Elizabeth McGovern in the Car Scene from Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Elizabeth McGovern plays Deborah in “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), Sergio Leone’s sweeping gangster epic starring Robert De Niro as Noodles. Deborah is the love of Noodles’ life, a dancer and aspiring actress who has known him for years on the Lower East Side. In this scene he arranges an extravagant night out at a seaside hotel, only for her to tell him she is leaving for Hollywood. On the drive home, in the back of the chauffeured car, Noodles assaults her, and the scene ends with her climbing out and the chauffeur looking on in disgust beside the car outside the hotel. McGovern is partly nude, and the moment is shot as a turning point that destroys any chance of a future between them. Leone presents it as a brutal act that defines Noodles as a man, and the film never asks the audience to see it as romantic. The rest of the story follows decades of loyalty, betrayal and regret among a group of Jewish gangsters in New York. A long, ambitious classic with a celebrated Ennio Morricone score.

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