TS: Killing of a Chinese Bookie 1976 cut vs. 1978 Cut

Just came in from Netflix. 135 minutes. Can't wait.

I like the shorter cut better--paradoxically, there's actually more footage in it.

That's insane. But plausible. The version I saw on BBC had a number of abrupt cuts. What was the lady going to DO with that poodle?

have the longer version on my dvr right now. feel like it'll be a while til i get to it

xp: Cassavetes added more scenes and cut some of the great amount of redundancies. but both versions have the classic assassination scene and the phonebooth scene about "THE PARIS NUMBER?" so don't sweat it.

love this movie

The books about Cassavetes are heart-breaking, with references of extremely long cuts of many of his films, almost all of which would be superior to what we can see today.

as well as the thing when cassavetes chucked hours of edits and footage from faces into the dumpster outside his office because no one wanted to archive it.

those books are heartbreaking. after reading cassavetes on cassavetes i wanted to make a t-shirt/protest banner saying PAULINE KAEL KILLED JOHN CASSAVETES.

Just came in from Netflix. 135 minutes. Can't wait.

― PappaWheelie V, Friday, February 13, 2009 3:52 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Took me long enough to watch this. It's haunting me, which I guess was to be expected.

Having seen only the long version, extremely curious about the short version. Wiki says some order of scenes was changed, which seems O_o if true.

IS this one of those films, like Superfly, where at one point this Asian gentleman walks on screen and says something like "I am really looking forward to closing my bookakers this evening and enjoying a quiet night in with the family", obvlivious to the large "ME AM TOAST" sign stuck on his forehead?

Yeah, there's this old chinese guy lounging in a pool, splashing water on the face of his concubine and the protagonist just walks up to him and shoots him. Then he gets shot in the gut and walks around as if nothing happened

Saw this for the first time a year ago today (June 12). It was a 35mm print, and we only realized it was the 1978 cut when it ended 25 minutes early. Anyway I watched the 1976 cut today and it's not as good, too shaggy.

I think the 135 minute 1976 cut was the theatrical release and the 1978 105 minute was for video or maybe rerelease.

prints of the 1978 cut are much more common:

The film's original release, at 135 minutes in length, was a commercial disappointment and the film was pulled from distribution after only seven days. At a May 17, 2008, George Eastman House screening in Rochester, Gazzara said he "hated" the original cut; "it's too long", he had told Cassavetes.

Eventually, Cassavetes decided to re-edit the film, and it was re-released in 1978 in a new 108-minute cut. The 1978 version is the one that has been in general release since that time, though both versions of the film were issued in The Criterion Collection's John Cassavetes: Five Films box set, marking the first appearance of the 1976 version since its original release.

True to Cassavetes' form, the 108-minute version is not just a simple edit of the 135-minute version. The order of several scenes has been changed, there are different edits of a few scenes, and there are a few segments unique to the 108-minute version. The bulk of the cutting in the 1978 version removed many of the nightclub routines that were in the 1976 version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_of_a_Chinese_Bookie

The bulk of the cutting in the 1978 version removed many of the nightclub routines that were in the 1976 version.

I've only seen the 135-minute cut, but I did think many of these scenes were unnecessary/too long.

same

weirdly I remember there being more stuff in the nightclub in the 1978 cut, but not musical numbers, just hanging out.

these are both o HBO Max right now and i guess i'll go with the 1978 version

Just watched the longer cut as it's the only version anyone's uploaded to YouTube, many of the nightclub performance scenes are indeed unnecessary and/or too long. Is this the only Cassavetes film that shares a cast member (Haji) with a Russ Meyer film?