John Cassavetes could not find a distributor for the film after completion, and was at one point literally carrying the reels under his arm, from one theater to another, in hopes of getting one to play his movie. Finally, Martin Scorsese, who had recently become critically acclaimed following his film Calles peligrosas (1973) happened to be a huge fan of Cassavetes' work and threatened to pull his film Alicia ya no vive aquí (1974) from a major New York film festival unless they accepted this film.
John Cassavetes initially wrote the film as a play, but his wife Gena Rowlands talked him out of it, stating the role would be far too harrowing and exhausting to play night after night.
In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," one of the first 50 films to be so honored.
Voted Best Actress (Gena Rowlands) and One of the Year's Ten Best English-Language Films by the 1974 National Board of Review.
In 2015, the BBC named "A Woman Under the Influence" the 31st greatest American film ever made.
Voted Best Actress (Gena Rowlands) and One of the Year's Ten Best English-Language Films by the 1974 National Board of Review.
In 2015, the BBC named "A Woman Under the Influence" the 31st greatest American film ever made.
To help fund the film, John Cassavetes remortgaged his home and Peter Falk chipped in with some of his earnings from Columbo (1971), in total $500,000. When no one wanted to buy "Influence," Cassavetes spent $750,000, most of it his own money, to release it, with the guidance of young distributor Jeff Lipsky. He helped to "four-wall" or rent out movie theaters to show the film and it ended up playing around the world, eventually grossing $12 million.
The two women Mabel asks the time on the street, while waiting for the school bus, were Gena Rowlands's real-life friends from school.