The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)

Dependable character actor Ben Gazzara plays nightclub owner Cosmo Vitelli in a prime example of the gritty lo-fi '70s crime genre that has now sadly been almost completely squashed by fast-edit bulldozers with stylised violence. Up to his neck with a gambling debt to the mob, he is forced by them to execute one of their rivals and a happy ending is never in sight after that.
It's fair to say that some elements of the film have dated badly, including the technical work, and the cabaret-come-striptease show that is the crowd-puller at the club is cringeworthily twee, but the core story of a man struggling under the yoke of his own pride and foolishness as much as the pressure of the gangsters is a grippingly strong one. The tone manages to be sardonic rather than just wise-cracking in the mob banter scenes, and there is as little posturing in these as there is in the eventual moments of violence.

7/10