 John Cassavetes (qv), could not find any distributor for this film  after completion, and was at one point literally carrying the reels  of the film under his arm from one theater to another in hopes of  getting one to play his movie. Finally, Martin Scorcese , who had  recently become a critically acclaimed director thanks to his film  _Mean Streets (1973)_ (qv) and happened to be a huge fan of  Cassavetes work threatened to pull his film  _Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore (1974)_ (qv) from a major New York  film festival unless they accepted this film.