Who's That Knocking at My Door

Scorsese's first feature. Set in New York's Little Italy, and what amounts to a dress rehearsal for Mean Streets, this displays all the excesses of a first effort. Although technically under the spell of European cinema (Godard et al), the film is just as much a tribute to Hollywood (Ford, Hawks) and more experimental Americans, particularly Anger and Cassavetes. But behind this melange there's no doubting the talent. In the aggressive self-confidence, the use of rock music, and the perceptive observation, Scorsese reveals an anthropological feel for street life and the attitudes of male adolescence, particularly how introversion and weakness are reserved for moments with the opposite sex, kept carefully apart from the mainstream of life.