of happiness. He confesses that he is only happy when he is angry, or when he is playing the role of a person that others want him to be. He encourages the troupe to take on their theatrical personalities so that those in the audience can escape their troubles and also pretend to be who they are not. Cosmo takes the stage and tells the audience they are running late because Rachel has left and confesses to the crowd that he loved her. He walks outside and observes blood dripping from his bullet wound as the show begins. Cast Ben Gazzara as Cosmo Vittelli Timothy Carey as Flo Seymour Cassel as Mort Weil Morgan Woodward as The Boss Azizi Johari as Rachel Robert Phillips as Phil Meade Roberts as Mr. Sophistication John Red Kullers as The Accountant Al Ruban as Marty Reitz Virginia Carrington as Betty Alice Friedland as Sherry Donna Marie Gordon as Margo Haji as Haji Carol Warren as Carol Derna Wong Davis as Derna Kathalina Veniero as Annie Val Avery as Blair Soto Joe Hugh as Benny Wu John Finnegan as Lance James Lew as Wu's Bodyguard Production For a restaurant scene late in the film, Cassavetes invited a number of prominent Hollywood studio executives to play extras, but then deliberately removed all their faces from the final cut. David Bowie sat in on much of the shoot, and is visible in some club audience footage. Cassavetes had a high opinion of Bowie as an actor and held his 1983 film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, with co-star Ryuichi Sakamoto, as one of his favorite contemporary films. Release 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