SnoopyStyle John Wayne fan J.R. (Harvey Keitel) and his friends are local Italian petty ruffians on the streets of New York. He meets and gets engaged to a girl. When she tells him about being raped, he is disbelieving, angry, and heartbroken. With his religious conviction, he can't marry a non-virgin and returns to his old thug life.The actors are all amateurs. This is Martin Scorsese's feature debut. It's a black and white indie. Harvey Keitel is still a student actor. Despite that, one can see the inherit skills of these guys. Scorsese is trying various camera moves. He's an artist playing with his paint. There is a real unpredictable sense of violence and there is his music sense. It's not polished by any means but one can see Scorsese trying something in almost every scene. There are scenes that ramble on but those have a visceral sense of uncertainty. The technical aspect varies and it can feel disjointed especially the dream sequences. The sexual dream comes out of nowhere which doesn't fit the rest of the movie. There is the ambient noise which may be deliberate but probably the byproduct of guerrilla student filmmaking. Keitel is exuding energy as the lead. He's the focus even at such a young age. I do wonder why the female lead has no name. To be fair, most characters do not have names. One would expect JR call her by her name at least once. Is it a continuing Scorsese limitation with female characters? I can only call up one strong female lead in his writing. There are a few more in his other works. It's probably a limitation of simply being a dude. It's hard to write what one doesn't know. Overall, this is a crystal ball that predicts Scorsese's rise as one of the great American directors.

sol- 'Who's That Knocking at My Door' (sometimes known as 'I Call First') - this gritty drama filmed on the streets of New York marked both Harvey Keitel's acting debut and Martin Scorsese's directing debut. Neither one disappoints and Scorsese experiments with an extensive array of filmic techniques, from lethargic dissolves to high camera angles that look down on the characters, all of which makes the film feel very much alive. Especially effective are some shots that voyeuristically track and pan between Keitel and co-star Zina Bethune as he chats her up. The film is far less enticing in the story department though. The basic premise is decent, with Keitel having to overcome some religion-based prejudices regarding the purity and innocence that he expects of Bethune, however, the movie was originally expanded from a short film and it very much shows with precious little else narrative-wise other than overload of scenes of Keitel associating with his friends. Keitel does have quite a curious character though, even if his character is not given the strongest story to work with. He seems unable to talk about anything but western movies with his girlfriend and many of his views on life (whether a woman is a 'girl' or a 'broad') seem dictated by western tropes. There is also a fascinating bit in which still photographs are inserted to show how he imagines himself as a western movie hero, shooting kitchen glasses. Without doubt, there is quite a bit going on in the film, which makes it one of the more interesting directing debuts out there, if not the most satisfying one by far.

RainDogJr I imagine someone who watches most of the films by Quentin Tarantino, but not the very first one (RESERVOIR DOGS). Then I imagine this person's reaction when he or she finally gets to watch "Dogs"; you know, he/she will realize, and maybe even be surprised by the fact that Tarantino was doing "his thing" (great dialog with references to pop culture, all with a tasty soundtrack) since the very beginning of his career. Some weeks ago I finally watched the very first feature film of Marty Scorsese. It's been quite a while since I began referring to Scorsese as one of my three all-time favorite directors. I have seen most of his films but until this day I have yet to experience like half-dozen or so, mostly stuff from his early years like BOXCAR BERTHA and ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE. So I finally sat down to experience WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR (aka as I CALL FIRST) and it truly amazed me. I realized Scorsese was doing the stuff Tarantino is famous for since his early days as filmmaker! I was delighted and a bit surprised too as I didn't recall having Marty's characters doing dialog about movies (the ones Marty loves to be exact) or pop culture in general. HUGO doesn't count, certainly, as the material comes from the marvelous book by Brian Selznick (and MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, well, that's a documentary!). Obviously, Tarantino learned everything from films like WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR. I would say this is the kind of film that changed lives - here we have a young Harvey Keitel talking to a girl about John Wayne and John Ford (Scorsese doesn't hesitates to go for 3 or so minutes of talking about Wayne and company, near the very beginning of the film) and later taking her to a screening of Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO; I can easily imagine a guy like Tarantino totally wanting to *be* Harvey Keitel. In fact, you can read in IMDb that Quentin "screens RIO BRAVO for potential girlfriends as a test of their compatibility". It doesn't seem impossible that he took that from here, right? And well, the whole tribute that Marty did to Wayne, Ford and, especially, their film THE SEARCHERS (cultural gap here for me, I'm sad to report), is simply a very cool and memorable homage. Just like the imaginary person from the beginning of this commentary, I found Scorsese doing his thing since his very first feature. If you ever wondered why Marty has used music by legends like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones but not by the Doors, well, you just haven't seen this. Yeah, the big connection that Scorsese has with rock and roll began here, with the use of a masterpiece by that great Los Angeles band: "The End". It's true that the Doors' "The End" is synonymous of Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW. But the song wasn't use here in some random scene or anything like that; no, in fact, it's a great and crazy part that stands for itself (and that definitely defines the term "broad"!). Like other debut films, it doesn't have "much of a plot" (to refer the Everly brothers). It's just a very natural work with Keitel hanging out and having fun with other "tough" guys and, on the other hand, getting something a little more serious with the already mentioned girl. Abel Ferrera's BAD LIEUTENANT, by the way, owns a whole lot to it too. *Watched it on 26 August, 2012

Max_cinefilo89 Although he is best known for his collaborations with Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese has also worked to great effect with Harvey Keitel. In fact, Keitel was there from the very beginning, playing the lead in Marty's first feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door.Shot in black and white on the streets of New York that have an important role in the director's filmography, Knocking doesn't have a real plot, at least not that well defined. It is more of a series of moments involving main character J.R. (Keitel) and his relationship with a girl: they discuss movies, they decide to get married, he discovers she was once raped and loses it. All these scenes are linked by association rather than real coherence, even if the editing by Thelma Schoonmaker (who for some reason didn't work with Marty again until Raging Bull) does a good job in keeping the film together.Who's That Knocking at My Door fascinates at once for its seductive images, proving that Scorsese had an eye for visuals right from the start, and the black-and-white cinematography gives it an extra touch of beauty. If there is a defect to find here, it would be the lack of real narrative, as J.R.'s faith-driven struggles (a topic that Marty dealt with much better in the mesmerizing Mean Streets) serve as little more than an excuse to show random episodes of his everyday life. Another proof of the inconsistent storytelling is the presence of a quite pointless dream sequence involving prostitutes, its presence having been encouraged by Scorsese's mentor Roger Corman for sheer marketing purposes (nudity sells, you know).On the flip-side, Keitel's performance is solid and eye-catching for the entire running time, hinting, alongside the intelligent choices of music, at future cinematic glories. It doesn't prevent Who's That Knocking from feeling and looking like a student picture, but fans of Marty, and the American film industry in general, ought to check it out.