Irish Film Institute -GLORIA

GLORIA

Director: JOHN CASSAVETES

U.S.A| • 1980 • COLOUR • DOLBY STEREO • 121 MIN


GLORIA IS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYABLE FILMS IN CASSAVETES’ CAREER. IT IS A GANGSTER MOVIE, TOLD WITH NONE OF THE DAWDLING DISTRACTEDNESS OF CHINESE BOOKIE BUT WITH A SUPPLE, SINEWY PANACHE.
The original motive for the screenplay was to provide a role for his wife, Gena Rowlands, and also for MGM’s then champion moppet, Ricky Schroder. In the event, Schroder went to Disney, the script passed to Columbia, and they agreed to it as a vehicle for Rowlands. Having supplied a commercial product, Cassavetes then set about turning it into a personal film. The moppet becomes the six-year-old child of a Mafia accountant (Buck Henry) and his Puerto Rican wife; moments before the family is exterminated for having talked to the FBI, the boy (John Adames) is passed on to exgangster’s moll Gloria (Rowlands). What follows is conventional odd-couple comedy, but Cassavetes directs it delightfully for all the set-pieces are worth, before directing it away from the moral dead-end of a violent denouement.

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