In general, I think it seems like a bad idea for a director to work with his or her spouse in a film, as this feels likely to arouse concerns of favoritism and other conflicts. However, it turned out fine for John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, with 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence right in the middle of the 10 films they made toward over their 35 years of marriage.

Utility crew foreman Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) and housewife Mabel (Rowlands) live with their young children Tony (Matthew Cassel), Angelo (Matthew Laborteaux), and Maria (Christina Grisanti) in Southern California. After a work emergency scuttles their date night with the kids out of the house, Mabel flirts with stranger Garson Cross (OG Dunn) at a bar and ends up raped by him.

Already less than stable mentally, this sends Mabel into even more of a spiral. Nick tries to deal with his wife’s decline while he also keeps the family together.

To my surprise, this screening of Influence represented my first acquaintance with the Cassavetes filmography – at least behind the camera. I knew him as an actor from films such as 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby but despite awareness of flicks he directed like 1976’s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, I never viewed any of these flicks until this 2026 Blu-ray.

Does Influence prompt me to want to check out more of the Cassavetes directorial filmography? Not in the least, as it became a chore to endure.

To my surprise, the talented Rowlands becomes a major impediment. Though Cassavetes adopts a naturalistic style to the proceedings and the other actors follow suit, Rowlands goes wholly over the top as Mabel.

I suspect Cassavetes wanted Rowlands to follow this route to make her pathology more obvious. Since everyone else acts in a “normal” fashion, Rowlands’ performance makes Mabel’s mental issues seem more glaring in contrast.

In theory, I get that, but Rowlands goes so far into Nuttyville that she becomes literally laughable. The actor earned – and continues to receive – ample praise for her work but these plaudits absolutely perplex me.

Rowlands makes Mabel an absolute cartoon character. With facial expressions reminiscent of Harpo Marx and a demeanor more at home in a 1930s screwball comedy, Rowlands utterly fails to evoke a believable or compelling character.

Mabel ends up as a one-dimensional version of a person with mental illness. Rowlands doesn’t bring a single note of truth in this shockingly awful performance.

Had Rowlands restrained herself, I’d like Influence more, but its potential remains limited due to its sluggish pace and inherent lack of plot. Granted, a version of Influence that managed to dig into its lead could become involving, but Cassavetes wastes too much time on superfluous and padded scenes.

For instance, we get an extended look at a meal Mabel hosts for Nick and his crew. Although this eventually comes to conflict between Nick and Mabel, it takes far too long to get there.

I get what Cassavetes wanted to do here, and I understand that he felt the desire to subvert standard Hollywood storytelling. In theory, these choices could make Influence feel more realistic.

Instead, Cassavetes’ decisions ultimately highlight the artificial nature of cinema. We end up so bored by these long explorations of nothing that the eventual drama stands out as forced and predictable.

All these extended journeys into monotony mean Influence runs much longer than it should. Cassavetes could easily lose 40 minutes of padding and the film would fare better.

But Influence would continue to suffer from Rowlands’ downright goofy lead performance. Without a grounded main character, the film can’t prosper, so this winds up a slow and silly take on mental illness.

A Woman Under the Influence appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though I suspect it largely replicated the source, this nonetheless became a less than attractive presentation.

Sharpness turned into a variable, as the film could often lean soft and it rarely seemed particularly well-defined. Again, this did seem to stem from the original photography, but the lack of delineation could distract.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain leaned heavy and outside of a few small specks, print flaws remained absent.

The film’s palette veers toward a ruddy sense of amber with a mix of other tones as well. The colors felt a bit heavy but not bad.

Blacks came across as dense and low-light shots brought acceptable delineation. As mentioned, I assume the less-than-appealing nature of the image mainly related to the original photography, but I still didn’t feel like I could offer high marks to such an inherently bland presentation.

As for the movie’s LPCM monaural soundtrack, it felt adequate given its age and ambitions. A chatty flick, dialogue could seem a little distant but the lines still remained easily intelligible for the most part.

Music lacked much range but these bits nonetheless offered acceptable clarity. While effects played a small part in this character drama, they came with decent accuracy, albeit no real punch. Ultimately this felt like a track that matched expectations.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from sound recordist/composer Bo Harwood and camera operator Michael Ferris. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion of audio and music, cinematography, working with director John Cassavetes and cast/crew, and other memories of the shoot.

Harwood and Ferris combine for a reasonably good chat, albeit one that leans more heavily on praise for the film and those involved than I’d prefer. Still, we get enough useful notes about the production to make the track worth a listen.

Shot for a 2004 Criterion DVD, we get a chat with actors Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk that goes for 17 minutes, 15 seconds and features the pair in conversation with each other as they discuss their experiences on Influence and elsewhere. I love that we see the performers together and they bring a fine look at their work.

Recorded in 1975, an audio interview with writer/director John Cassavetes spans one hour, 14 minutes, 47 seconds as he discusses his career, his working style and aspects of Influence. The filmmaker delivers a solid chat about these domains.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, the disc concludes with five Production Galleries that cover “An Unbreakable Date/Morning” (25 stills), “After School/Five Points” (10), “Accident/Beach” (11), “Mabel’s Return” (18) and “Crew” (5). These mainly show behind the scenes shots from the production and they offer a decent compilation.

The package concludes with a booklet that includes photos, credits, an essay from critic Kent Jones and a 1975 interview with Cassavetes. It finishes matters on a positive note.

As a depiction of mental illness, A Woman Under the Influence suffers from a borderline campy lead performance from its lead actor. Add to that an overly long running time and too many monotonous scenes and we wind up with a pretty awful movie. The Blu-ray comes with adequate picture and audio as well as a mix of supplements. Though viewed as a great flick by many, I can’t find many positives in this goofy drama.