Gloria

A Puerto Rican family is threatened by the Mafia because of an account book. They entrust their youngest son, Nick, to their next-door neighbor, Gloria, a former showgirl and mistress of a New York gangster. After the family is wiped out by the Mafia, the crotchety woman who hates children and the small Puerto Rican boy who can’t stand women – and who has the precious book – desperately attempt to run away, amidst shoot-outs and fights. The two develop a strong bond, as though they were mother and son. (TFF)

“Cassavetes films Rowlands, his wife, with self-deprecating adoration; the demanding man likens himself to the defenseless boy, and both are saved by this gloriously burdened woman who would kill for them.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

In the memory of actress Gena Rowlands.