A Woman Under the Influence is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes, and starring his wife Gena Rowlands and close friend Peter Falk. Rowlands plays a housewife whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband (Falk) and family.

Plot

Although she is hesitant to do so, Mabel Longhetti, a Los Angeles housewife and mother who exhibits strange behavior, sends her three young children—Tony, Angelo, and Maria—to spend the night with her mother so she and her husband, Nick, can have a date night. Unfortunately, Nick, who is the foreman of a utility crew, has to cancel to fix a burst water main. Alone and drunk, Mabel goes to a bar and behaves very familiarly to a stranger named Garson Cross, who takes her home. She is almost unconscious by the time they get there, and Garson forces himself on her while she feebly attempts to fight him off.

Awards