While studying film at NYU under professor Haig Manoogian, a young Martin Scorsese penned a planned trilogy of semi-autobiographical screenplays that chronicled the coming of age of a young Italian-American man growing up in New York's lower east side. The first script, titled Jerusalem, Jerusalem, followed the central character as a teenager studying in a seminary to become a priest. The second, Bring On the Dancing Girls, dealt with the conflict between his Catholic views and sexual realities. And the third, Season of the Witch, depicted his initiation into the lower echelons of the mafia in Little Italy.
Bring On the Dancing Girls began production as a short student film at NYU, eventually expanding into a feature, Scorsese's first. It was originally screened with the title I Call First at the Chicago Film Fest in 1967, but it was theatrically released with the title Who's That Knocking at My Door in 1969.
The film deals with Catholic guilt perhaps more explicitly than any of Scorsese's subsequent features. The young protagonist, J.R (Harvey Keitel in his first film role)., is a typical young guy living in New York's Little Italy, spending his weekend nights cruising around with his group of friends, killing time by drinking, shooting the shit, seeing movies, trying to get laid. He's young, smart, and hopelessly bored.
A strong sense of everyday, mundane boredom pervades the film. We get the strong sense that J.R.'s nights out with his friends are painfully routine, and that he has perhaps lived the same night many nights over. This makes it all the more important when J.R. meets a beautiful, unnamed young woman (Zina Bethune) on the ferry. The two make a connection in their conversations about John Wayne movies. The two begin seeing each other and J.R. falls desperately in love.
The extend of J.R.'s affection is apparent in his treatment of "the girl" as compared to how he and his friends treat other women in their sexual exploits. In one scene at a party, him and his friends interact with two girls whom they have never met before. The girls have clearly been invited to the party for the purpose of sex, and nothing else. J.R. and his friends view the women as sexual objects, present only to be used to fulfill the desires of the young men.
By comparison, J.R. views Bethune's character as an almost angelic figure. He idealizes her to an extreme degree and places her on a pedestal high above all other girls. He declines to engage in sexual activity with her, which he so readily pursues with other girls he does not hold in the same esteem.
It is through these relationships that J.R.'s skewed views on sex and on women become clear. The forbidden, Catholic view of sex that has been drilled into J.R. manifests itself intensely in these interactions. He views sex as a sin, and women who practice it are therefore tainted. J.R. can never view the girls at the party as women worthy of his affection. They are, through their sins, lesser than him. On the other hand, Bethune's character is an unreachable goddess. J.R. can't bring himself to make love to her because, by doing so, he will taint her through her own sexuality.
On paper, the problems of this sexist viewpoint are apparent. However, these problems manifest themselves for J.R. when "the girl" confesses to him that she is not a virgin; she was raped by the last boy she was romantically involved with. J.R.'s view of her is instantly poisoned with this news, and he walks away from the conversation, unable to cope.
It is at this point that the issues of conflict and guilt truly begin to plague J.R. He is able to see how his feelings and beliefs contradict the logic of the situation; he loves the girl, but his image of her that lead him to love her has been destroyed. Although she is logically innocent, she is still theologically impure.
His complex highlights not just the problems of just this particular relationship, but of J.R.'s romantic aspirations as a whole. J.R.'s views result in his complete inability to achieve romantic happiness to any degree; he can never be with a woman he considers below him, but he also can't have any woman he deems worthy, because once he does have her, he himself spoils her.
What makes the film particularly brilliant is that it chooses not to condemn J.R.'s obviously sexist beliefs, but rather forces the audience to identify with them. The film does not condone the beliefs either; it makes it explicitly clear that the girl is not a bad person but a smart, independent, and capable girl who was, tragically, the victim of a brutal crime. J.R., too, is able to see this from a logical standpoint, but is unable to reconcile this logic with his belief system.
The film doesn't demonize or endorse Catholicism or sexism, but rather explores the emotional landscape that results from the conflict between belief and emotion, logic and faith, teaching and experience. It is clear that Scorsese sympathizes with the female character, and sees J.R.'s dismissal of her as repugnant. But this is J.R.'s film, and although the film allows the viewer to pass judgment on the character rather than doing so itself.
In fact, a strong sense of Catholic identity is apparent throughout the film. Catholic imagery can be found in every nook and cranny of this movie. The fantasy sequence in which J.R. is tied to the bed makes Keitel look uncannily like a crucified Christ. Religious icons fill J.R.'s home, and we get the sense that, even when he is not explicitly dealing with religion, his religious identity manifests itself in every aspect of his life. The film's final scene, in which J.R. cuts his lip on a crucifix while kissing it, is a perfect piece of symbolism that illustrates the double-edged sword of J.R.'s religious identity, and how his church brings him both peace and pain.
Watching the film, one intrinsically gets the feeling that Scorsese truly understands this material. This film is the first example of dozens by Scorsese that deal with Catholic guilt, and the inability to reconcile one's Catholic beliefs and lessons with their experience of the world and their feelings towards it. J.R. doesn't think that the girl has done something wrong, but he believes it. The film is not for everyone, but for Scorsese fans and for people interested in the theme of Catholic guilt, or of dogma versus human experience, this film is a fantastically dark moral labyrinth.
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