The first time I saw John Cassavetes’ Gloria (1980) as a teenager I was like “I don’t know, it’s okay; not enough action scenes.” Watching it again, there is enough action scenes. However, the true action is not the shoot outs or any gun play – it’s more the indomitable Gena Rowlands herself. As the title character, Gloria, Rowlands plays a tough talking dame who becomes protector to a next door neighbour, a young Spanish kid whose whole family is massacred by the mob when the father, a criminal accountant, turns informant (a scenario copied in Leon: The Professional). Even the kid, Phil (played by John Adames) who I thought was annoying on first viewing, I now warmed to – the truth is, kids can be annoying and the kid’s character also contains that irrational, argumentative nature, which is part of the Cassavetes style, pushing and pulling between rejecting Gloria and worshipping her. Rowlands is given room by her director-writer husband to bite into the crime melodrama mould, always dropping a sarcastic rejoinder or gutsy patter to a clerk or waitress that might give her guff. All the while, developing the credible fear and stress of the situation she’s in and the slow bond formed with Phil the kid, so that it becomes completely satisfying to see her continually get the drop on the hoods who the kid, especially her taunting snarl, revolver drawn, hand beckoning: “Come on, I’d love it… I’d love it!”. Also starring Buck Henry and Julie Carmen as the doomed parents, and Bill Conti provides the heightened, heart-tugging score. Great New York location street shooting and sense of atmosphere. Quality Blu-Ray transfer by Twilight Time. While it doesn’t reach the heights of uniting genre thrills and trademark Cassavetes characterisation as The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie achieves, Gloria is still good and better than I initially remembered, particularly for something that Cassavetes dismissed as “one for them”. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 