Great film! Very 70s and very Cassavetes. This is all about the characters and not the story. The plot outline would, or certainly should, bore you rigid but here there are no hoodlum clichés, no nightclub clichés and no little big man clichés. Ben Gazzara is superb as the club owner who gets into trouble, out of trouble and then right back in again. It is a spot on performance that has us believing in him from the start. The strippers at the club, I understand, are, or at least some of them were, actual performers at the actual club, Crazy Horse West, where the movie was largely shot. A little puzzling now and again the film nevertheless moves well against its sleazy background and constant sense of mob menace. For once the mobsters are largely portrayed as nasty, psychotic pricks instead of some Disney like Mr Cool. I have watched the shorter, re-cut version that I know is partly re-edited from the original longer release but does include material cut from the original. Now I don't know whether to simply watch this again, it was so good, or watch the other version. Such a delightful dilemma.