Thomas Drufke It's definitely not one of Scorsese's favorites, and probably for good reason. Who's That Knocking at My Door sees Scorsese in his debut without much polish or knack for how to effectively structure a feature debut.The problem with the film mostly falls on inexperience. Much like his second film, you see flashes of his greatness in camera movements and poise in developing likable character dynamics. Heck, he even showed promise in his screen writing abilities in a few scenes, and that's not even something he does all that often anymore. But with a low budget, sometimes sloppy editing, and a narrative that lacked substance, there isn't a whole lot to ride home about here.Certain aspects of the film reminded me about Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy, in that a good portion of the film just walking and talking. That, I found interesting. But I wasn't as invested in the story when it falls into the trap of gratuitous sex scenes and unnecessary yelling. Something, that Scorsese has been harped on later in his career, but it seemed really out of place in what was otherwise, a calm romance-drama.This is Scorsese's first feature, however. So perhaps certain narrative mishaps and editing issues should be forgiven, considering it underwent many changes during its production. It's also a far more artistically structured film than his subsequent movies, so by default it's more divisive. The characters just didn't connect with me. It plays more as an experiment than an experience, if that makes any sense. In all, there's flashes of the great Scorsese everyone loves, but not enough narratively here to make for a worthwhile viewing.+Interesting directing choices+Plenty of Scorsese staples-Narratively flawed-Not much substance-Gratuitous at times4.6/10

Jack Kierski I just finished watching Who's that knocking on my door on DVD and I thought the movie was pretty excellent for a first feature film that was directed and written by Martin Scorsese( one of my favorite film directors) before he became internationally famous.The movie is about this Italian-American J.R.(Harvey Kietel) who lives in New York City.He meets this girl (Zina Bethune) and when he gets into a relationship with her, she told him a secret that she once got raped by a man, and J.R. cannot stop struggling from the secret that she told him.I honestly thought both Harvey Kietel and Zina Bethune played great roles. The dialogue in the movie was pretty good for Marty's first flick.I especially liked the acting. I highly recommend that movie a must see for Martin Scorsese fans & movie lovers.I will definitely give the movie 10 out of 10 stars.I also think that it's definitely worth buying, as a matter of fact, they actually sell the movie on DVD for $3.00 at Big Lots.This movie is such a great American classic.

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.