J.R. is a typical CatholicItalian-American young man on the streets of New York City. Even as an adult, he stays close to home with a core group of friends with whom he drinks and parties. He gets involved with a local girl he meets on the Staten Island Ferry, and decides he wants to get married and settle down. As their relationship deepens, he declines her offer to have sex because he thinks she is a virgin and he wants to wait rather than "spoil" her.[2]
One day, his girlfriend tells him that she was once raped by a former boyfriend. This crushes J.R., and he rejects her and attempts to return to his old life of drinking with his friends. However, after a particularly wild party with friends, he realizes he still loves her and returns to her apartment one early morning. He awkwardly tells her that he forgives her and says that he will "marry her anyway."[2] Upon hearing this, the girl tells him marriage would never work if her past weighs on him so much. J.R. becomes enraged and calls her a whore,[2] but quickly recants and says he is confused by the whole situation. She tells him to go home, and he returns to the Catholic church, but finds no solace.
The first draft of the film was under the title Bring on the Dancing Girls. Scorsese shot footage in Little Italy of J.R. and his friends participating in "fights, drinking sessions, orgies", but Scorsese stated that it was "a disaster and everybody hated it". Haig P. Manoogian, his former professor, told him to write new scenes featuring the girl and expand upon J.R. inner conflict.[4]Who's That Knocking at My Door was filmed in New York City over the course of two years, undergoing many changes, new directions and different names along the way. The film began in 1965 by Scorsese as a student short film about J.R. and his do-nothing friends. In 1967, the romance plot with Zina Bethune was introduced and spliced together with the earlier film, and the title was changed to I Call First. Manoogian provided $5,000 (about $49,000 in 2024) in seed money before raising an additional $65,000 (about $634,000 in 2024) from independent investors.[5]
The film was shot with a combination of 35 mm and 16 mm cameras. Scorsese shot most of the 35 mm footage with a Mitchell BNC camera, a very cumbersome camera that impeded mobility. He opted to shoot several scenes with the 16 mm Eclair NPR camera in order to introduce greater mobility, then blow up the footage to 35 mm.[citation needed] Much of the film editing work was done by Robert Groden, who also was the first person to show the Zapruder Film on National Television in 1975.
Scorsese was unable to find a distributor for the film and moved to Amsterdam, where he directed commercials with Richard Coll. Manoogian told Scorsese that Joseph Brenner, a exploitation distributor, wanted to distribute the film as a way to enter the mainstream industry. Brenner requested that a nude scene be added and Scorsese filmed one over the course of two days in Amsterdam with Keitel and Anne Collette. Max Fisher was the cinematographer for this scene as Coll was sick.[6]
The film was re-issued in February 1970 by Medford Film Distribution under the title J.R..[7][8] However, all subsequent releases have been published under the 1968 title.
Reception
American critic Roger Ebert gave the film an extremely positive review after its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival in November 1967 (when it still went by the name I Call First). He called the film "a work that is absolutely genuine, artistically satisfying and technically comparable to the best films being made anywhere. I have no reservations in describing it as a great moment in American movies."[9]Variety described the film as "more of a class exercise than a commercially sound film". The review later stated, "Scorsese occasionally brings the film to life, as in a weekend drive by J.R. and two buddies to an upstate village where the camera shows up their 'big city' shallowness in comparison to the townspeople. Generally, however, his script and direction lack any dramatic value and give far too much exposure to sexual fantasies on the part of the boy."[10]
When the film received its theatrical release more than a year later, Ebert admitted that he had been perhaps too eager with his first review, admitting that "Scorsese was occasionally too obvious, and the film has serious structural flaws." However, he was still highly positive towards the film, and suggested that "It is possible that with more experience and maturity Scorsese will direct more polished, finished films."[11]Vincent Canby of The New York Times acknowledged that Scorsese has "composed a fluid, technically proficient movie, more intense and sincere than most commercial releases." However, he felt Scorsese hadn't "succeeded in making a drama that is really much more aware than the characters themselves. The result is a movie that is as precise—and as small—as a contact print."[2]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]
Notable appearances and cameos
Martin Scorsese's mother, Catherine, appears briefly as J.R.'s mother cooking at the beginning of the film and serving food near the end. Mrs. Scorsese would continue to appear in many of her son's films until her death in 1997. Scorsese himself appears uncredited as one of the gangsters. To this day, he still makes cameo appearances in many of his films.
