Ben Gazzara stars as Cosmo Vitelli, the owner and impresario of a strip joint, who, as the story begins, has just got out from under the burden of a debt to a loanshark when he gambles himself into a hole again.
Nokia is like the desperate home owner who is behind on mortgage, needs cash fast, finds a generous benefactor, only to discover after the mortgage has been paid that they have embraced a loanshark.
The plot of "Lost in Yonkers" sounds like the premise for a second-rate sitcom: Eddie (Dominic Comperatore) gets into hot water with a loanshark, stows his two boys (Matthew Gumley and Russell Posner) with his gargoyle-like mother (Cynthia Harris) and goofy sister (Finnerty Steeves) and goes on the lam.