Martin Scorsese's Mother Was Responsible for One of the Best Moments in 'Goodfellas'

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Goodfellas is one of the most famous examples of the gangster genre, sitting just behind The Godfather trilogy in terms of films people typically name when asked for a list. Much of this has to do with the sheer number of iconic lines, characters, and scenes in the film, with Joe Pesci's "funny like a clown?" scene being the most infamous and frequently quoted at almost every movie trivia night. If there is one person we have to thank for these off-the-cuff and tone-defining moments, it would be Martin Scorsese, or, perhaps even more deserving, his mother, Catherine Scorsese.

No, this is not a case of thanking someone merely for giving birth to a titan of the film industry, though that shouldn't be overlooked. Instead, it is the direct influence Catherine had on her son's films, which goes far beyond emotional support. Not only did she appear in multiple of her son's productions, as well as acting as a caterer for the director when he was lacking funding, but she also gave viewers one of the most intriguing scenes in Goodfellas, where she improvised almost the entire scene, making it feel both natural and disturbing in the process.

Martin Scorsese's Mother Plays Tommy DeVito's Mother in 'Goodfellas'

The scene in question comes after Tommy (Joe Pesci), Henry (Ray Liotta) and Jimmy (Robert De Niro) kill a man, and they go to Tommy's mother's house to grab some equipment for disposing of the body. Tommy is very keen not to wake up his mother, yet, as soon as the three men walk in, there she is, played by Catherine Scorsese, asking the trio where they've been and telling them to sit down as she makes them food. According to Martin Scorsese, via Entertainment Weekly, when he produced a clip introducing himself and his films at the 2021 TCM Film Festival, the scene was mostly unscripted: "All we told her to do was just welcome her son home; she hasn't seen him in a while."

Molly Ringwald and Emilio Estevez looking surprised in the library in The Breakfast Club.

The scene is a testament to how improvisation can create an atmosphere better than any line can. The overlapping dialogue, complete with direct questions from Tommy’s mother about why Tommy doesn't come home enough, creates a natural tone and helps make Goodfellas feel as authentic as it does, contrasting the stylized dialogue seen throughout the aforementioned Godfather trilogy. Yet, the relaxed atmosphere serves a far darker purpose than one might assume at first, with Tommy's mother serving a crucial role in this.

'Goodfellas' Scene With Tommy's Mother Contrasts the Gangsters' Cruelty

Every scene in a narrative exists within the context of what comes before and what it sets up afterwards. With this in mind, we can see how Martin Scorsese's mother helps to show just how complex and disturbing these gangsters are, particularly Tommy. Because Catherine Scorsese plays her character with an inherent warmth and welcoming attitude, it greatly humanizes Tommy, who, up until this point, has only been seen as a violent thug. As Scorsese put it in the aforementioned introduction, Tommy "may be a psychopathic killer, but he’s still her son," implying that Catherine knows about his brutality.

What makes this even worse is when she begins asking him when he will meet a "nice girl" and "settle down," as her motherly instincts make the audience fearful of whatever poor woman would have to suffer Tommy's treatment, which no one believes would be kind. Throughout all of this, Henry's tense silence at the table, not wanting to speak because of the murder he has just witnessed, makes him a surrogate for the audience's own shock at how much the tone has shifted from the previous scene.

In the end, it is unlikely there will ever be a scene or character quite like Catherine Scorsese's in Goodfellas. Only she, due to the connection she shares with her son and the culture of Italian parenthood, could produce the kind of tone that Martin Scorsese would have been looking for, and only an improvised character could feel so realistic. There may be more explosive scenes in Goodfellas, or scenes with more significance to the overall plot. Still, none of them convey the complexity of the world Henry finds himself trapped in than when a trio of gangsters sit down for dinner with a mother who just wants to feed her son.

Goodfellas is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.