Who's That Knocking at My Door? poster & wallpaper

Anne Collette, Harvey Keitel, Lennard Kuras

The marital idyll of a newlywed couple is shattered in this dark drama directed by Martin Scorsese. When the husband, J.R. (Harvey Keitel), an Italian-Catholic reformed street thug, finds out that his...( read more  read more... ) wife, a Protestant feminist (Zina Bethune), was raped years ago and is no longer a virgin, he's unable to cope with this reality, so chained is he to the belief that a man must marry a virgin. Can he move beyond his rage?

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12 critics

R, 90 min.

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Release Date: November 15, 1967

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DVD Release Date: August 17, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (186)

  • middleeasternfilms
    April 17, 2009
    middleeasternfilms
    Almost like watching two different movies, Scorcese's debut isn't too memorable other than that fact. It's like two different siblings each vying for your attention with no cohesiveness whatsoever. Even a young Keitel is fantastic in this and Scorcese seemed to fine tune his film...( read more)s better and better as time went on in his career.
  • sononothing
    January 14, 2009
    sononothing
    Who's That Knocking At My Door (originally titled I Called First) is Martin Scorsese's first full length film built on the original student film he shot in 1965. The main character is J.R. (Harvey Keitel in his debut) a New York youth who just hangs out with his buddies without a...( read more) care in the world goofing off. He also meets a girl (Zina Bethune) who he falls in love with but his own ideology keeps getting in the way.

    The film basically cuts between J.R. and his buddies fooling around and J.R. and "the Girl" forming their relationship, which can be distracting at times to the viewer because the buddy scenes are the school film and the girl scenes are the extra storyline added for a feature release. The scenes with Keitel and Bethune are obviously technically superior and appear to shed some of that film school pretentiousness. There is a lot of that student film feeling throughout Who's Knocking, but Scorsese counteracts it with his own style that we now all know and love. This is where the seed was planted and you can see Scorsese in this picture. Everyone hast to start somewhere and usually it's an embarassment. Who's That Knocking At My Door is a solid piece of film making from a future master.
  • FangsFirst
    January 12, 2009
    FangsFirst
    It seems most reviews of this film go through its factual history before anything else--first a student film in 1965 called Bring on the Dancing Girls, then I Call First and finally Who's That Knocking at My Door. There, done. I try not to repeat reviews I've...( read more) already read, though I'm happy to contrast with or reference them, so I don't want to deal much more with that essential history, though it's probably helpful to know that J.R.'s fantasy of prostitutes was added at the behest of Joseph Brenner, who suggested that such an addition could allow for marketing the film as an exploitation flick. This is, more personally, one of only a handful of Scorsese films left for me to see--now all that remains for me are Boxcar Bertha, Kundun, New York, New York, and A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Cinema, and a few others--mostly shorts and documentaries, so my background covers what followed this, even if it covers little of what preceded it (I've seen Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy, so I know that, well, I haven't seen the films that influenced him, from Italian cinema at least).

    J.R. (Harvey Keitel) is an Italian-American in New York City (probably the Bronx), and he and his buddies spend their time as they see fit. Their first action is a street fight with no clear motivation or provocation, and their later actions are no more thoughtful or complex. They spend most of their time drinking, chasing women or just joking around with each other (though this, too, usually revolves around alcohol in the end). J.R. stumbles across a girl (Zina Bethune), though, while waiting on the Staten Island Ferry. She's flipping through a French magazine that catches J.R.'s eye because of an image of Ethan Edwards--John Wayne in The Searchers. He asks her about the film, which he loves, and he shrugs and admits that it can be a "nasty" film on the part of all the characters, which the girl agrees to before she finally recalls it herself, and they chuckle over a mutual appreciation for western movies. J.R. keeps remembering this meeting and his time with this girl throughout the rest of the film, from this meeting to a rooftop conversation they have, to a time they spent necking on to the moment she reveals something J.R. does not expect, and is not exactly good at dealing with.

    It has been said that this film is mostly just of interest to those who like Scorsese, and I've got to say I think that's a pretty accurate assessment. It's not a perfect film, and it most definitely bears the mark of being (originally, at least) a student film. It's an expert "student film," for sure, but is just as rough-edged as the phrase suggests anyway. Technically, Scorsese had a handle on things from the beginning, this film can tell us easily. He also knew how to create his "music video" set pieces, and did so a few times here, though one was that "sexploitation" addition. Structurally and narratively though, it's not a mess, but it does look a bit like a carpet that has unraveled just a bit. It's paced perfectly, but it still feels a bit like some loose ends sort of fall off the main story. Of course, that's the other problem--the main story is thin, weak, and not very well developed. Then again, the story is clearly not the object of the creation just as it isn't the focus of the viewing experience.

    Keitel and Bethune (and supporting cast Lennard Kuras, Michael Scala, and Harry Northrup) carry such a minimal story pretty well, actually. Oddly, this felt like the most real and natural performance I've ever seen from Keitel, who usually seems to have a focused seething anger, or a concentration on restrained intensity in everything he does, but here perhaps had not yet developed that--or whatever the cause may have been. He's likeable as per usual, but he also has that note that fills you with dread when the girl he loves reveals the secret she has kept from him. His response was, for me at least, entirely expected as it matched most male leads in Scorsese films: misogynistically judgmental and obsessed with defiance of cuckoldry, losing any and all caring for other people when it comes up. Bethune has an appreciably strong response to this, albeit a likely appropriately weak-willed one (for the context, I mean) that doesn't completely deflate her and victimize her.

    The two bits you must see in this, though, are the parts that were the basis of Scorsese's continuous use of music married to imagery. The first is the "sexploitation" scene with J.R. and the prostitutes, played to The Doors' "The End." Oh, yes, this was a bit of a surprise when Coppola typically has the rights to imagery tied to that song thanks to Apocalypse Now, but I actually think it worked even better. Perfectly cut, edited and choreographed (even if retroactively), it matches the song itself, in a sense (not lyrically, of course) that Coppola's scene did not (though it felt more lyrically appropriate). The other is Ray Barrett's "El Watusi" set to a slow motion scene of J.R.'s friends playing with a gun, which has that interesting juxtaposition of a cheerful, simple song and a scene of distorted drunken joy that turns, ever more wrenchingly because of the slow motion, to a tense and worrisome one. He also makes use of Junior Walker and the All-Star's "Shotgun," but I mention that more because it's a great Stax recording than a great scene (it's dialogue focused so there is no association of exact image to exact sound), and The Genies' "Who's That Knocking?" (which gave the film its third title), which is set to a more fast-cut scene of Catholic imagery.
  • kenstachnik
    March 18, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Scorsese wears his Cassavetes on his sleeve in his feature debut.

    The editing and photography is highly stylized but rings emotionally true.
  • mattsigur1
    October 9, 2009
    mattsigur1
    Keitel rules this roost. Interesting to see Scorsese's beginnings. Great natural dialogue and chemistry.
  • mattman1989
    November 13, 2009
    mattman1989
    Scorsese's first feature length film is certainly an interesting watch. It's almost like watching two different films (footage of J.R. and his friends having been filmed as a student and that of J.R. and his girlfriend later on). Immediatly it's evident the later footage is of a...( read more) much higher standard. Despite it's inconsistencies it's a very interesting watch for any Scorsese fan. Keitel's acting is very good and the directing of the later scenes hint toward elements of filmmaking we see in Scorsese's later work. Despite the sex scene being incorporated after the film had been made, it fits in suprisingly well and, dare I say it, stands out as one of the most memorable scenes in the film. I love Scorsese's work, so this was a must watch for me. If you're not familiar with his work or simply not that fond of him, I wouldn't recommend it.
  • rajiv23gooners
    August 2, 2009
    rajiv23gooners
    solid debut from the legendary martin scorsese (he's only 25 when he made this) and harvey keitel.,
    this movie is about love, tragedy, comedy, and hope.,
    this is not technically the perfect movie, but you will see potential here.,
    there are some great scene in it, when j.r meet t...( read more)he girl, and the ' i call first ' scene which is very hilarious.,
  • astatementofnoise
    July 31, 2009
    astatementofnoise
    Harvey Keitel is J.R., some kind of a loafer with no aspirations who gets involved with a girl that eventually changes his world. Martin Scorsese's first picture shows the director trying to express things his own way and althought he had little experience back then (for instance...( read more): the camera moves and editing don't work that good), you can manage to enjoy this early effort by one of the greatest american filmmakers.
  • samlane86
    April 23, 2009
    samlane86
    Great first from Marty Scorsese.
  • xmkatx
    February 22, 2009
    xmkatx
    I didn't expect this type of filmmaking from Scorsese. Reminded me of French New Wave.

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Critic Reviews

October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

As a film, it has something to say to everyone. As a technical achievement, it brings together two opposing worlds of American cinema. full review

View more Who's That Knocking at My Door? reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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