Filmmaker John Cassavetes originally wrote the screenplay for this genre melodrama to make money. But when spouse Gena Rowlands was cast in the lead, she asked her husband to direct. A mob accountant (Buck Henry) and his family have been marked for death since Henry has turned informant. When neighbor Gloria (Rowlands), a gang boss’ ex-girlfriend, knocks on the door to borrow some coffee, Henry’s wife begs Gloria to take her kids. Gloria reluctantly agrees, but is only able to spirit away the son when the daughter barricades herself in the bathroom. Minutes afterwards, Gloria hears gunfire, and dragging the kid with her, they go on the run through the boroughs of New York, one step ahead of certain death. One remembers Cassavetes as an actor in Elaine May’s quirky mob drama Mikey and Nicky, not to mention directing his own Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and one wonders what it would have been like if he had made more crime films with his naturalistic style and refusal to follow formulaic conventions.
“Rowlands is typically superb as the tough talking New York moll – half-whore, half-mother… Cassavetes and the two leads keep maudlin sentimentality at bay until the very bitter end… Terrific.” – Time Out
