She attempted to beat the mob at their own game.

She's tough...but she sides with the little guy.

And she's out to beat the mob at their own game.

A frightened neighbor asked Gloria to hide her son from the Godfather. 10 minutes the boy was an orphan. Now they want the boy dead too. But first they have to deal with.....


Gloria (Gena Rowlands), a self-involved woman in her forties who was once a mobster's mistress, is asked to look after Philip (Juan Adames), the son of her Mafia-connected Puerto Rican neighbors. This temporary set-up becomes permanent when the neighbors are killed in a mob hit. Philip has in his possession a diary containing a record of illegal Mafia activities; thus the boy is as good as dead unless Gloria takes decisive action. With Philip in tow, Gloria leads the hit men on a frantic chase around Manhattan, and during the various gunfire exchanges, more than holds her own. Offering to exchange the diary for the boy's life, Gloria is rebuffed by the vendetta-driven assassins. Where once she was content squirreling herself away in her lonely apartment, Gloria now must face a lifetime on the run. Directed on a more commercial level than was customary for John Cassavetes (with a subversive streak of self-parody in the bargain), Gloria served as an excellent showcase for Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands. The film won the Golden Lion Award at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival.


The film was remade in 1999 under the same title 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,[citation needed] and Erick Zonca's 2008 film Julia, starring Tilda Swinton.[2] 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 a corrupt DEA agent (Gary Oldman).[citation needed]. A 2009 Brazilian film titled Verônica has a similar plot, changing the main character from a gangster's girlfriend to a teacher, who try to save a student from criminals who killed his parents and are now chasing after him.

Release Date: October 1, `1980 @ The Cinema I

Distributor: Columbia

Boxoffice: $4,059,673 2013: $11,982,800

1999 Remake: $4,197,729 $6,561,000