It's Not Just You, Murray!

With its cutesy depiction of Italian gangsters Murray and Joe, this NYU film made by Martin Scorsese won a university award, but its mix of cinematic ability and strictly amateurish technique is underwhelming.

It does demonstrate how sugarcoating and "humanizing" the gangster is deeply imbedded early on in the maestro's cinema, undoubtedly influenced by those classic Warner Brothers movies of the '30s with Robinson, Cagney, etc.

This short film seems to fall apart near the end, when a scene switches to silent cinema with Murray narrating and is cryptic, leading to an ill-advised satire of Fellini and his classic "8 1/2". The movie just ends at this point, as if unfinished. One takes away the director's fondness for old movies, like Hollywood musicals, but his attempts at comedy are weak.

This cute, inventive student film is Scorsese's second time in the director's chair, and this film is the beginning of his fascination with crime and double-crosses. Like with his brilliant debut, What's A Nice Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This?, his techniques in generally unfolding the story and his clever cinematographic eye...you know what? I praise too much. I think I'm boring when I praise. I praise Martin Scorsese all the time. Everything he makes turns to gold in my eyes because I think he makes movies the precise way I think they should be made. I love the guy, that's all. There's nothing specific to say pertaining to why I like even his early student short films such as this one. I just think he's the man. If you think he is the man, I would check this one out just to say you saw it and to see the foundations of his ingenious later work.

This movie is a successful short film, which belongs to Martin Scorsese's early Director career.

The movie use the way of comedy to describe a rise of a gangster in underground world.

The final part of the movie shows a similarity to ending of Frederico Fellini's "8½" .

Martin was already 22 or 23 when this short was made at NYU. One has to wonder how he was able to score such elaborate sets for this film. I mean interiors couldnt have all been filmed at NYU, no?

You also have to wonder what happened to teh actors who never worked again and how they feel that he's still making money off this movie and they arent.

It's a really well made short although the story gets old quicker than the 15 minutes it takes to finish watching the film.

It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964)

*** (out of 4)

Martin Scorsese's second short is a nice homage to the gangster pictures from Warner. A middle aged gangster looks back over his life from the start of his career to the present. If you're a fan of the Warner gangster pictures then you'll enjoy this short film with all the references to those earlier pictures.

What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)

** (out of 4)

First film from Martin Scorsese about a writer who buys a painting and soon his obsession with it leads to writers block. There's not too much going on here but I guess that's to be expected with a student film. The camera-work and editing are nice.