Ben Gazzara’s Navy Suit for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Ben Gazzara in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Vitals
Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vitelli, strip club owner and emcee
Los Angeles, Fall 1975
Film: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Release Date: February 15, 1976
Director: John Cassavetes
Wardrobe Credit: Mary Herne
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Cassavetes re-teamed with his friend and frequent collaborator Ben Gazzara for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, a gritty neo-noir originally released 50 years ago today on February 15, 1976. The original cut ran over two hours, but feedback from audience—and Gazzara himself—resulted in Cassavetes recutting it down to a tighter 108-minute version that was re-released in 1978, maintaining its tone and ambiguously bleak ending.
“My name, if you don’t know it by now, is Cosmo Vitelli, and I own this joint,” Gazzara’s scrappy cabaret owner announces to his audience. “You know, they say everything is sex; sex is everything. Here at the Crazy Horse West, we give you a lot more than that.”
Cosmo is proud that he’s elevated his Los Angeles nightclub beyond the typical strip club, featuring more vaudevillian acts from his headliner “Mr. Sophistication and his De-Lovelies”. Cosmo balances having enough business savvy to maintain the club’s unlikely profit and the charisma to act as its occasional emcee… but without the street wisdom that would avoid excess gambling debts.
After the opportunistic gangster Mort Weil (Seymour Cassel) offers Cosmo the chance to reduce his debt by committing the titular murder, Cosmo avoids the offer by spending a day with his three favorite dancer-girlfriends until Mort’s cronies corner him at the Crazy Horse West and assault him into agreeing to their terms—giving him the target’s address, a loaded handgun, and instructions to order a dozen hamburgers that would distract the doomed bookie’s guard dogs.
What’d He Wear?
While still decidedly rooted in 1970s excess, this navy serge suit and open-neck shirt is Cosmo’s most subdued look, worn throughout the final half of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie after he’s introduced wearing a similarly tailored white jacket with dark trousers and spectator shoes, then a velvet-collared tuxedo with a frilly shirt, and finally a brief interlude in a black leather jacket and printed sport shirt.
Both dressed in the disco decade’s de riguer “uniform” of wide-lapeled jackets and shirts open down to mid-chest, Mort looks more ’70s sleazebag against Cosmo’s relatively conservative restraint.
The navy wool serge single-breasted suit jacket follows the 1930s revival trend in ’70s tailoring, with broadly padded straight shoulders and wide, full-bellied peak lapels detailed with pick stitching and high, slanted gorges. The two-button jacket has the long double vents that were characteristic of ’70s tailoring, as well as a conventional welted breast pocket and straight hip pockets covered with flaps that often get tucked into the pockets themselves. The sleeves are finished with three-button cuffs.
Cosmo briefly pulls a red rose through his suit jacket’s left lapel, echoing the fuller boutonnière he wore earlier with his tuxedo.
The suit’s matching flat-front trousers have belt loops that go unused, thus pulling them lower than their already mid-height rise on Gazzara’s waist. They have slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and slight flare below the knee down to the plain-hemmed bottoms.
Cosmo’s shirt is an almost pastel shade of mint-green, made from a stretchy synthetic fiber like Qiana—a silky nylon developed by DuPont in the 1960s. The shirt has a long point collar, a front placket that Cosmo wears with the top few buttons undone, and single-button mitred barrel cuffs.
“Hey, Rach, I’m hot,” Cosmo hands off his suit jacket.
Rather than the flashy two-tone spectator shoes that Cosmo wears with his flashy two-tone opening outfit, he pairs this more understated look with plain black leather ankle boots, styled with pointed toes and the raised heels fashionable through the ’70s. His socks are also black.
Cosmo wears all of his jewelry on his left hand, including a gold pinky ring with a close-set cluster of small round stones—likely cubic zirconia, intended to resemble diamonds. His gold dress watch has a minimalist champagne-toned dial with slim baton hour markers, contrasting with its busier braided gold bracelet.
What to Imbibe
On special occasions, Cosmo favors drinking Dom Pérignon, a champagne he touts as “the best” when serving first to Mort and later to his “entourage of biscuits” in the back of his limo. But Cosmo’s day-to-day highball is the simple combination of Scotch and water, often over ice.
Under the hot spotlights of his cabaret stage, Cosmo fortifies and cools himself with his usual Scotch highball on the rocks.
The Gun
Mort’s gangsters arm Cosmo with a Star Model B to commit the titular assassination. Spanish small arms manufacturer Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. introduced the Model A (9x23mm Largo) and Model B (9x19mm Parabellum) in the 1920s. These short recoil-operated, single-action pistols reflected the aesthetic, dimensions, and overall operation John M. Browning’s 1911 design, albeit with several key functional differences: the Model B lacks the 1911’s signature grip safety and replaces the straight trigger and internal extractor with a hinged trigger and prominent external extractor against the right side of the slide.
The Star Model B was more than just a 9mm 1911 clone, prominently adopted by both Bulgaria and Nazi Germany for limited use during World War II, with West Germany retaining the Model B in service for two decades after the war, when small lots were also purchased by Israel, Peru, South Africa, the Soviet Union, and Spain—finally replacing the .32-caliber Ruby pistol in its nation of origin.
Note the “STAR” markings clearly visible against the left side of the slide. When Cosmo had first raised the pistol, you could also see the Star Model B’s signature external extractor on the right side.
Many Hollywood productions through the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s—from The Wild Bunch to The Untouchables—swapped in the Star Model B to “star” as a .45-caliber 1911A1 pistol, as the Star’s 9mm blanks reportedly cycled with more ease than .45 ACP. Although Cosmo clearly uses a Star Model B—evident by the cosmetic differences mentioned above, as well as Star’s manufacturer markings on the slide—it still locks back after he fires his first shot at Benny Wu (Soto Joe Hugh), though it’s back in battery and ready to fire by the time Benny’s bodyguards run into the room.
How to Get the Look
Ben Gazzara in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
Although more subdued than his early wardrobe choices, Cosmo Vitelli’s navy suit and open-neck mint shirt across the second half of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie still demonstrate his signature dash of seventies sleaze—accented by his shirt’s partially unbuttoned placket and the gold flashing from his left hand.
- Navy wool serge suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide pick-stitched peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long double vents
- Flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Mint-green Qiana nylon shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button mitred cuffs
- Black leather pointed plain-toe ankle boots
- Black socks
- Gold pinky ring with clustered multi-diamond setting
- Gold dress watch with round champagne dial on braided gold bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie, included on the John Cassevetes: Five Films Criterion Collection box set.
The Quote
I’m only happy when I’m angry, when I’m sad, when I can play the fool—when I can be what people want me to be rather than be myself.
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