"It's Not Just You, Murray!" is an American 15-minute black-and-white short film from 1964, so this one is already over 50 years old now. And it is the third filmmaking effort by Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese who was still in his early 20s when he wrote and directed this one. His co-writer is Iranian Mardik Martin, with whom he worked on several other occasions too later on. This is basically a mobster comedy movie, so entering the world if crime here we have the genre that probably defines Scorsese's career the best as stuff like Taxi Driver and Goodfellas are considered his career-defining films and the one that finally brought him the Oscar was "The Departed", also a film where crime is the core component. Anyway, back to this old work here. I would say that neither the crime component, nor the comedy component (mostly relying on irony) are on a level where I would say that they really make an impact or are good enough to watch this one. A bit of a shame, but I don't think that Scorsese is known for this work here, but that the other way around is the truth. This work is known for Scorsese and it probably would be totally forgotten now without the big name attached to it. The cast does not include any known names either with the exception of Scorsese's mother if that counts. Still a solid achievement for a man in his early 20s. But I don't really think it needs to be seen unless you are a Scorsese completionist. Skip it perhaps.

This is one of the early shorts made by Martin Scorsese when he was a student at NYU. In this one, a middle-aged man looks back at his life and how he got successful like making illegal gin during Prohibition or producing some hit Broadway shows. He credits a "friend" with his successes but that "friend" is...not a friend at all! Filmed in black-and-white with some jump cuts and still frames, this was quite an amusing short to watch as an example of the early work of Mr. Scorsese. So on that note, It's Not Just You, Murray! is worth a look. P.S. The mother of the leading character is played by the mother of the director, Catherine Scorsese.

I first saw this early film by Martin Scorsese at an intercollegiate student film festival at Brown University in Providence on April 16, 1965. I was not a Brown student but I used to attend film showings there, of which there were many, and they formed the nucleus of my education as a film buff. I saw a few other movies in that festival held at Alumnae Hall, but "It's Not Just You, Murray" was the one that caught my attention at the time, because of is brash and entertaining qualities. I remember in particular the amusing image of the Italian mamma coming in with a big plate of pasta, eager to feed her boy. Later I would find out that this mamma was actually played by Scorsese's own mother Catherine, whom we would see later in the documentary "Italianamerican", about both the directors parents, as well as in other cameo roles, including one in "Goodfellas," where her character is kind of an extension of the earlier role in "Murray." The movie got a top award at that Brown festival, not surprising. I filed away a memory of it, taking care to note the director's name. I suspected he would be going places. Later when "Boxcar Bertha" opened in Providence at the Strand Theatre, I went to see it on the basis of the name Scorsese and I was not disappointed, and of course greater films were yet to come in his remarkable career.