the film I thought to myself, this would be a great movie for me to try to fanedit. I watched the 1976 (original cut) of the film to note the differences. There are many, the most obvious of which is the length. My intention with this edit was to trim or cut out as much of the extraneous scenes as possible. I wanted to make the pace faster. I also wanted to try to mold it into more a traditional gangster film. Interestingly, Martin Scorcese collaborated with Cassavetes on the plot of the movie.

Change List:

Cut list: New Logo for Faces Distribution Company New Title Cards (in the same font style as the original) Cut almost all of the strip club performance scenes (dances and songs) Cut Cosmo’s celebration at the bar. Cut the limo picking up Rachel. Changed the casino scenes. The first half is from the 1976 edition and the scenes of the doctor and wife talking to the gangsters is inserted from the 1978 edition. Cut Cosmo auditioning the waitress and Rachel attacking the waitress. Cut the waitress at the restaurant making small talk with Cosmo. Cut Cosmo wincing from the gunshot wound. Cut Cosmo at Rachel’s house talking with Rachel’s mother. Cut Flo’s conversation with Cosmo in the warehouse (“you’re an amateur, take a walk”) Cut out Flo saying “that man is my friend” Shortened the scene where the gangster is hunting Cosmo. Cut out some of Cosmo’s dialogue addressing the crowd (“how many mothers do we have in the audience”) Cut out Cosmo’s explanation for Rachel leaving and toasting Rachel. Cut out Cosmo jumping off the stage and grabbing his side and blood on his hands. New Ending: Gunshot wound reveal with Cosmo standing on the sidewalk and freeze frame. Cut out Mr. Sophistication singing “I can’t give you anything but love” Edited the original credits/shortened the credits run time. Replaced the song playing over the end credits.

Additional Notes:

I consider this fanedit an edit of the 1978 version of the original film. Most of the changes involved cutting or shortening the strip club performances. I made some small changes to a few of the scenes that left me scratching my head. I used Womble MPEG Video Wizard 5.0 for editing and DVD Lab Pro 2.0 for compiling my edit. Photoshop was used for menu design. Rogue-theX helped me with a lot of things on this edit. He made a custom logo for the production company of the original film, custom title cards, a title card for my main menu and some fantastic cover art.

Special Thanks:

A big thanks to Rogue-theX. His generosity helped make this fanedit possible. Thank you for creating the cover art, title cards and custom logo and thank you for providing feedback on the workprint. L8wrtr, thank you for your infinite patience with me. Had I not started talking to you and asking for input and feedback I’m not sure if I would have made it this far! Thank you for providing feedback, input and suggestions. Thank you for your willingness to look over small details that I had questions about. And thanks for teaching me some new editing tricks which I’m sure I will make use of on future edits. Thank you to ThrowgnCpr for feedback on my menu design. Thanks to Captain Khajiit for answering my many questions about Womble.