Review of Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968) by Paul Z — 28 Feb 2009

Harvey Keitel is particularly young and handsome in this picture (he's an 'And introducing') as J.R. (basically the same character he played in Mean Streets), but themes of Catholic guilt and fear of women appear early and suggest that things aren't going to end happily for him.

It's an early variation of the Madonna-whore complex that would later torment De Niro's Jack La Motta in Raging Bull. An imaginary sex scene is used; it was suggested by the studio so they could sell the movie as an exploitation picture.

The sex scene may not be needed but it does not necessarily take anything away; it is erotic due to the deft editing (Thelma Shoonmaker's) and black and white photography. It also uses fractured editing to cut between before and after sex (before Don't Look Now did the same thing) and is scored with The Doors' song "The End," more than a decade before Apocalypse Now.

The themes and style of Scorsese's work are already becoming apparent in this, his very first feature movie. Part of a loose 'trilogy' of which Mean Streets, his first masterpiece, was also a part.