Chi sta bussando alla mia porta?

Martin Scorsese is undoubtedly one of my all time favorite directors. He has a consistently great string of movies that span his entire career and Who's That Knocking at My Door is the very first one of them all. The movie itself is very good, but looking at it in relation to the career and development of Scorsese's aesthetically unique style of directing makes it even better. When you break it down it is sort of a movie about nothing, and it focuses more on aesthetics and visual nuances to give it a very unique feel that fits right in with Scorsese's body of work. But if you have to assign a storyline to the film it is about J.R., an Italian American living in New York, who meets a girl and falls in love with her. They have their ups and downs and the movie essentially just follows J.R. through his life as a city slicker, hanging out with his foul mouthed buddies at bars and trying to balance that with his love life. The story more or less takes a back seat to the unique visual exploration that is way ahead of its time.

If you're familiar with Scorsese, then this film would be what you would expect from his directorial debut. It is very raw, unpolished, and experimental. Thankfully, a lot of what Scorsese plays with in this film would actually carry through to his later films that were obviously much bigger successes. This film is essentially a gigantic lens into what would later develop into Scorsese's very specific style of directing. It mixes up a little bit of everything and almost feels like a rough mixing of all of Scorsese's unique visual elements that he has trademarked since then. Who's Knocking at My Door employs all kinds of techniques that we've grown to love from Scorsese. It deals out some long static shots, long tracking shots, and its fair share of strangely quick cuts. The dialouge has a very unpolished Scorsese-esquire cadence to it. It can't even compare to some of the dialouge of his later films, but you can definitely see the early formations of Scorsese's vulgar and quick paced dialouge.

You also have to give a lot of credit to Scorsese and the people who signed on to help him produce this film because of just how experimental the film was for a directorial debut. The film is far ahead of its time in content and style, and for Scorsese to take this risk with his very first film is something that is very respectable in any filmmaker. He didn't try to do anything on a large and flashy scale. Instead he creates a very small scale story with small scale characters and he does a surprising lot artistically with the little he has to work with. And it's also incredible that, to me at least, it works. Trying something so bizarre and different from conventional filmmaking styles of the time could easily crash and burn. But Scorsese pulls it off with his first film and makes something that is actually watchable.

Who's Knocking at My Door is a really good movie by itself, but it becomes so much more interesting when you put it in the context of Scorsese's body of work. When you do this, the film becomes a fascinating study of the beginnings of Scorsese, and for that I absolutely loved it. Being such a small scale movie without a lot of purely escapist entertainment value it's hard to recommend this film to just anybody, but if you are a Scorsese fan then it is a must see.

Filmed over years apparently, this early M. Scorsese New York tale involving young dudes being typically out of it is interesting in the scenes with Keitel and the girl (Z. Bethune), but the buddy scenes tend to drag on and semi-bore. A 5 out of 10. Best performance = Zena Bethune.

Harvey Keitel has always been interesting and believable and it's great to see him in a lead (pre-MEAN STREETS) and Ms. Bethune is very touching and human. All Scorsese fans should track this down even though it's not that great. The DVD has a semi-commentary from Marty which is unusual! It comes in the recent DVD set of Martin Scorsese and worth a look! Harry Northrup has a small role (MEAN STREETS, TAXI DRIVER).

Here is Martin Scorsese's first feature film, and already, at a mere 25 years old in 1967, it is clear this young man had the determination and eye for visceral images, solid acting and a great ear for soundtracks. A rather raw and unpolished work, Who's That Knocking at My Door works in other ways such as the professionally-done editing by the great Thelma Schoonmaker, another future Scorsese collaborator. In the lead role is a very young Harvey Keitel, who plays the role of a young New York Italian very similar to the nature and style of Martin Scorsese himself. Clearly, there was a special bond between these two that continued for years.

The plot, while at times veering wildly off track, focuses on a young couple attempting to overcome a difficult instance in the past that still looms over the future. With numerous Catholic images and references, this is one of the more explicitly religious of Scorsese's work but there is still a definitive drive behind everything. It is certainly worth watching for anyone who is interested in making their own film as well as any fan of Scorsese eager to know how he got to where he is today. Not always great, sometimes very powerful, this film still remains a strong piece of work that encompasses much of future themes Scorsese would come back to: Catholic guilt, relationships between street friends and the difficulties of romance.

"Who's That Knocking At My Door?" (1968) is the kind of film where you see it once you'll want to see it again, just to see what you didn't understand. The protagonist is played by Harvey Keitel as J.R., an autobiographical role based loosely on Scorsese's strict Catholic upbringing. And many symbolic Catholic references there are such as the Virgin Mary mini statue reflection in the mirror watching Harvey Keitel's JR as he embraces "The Young Girl" played by Zina Bethune.

Scorsese is so intelligent and inventive with his scenes here; crafty artsiness at its best (like the one where J.R. is having sex with the "broad" in a dream fantasy, but then afterwards flips his cards towards her rejecting her as a sin; she's not a nice virgin who would be a good wife and mother for J.R.; she's just a whore, a "broad", as we listen to The Doors' song 'The End' finish). Marty's own personal style was established in this early film.

Harvey Keitel was 29-years-old when Martin Scorsese's [who was 25] "Who's That Knocking At My Door?" debuted in 1968. This was a full-length feature debut for both actor Keitel and director Scorsese. It was interesting to see this for the first time recently after I had already seen most of Scorsese's later films. His classic trade marks such as the "freeze frame, slow-motion, and classic rock tracks playing on the soundtrack" are all utilized effectively in this early gem. ("Easy Rider" is always the film that is credited as being the originator of playing classic rock tunes on the soundtrack, but "Who's That Knocking At My Door?" wasn't seen by many until it received wide release in 1970, almost three years after it was made.)

For any film school student or aspiring director/screenwriter this is a must see. Mr. Scorsese financed this film on a tight budget. I read somewhere that his film professor from NYU helped him finance it. From the beginning somebody somewhere knew Marty had the talent and could make a good picture. He created a wonderful film; using his own life experience for the story he was able to concoct a great, interesting and personal film. His "Mean Streets" (1973) is a much greater and even more personal film. But "Who's That Knocking At My Door?" was the beginning.

I'm not Catholic but I certainly learn a lot about Catholicism when I watch a Scorsese flick. For instance, take the scene where "The Young Girl" is making dinner at J.R.'s place, she lights up what appears to be just a candle. But to J.R. it is a "Holy Candle" and makes her put it back and replace it with another one. There are many classic scenes in this film, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Edited By Thelma Schoonmaker (who would go on to edit almost all of Scorsese's later films). Starring Harvey Keitel as J.R. 90 minutes.

WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? (3+ outta 5 stars)

Early feature film by the now-legendary Martin Scorsese... it sort of sprawls all over the place... melding all kinds of weird artsy gimmicks and camera styles... but the central relationship between Harvey Keitel and the pretty blonde girl he meets and falls in love with on the Staten Island Ferry (Zina Bethune) keeps the movie's momentum going, even when it veers off into interesting but sometimes pointless tangents. If you thought Quentin Tarantino invented the character of the movie geek who seeks to impress the woman of his dreams by rambling on with movie trivia... well, this movie will set you straight. You will also see hints of Scorsese's later masterpieces ("Mean Streets", "Goodfellas") in embryonic form. I hadn't seen this movie in years... but just saw the new DVD version and was amazed at how good it was.