Gloria (film)
Encyclopedia
Gloria is a 1980 film written and directed by John Cassavetes
. It tells the story of a gangster's girlfriend
who goes on the run with a young boy who is being hunted by the mob for information he may or may not have. It stars Gena Rowlands
, Julie Carmen
, Buck Henry
and John Adames.
Cassavetes did not originally intend to direct his screenplay; he planned merely to sell the story to Columbia Pictures
. However, once his wife, Gena Rowlands, was asked to play the title character in the film, she asked Cassavetes to direct it.
The film begins on a very hot day with Jack's young and attractive Puerto Rican wife, Jeri,played by Julie Carmen, returning from the grocery store by bus to their less than desirable apartment building. One of the mob crew's henchmen is in the lobby to monitor her movements, as well as the whereabouts of the rest of her family. The actual hit men have not yet arrived, because they somehow got lost in traffic and took a couple of wrong turns. Otherwise, the deed would have already been done before Jeri arrived home.
Like Jack, Jeri Dawn more or less calmly accepts her marked fate, knowing that the mob will track them down no matter where they might run to. However, they want their two children to escape. And Jack wants his 6-year old son, Phil, to take the aforementioned book with him, hoping that it will be the bargaining chip that might save his life. Phil's older sister, Joan, refuses to leave with him for some reason.
By coincidence, Gloria (who lives down the hall and around the corner) comes knocking and looking for her friend, Jeri, to borrow something. Gloria is a still curvy and attractive but late-fortyish/early-fiftyish mobster's onetime mistress. She's in the final stages of retiring from her former life, which she plans to finance with money and jewelry that she keeps in a bank's safety deposit box.
The hit men arrive down in the lobby, discussing the weather and traffic as if what they are about to do is simply routine business for them. And it is, of course. After all, they have no conscience when it comes to conducting their violent behavior on behalf of their mob bosses.
Upstairs in the apartment, Jack and Jeri are frantic to persuade Gloria to take Phil (and the book) with her. She refuses and then relents. Before departing (the hit men now on their way upstairs), Phil is told by his father, Jack, that he is now the head of the family...the man.
While Phil is held in Gloria's apartment, who for the first time copes with the presence of a child, a bunch of gangsters breaks into to the family's apartment and kill them all. Phil tries to escape from the apartment, and when he fails, he lashes out at Gloria with his meager vocabulary, to no avail. Gloria On the other hand tries to comfort the child facing the impossible situation. Soon she realizes that they cannot stay long in the building and that they need to escape. She packs up her necessary belongings and runs away with Phil to a hotel.
The next morning Phil escapes from the hotel but soon finds out he has nowhere to go, and returns a few short moments before Gloria leaves. He confronts her trying to prove his masculine authority, but soon breaks at Gloria's strictness. Down the stairs they discover that a group of gangsters have found their location, and further more, that they are Gloria's old time friends. She escapes with Phil from the hotel and tries explaining to him about her past and relationship to the murderers of his family. She adds about her time in jail and that any relation between them could endanger her, but just then the gangsters find them. They give her the choice of turning over Phil with the book, but Gloria starts shooting over them, making the car crash in its escape.
As results of her actions Gloria realizes that the fate of Phil and hers is the same, and that they have to escape from New York. She goes to the bank to withdraw all her savings and plans to catch a train to Pittsburg. On the bus on the way back she meets one of her former friends from the mafia, who scolds her for her careless behavior. Gloria hurries to get off the bus with Phil and runs away to the outskirts of the city to spend the night in a seedy motel. Entering the bed Phil tries to flirt with Gloria, just like a real man, but she quickly reminds him the position of each one.
The next day Gloria takes Phil to a cemetery to say a proper prayer in memory of his family and sends him to choose a marble to stand in front of. Upon facing his family's death, Phil breaks, says a few short words and returns to Gloria. Back in the city they go to the train station to purchase tickets to Pittsburgh. They sit in a diner to eat breakfast, but few minutes later a bunch of gangsters take a sit next to them and Gloria goes armed to their table with the book to close a deal. The gangsters refuse, saying that the only authority to decide on is by a mob Tenzini, and Gloria discharge their pistols, running back to her apartment to spend the night.
The next day Gloria includes Phil with her plans to send him away to a boarding school. Offended of her intentions Phil claims that he is an independent grown man who can manage alone and Gloria decides to play by his rules. She leaves him alone but soon filled with guilt and rush back to the streets of the Bronx looking for him. When he's found eventually a group of gangsters takes him into a decrepit prostitutes apartment, but after a short guns fight Gloria extract him out of there and runs away to an unknown destination in the city.
After a long runaway throughout the city the two settle in a hotel room. Gloria comes to the conclusion that the mafia is too strong and there is no telling how far they will pursue them as long as they have book. She includes Phil with her plan to go to the mafia headquarters by herself, trying to deal with them. So she says that in her past she was a girlfriend of one of them, Tony Tenzini, and perhaps their former relations are their last chance. She requires Phil to leave the hotel three hours after she leaves, when if she does not return, it means she's dead.
After the meeting is set Gloria arrives at the prestigious tenement of the mafia. At the elite apartment a group of armed gangsters waiting for her arrival, but leave her alone when Tony arrive. While discussing with her former lover Gloria tries to protect Phil, explaining of his special nature, and calls him the man in her life. Toward the end of the meeting Gloria realizes that her life is in jeopardy, on way or another. She leaves the book fleeing for her life, covering herself by shooting at the armed gangsters.
Once he's out of time Phil escapes with the money Gloria left him and drives to the train station where he buys a ticket to Pittsburgh. He arrives by himself to the strange city, hires a taxi and ask to get to a nearby cemetery, where he would like to speak with Gloria. In the cemetery a car suddenly arrives and out comes Gloria covered with blacks and a wig. Phil excited when it turns out that Gloria was able to escape from New York City and the two reunite.
plays Jack Dawn, an accountant for the mob. His murder leaves both his ledger and his son in the care of Gloria.
Julie Carmen plays Jeri Dawn
Tom Noonan
, J.C. Quinn, and Sonny Landham
appear in the film as various mob henchmen.
Lawrence Tierney
makes a cameo as a bartender. He is never seen in close-up and only briefly appears in profile.
Bill Avery
is an extra in this movie
for the picture, and the film won the Golden Lion
award at the Venice Film Festival
, tying with Atlantic City. The young boy Gloria was protecting, played by John Adames, tied with Sir Laurence Olivier
for the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie award of 1980.
with a screenplay by Steve Antin
and directed by Sidney Lumet
. It starred Sharon Stone
and Jean-Luke Figueroa.
Other films inspired by Gloria include Ultraviolet
(2006), which uses the premise of a woman on the run with a little boy and transposes the story to a dystopian futuristic setting, and Erick Zonca
's 2008 film Julia
, starring Tilda Swinton
. Luc Besson
's film Léon
also was inspired by Gloria, with actor Jean Reno
playing the accidental guardian of a young girl (Natalie Portman
) whose family was murdered by corrupt DEA
agents.
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
. It tells the story of a gangster's girlfriend
Gun moll
Gun moll is a term that refers to the female companion of a male professional criminal. In some contexts, gun moll more specifically suggests that the woman handles a firearm....
who goes on the run with a young boy who is being hunted by the mob for information he may or may not have. It stars Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
, Julie Carmen
Julie Carmen
Julie Carmen is an American actress, dancer and a licensed psychotherapist.She came to prominence onscreen in the 1980s, winning the Venice Film Festival Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in John Cassavetes' film, Gloria. Her acting training was with Sanford Meisner at Neighborhood...
, Buck Henry
Buck Henry
Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
and John Adames.
Cassavetes did not originally intend to direct his screenplay; he planned merely to sell the story to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. However, once his wife, Gena Rowlands, was asked to play the title character in the film, she asked Cassavetes to direct it.
Plot
In the Bronx borough of New York City, an entire Anglo-Puerto Rican family is marked by the local mob, an unforgiving and brutal crew of mobsters and wise guys. The reason that the family is going to be executed is because the Anglo father, Jack Dawn (a bean counting nerd), has betrayed his employer (said mobsters). Jack is not only skimming hundreds of thousand dollars off the top of his employer's profits (that he has been hired to keep complete track of - or else), but is also keeping the FBI informed as to the mob's second set of books (the first set being for income tax purposes). Simultaneous with the preceding, Jack is also keeping a third set of books for himself, one small book in particular that details the mob's major sources of illegal profits.The film begins on a very hot day with Jack's young and attractive Puerto Rican wife, Jeri,played by Julie Carmen, returning from the grocery store by bus to their less than desirable apartment building. One of the mob crew's henchmen is in the lobby to monitor her movements, as well as the whereabouts of the rest of her family. The actual hit men have not yet arrived, because they somehow got lost in traffic and took a couple of wrong turns. Otherwise, the deed would have already been done before Jeri arrived home.
Like Jack, Jeri Dawn more or less calmly accepts her marked fate, knowing that the mob will track them down no matter where they might run to. However, they want their two children to escape. And Jack wants his 6-year old son, Phil, to take the aforementioned book with him, hoping that it will be the bargaining chip that might save his life. Phil's older sister, Joan, refuses to leave with him for some reason.
By coincidence, Gloria (who lives down the hall and around the corner) comes knocking and looking for her friend, Jeri, to borrow something. Gloria is a still curvy and attractive but late-fortyish/early-fiftyish mobster's onetime mistress. She's in the final stages of retiring from her former life, which she plans to finance with money and jewelry that she keeps in a bank's safety deposit box.
The hit men arrive down in the lobby, discussing the weather and traffic as if what they are about to do is simply routine business for them. And it is, of course. After all, they have no conscience when it comes to conducting their violent behavior on behalf of their mob bosses.
Upstairs in the apartment, Jack and Jeri are frantic to persuade Gloria to take Phil (and the book) with her. She refuses and then relents. Before departing (the hit men now on their way upstairs), Phil is told by his father, Jack, that he is now the head of the family...the man.
While Phil is held in Gloria's apartment, who for the first time copes with the presence of a child, a bunch of gangsters breaks into to the family's apartment and kill them all. Phil tries to escape from the apartment, and when he fails, he lashes out at Gloria with his meager vocabulary, to no avail. Gloria On the other hand tries to comfort the child facing the impossible situation. Soon she realizes that they cannot stay long in the building and that they need to escape. She packs up her necessary belongings and runs away with Phil to a hotel.
The next morning Phil escapes from the hotel but soon finds out he has nowhere to go, and returns a few short moments before Gloria leaves. He confronts her trying to prove his masculine authority, but soon breaks at Gloria's strictness. Down the stairs they discover that a group of gangsters have found their location, and further more, that they are Gloria's old time friends. She escapes with Phil from the hotel and tries explaining to him about her past and relationship to the murderers of his family. She adds about her time in jail and that any relation between them could endanger her, but just then the gangsters find them. They give her the choice of turning over Phil with the book, but Gloria starts shooting over them, making the car crash in its escape.
As results of her actions Gloria realizes that the fate of Phil and hers is the same, and that they have to escape from New York. She goes to the bank to withdraw all her savings and plans to catch a train to Pittsburg. On the bus on the way back she meets one of her former friends from the mafia, who scolds her for her careless behavior. Gloria hurries to get off the bus with Phil and runs away to the outskirts of the city to spend the night in a seedy motel. Entering the bed Phil tries to flirt with Gloria, just like a real man, but she quickly reminds him the position of each one.
The next day Gloria takes Phil to a cemetery to say a proper prayer in memory of his family and sends him to choose a marble to stand in front of. Upon facing his family's death, Phil breaks, says a few short words and returns to Gloria. Back in the city they go to the train station to purchase tickets to Pittsburgh. They sit in a diner to eat breakfast, but few minutes later a bunch of gangsters take a sit next to them and Gloria goes armed to their table with the book to close a deal. The gangsters refuse, saying that the only authority to decide on is by a mob Tenzini, and Gloria discharge their pistols, running back to her apartment to spend the night.
The next day Gloria includes Phil with her plans to send him away to a boarding school. Offended of her intentions Phil claims that he is an independent grown man who can manage alone and Gloria decides to play by his rules. She leaves him alone but soon filled with guilt and rush back to the streets of the Bronx looking for him. When he's found eventually a group of gangsters takes him into a decrepit prostitutes apartment, but after a short guns fight Gloria extract him out of there and runs away to an unknown destination in the city.
After a long runaway throughout the city the two settle in a hotel room. Gloria comes to the conclusion that the mafia is too strong and there is no telling how far they will pursue them as long as they have book. She includes Phil with her plan to go to the mafia headquarters by herself, trying to deal with them. So she says that in her past she was a girlfriend of one of them, Tony Tenzini, and perhaps their former relations are their last chance. She requires Phil to leave the hotel three hours after she leaves, when if she does not return, it means she's dead.
After the meeting is set Gloria arrives at the prestigious tenement of the mafia. At the elite apartment a group of armed gangsters waiting for her arrival, but leave her alone when Tony arrive. While discussing with her former lover Gloria tries to protect Phil, explaining of his special nature, and calls him the man in her life. Toward the end of the meeting Gloria realizes that her life is in jeopardy, on way or another. She leaves the book fleeing for her life, covering herself by shooting at the armed gangsters.
Once he's out of time Phil escapes with the money Gloria left him and drives to the train station where he buys a ticket to Pittsburgh. He arrives by himself to the strange city, hires a taxi and ask to get to a nearby cemetery, where he would like to speak with Gloria. In the cemetery a car suddenly arrives and out comes Gloria covered with blacks and a wig. Phil excited when it turns out that Gloria was able to escape from New York City and the two reunite.
Supporting cast
Buck HenryBuck Henry
Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
plays Jack Dawn, an accountant for the mob. His murder leaves both his ledger and his son in the care of Gloria.
Julie Carmen plays Jeri Dawn
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan
Tom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
, J.C. Quinn, and Sonny Landham
Sonny Landham
William M. "Sonny" Landham is an American movie actor and political candidate.-Acting career:At the beginning of his acting career, Landham was an actor in pornographic films...
appear in the film as various mob henchmen.
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney
Lawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
makes a cameo as a bartender. He is never seen in close-up and only briefly appears in profile.
Bill Avery
Bill Avery
Bill Avery is an elected member of the Nebraska Legislature and a retired adjunct professor of political science, specializing in international trade and foreign relations, from Lincoln, Nebraska....
is an extra in this movie
Awards
Gena Rowlands was nominated for the Academy Award for Best ActressAcademy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for the picture, and the film won the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
award at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, tying with Atlantic City. The young boy Gloria was protecting, played by John Adames, tied with Sir Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
for the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie award of 1980.
Remakes and Influences
The film was remade in 1999 under the same titleGloria (1999 film)
Gloria is a remake of the 1980 film written and directed by John Cassavetes. It was directed by Sidney Lumet and starred Sharon Stone as Gloria. It is also notable as George C. Scott's final film...
with a screenplay by Steve Antin
Steve Antin
Steven Howard "Steve" Antin is an American actor, stunt man, screenwriter, producer, and director.-Early life:Antin was born in Queens, New York, the son of British Jewish immigrants...
and directed by Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
. It starred Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct...
and Jean-Luke Figueroa.
Other films inspired by Gloria include Ultraviolet
Ultraviolet (film)
Ultraviolet is a 2006 American science fiction action film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer and produced by Screen Gems. It stars Milla Jovovich as Violet Song and Cameron Bright as Six. It was released in North America on March 3, 2006...
(2006), which uses the premise of a woman on the run with a little boy and transposes the story to a dystopian futuristic setting, and Erick Zonca
Erick Zonca
Erick Zonca is a French film director, best known for his critically acclaimed, award-winning 1998 feature film debut The Dreamlife of Angels. The film won the Best Actress award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival....
's 2008 film Julia
Julia (2008 film)
Julia is a 2008 French crime drama film, directed by Erick Zonca, starring Tilda Swinton. It was shot in California and Mexico. The film was inspired by the John Cassavetes film Gloria.-Plot:...
, starring Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
. Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
's film Léon
Léon (film)
Léon is a 1994 French thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson...
also was inspired by Gloria, with actor Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...
playing the accidental guardian of a young girl (Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
) whose family was murdered by corrupt DEA
DEA
DEA is the commonly used acronym for the Drug Enforcement Administration, a United States law enforcement agency.DEA or Dea may also refer to:- Organizations :* DEA , UK development education charity...
agents.