John Cassavetes: Five Films

Submitted by Kevin Loy

On Criterion Collection’s box set, “John Cassavetes: Five Films” the studio has also added some cool hidden features.

On “A Woman Under The Influence, ” go to the “Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk” section. There, highlight the “Play” menu entry and then press the “Up” arrow key on your remote control to move the highlight to the right of the menu entry. Press “Enter” now and you’ll be treated to a brief excerpt of Peter Falk reading a letter to Gena from a fellow director describing the influence Cassavetes had on his own film career.

On the second disc of “The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie,” which contains the 1978 revision as well as the special features, go to the “About The Versions” section. There you will see a brief note about why two different versions were released, with a picture in the background. On this screen, highlight the “Main” menu entry and then press the “Down” arrow key on your remote control. The bottle in the photograph will now be highlighted and if you press “Enter” now you will get to see the a trailer for the movie.