. . . we spent a couple of days watching Martin Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY last week, and took note of his reference to Federico Fellini's I VITELLONI (1953) and the fact it inspired his MEAN STREETS . . . as luck would have it, we recently got a copy of the Fellini film, so we took it off the shelf and had a wonderful time with this group of overage "slackers" who seemed forever stuck at a place in time which revolved around living at home, drinking, hanging out together each night, talking about the future they would have (which usually included leaving town) and generally avoiding any sort of commitment beyond running in place . . . the film is excellent, not to be missed, and infused with Fellini's nostalgia for a place and a people he left at nineteen years of age . . . then, before re-watching MEAN STREETS, we spent an evening with Scorsese's first film, WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR (1968) which turned out to be a fascinating document - he casts the same eye on New York's Little Italy that Fellini used to examine his town of Rimini (with, apparently, the same detachment - Scorsese, like Fellini, was more an observer than a participant), and finds young men are about the same, only more violent; most everything that ended up in MEAN STREETS (1973) is in this film as Harvey Keitel (his first film and he enacts the part like he has been at it for years) plays basically the same character we will see in the later film; there is another fellow who is a bit the same as Robert De Niro would be (the violence De Niro brought, as well as his exceptional acting ability, is his contribution); women are either madonnas or whores in the eyes of these boys/men, and can move from the former to the latter in the blink of an eye; rock and roll songs are wall to wall; the church is a force that weighs Keitel down, seems ever-present, and from which he cannot separate himself . . . WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR is pretty ragged (it was edited by Thelma Schoonmaker who, I guess, has been with Scorsese forever, and I'm sure she did the best she could with what she had), but the documentary remarks how it was shot in bits and pieces over the years, beginning as a student film at NYU, adding a plot with Zina Bethune along the way, then, at the request of the distributor, sticking in some nude shots . . . anyway, this one is highly recommended for fans of Martin Scorsese, particularly if you enjoying seeing the early work of a major director . . . oh, the film was probably shot in 16mm, so the matted widescreen DVD from Warner does cut off a head here and there - be warned . . . we still need to rewatch MEAN STREETS with I VITELLONI in mind . . .

MEAN STREETS is wonderful, probably my third or fourth favorite Scorsese film.

Keep an eye out for Jeanie Bell dancing in the bar.

I have always really loved Who's That Knocking at My Door. I always find it fascinating to watch a director's early work and see the themes of his later more polished material in gestation mode. Many of Scorsese's major themes are here and it is in spots a blueprint for Mean Streets.
I have particular frustrations with this dvd (as well as the others in the box set). I did enjoy the documentary but found it too short and really feel that these films are deserving of more substantial extras (the documentaries on DePalma's special editions come to mind).
My biggest problem is the audio commentary which is split up between Marty and the producer. Recorded separately and not running the film's full length it proves substantially less than it should have been. I would rather have a full length commentary with maybe a few pauses than these 'scene specific' jobs that are becoming more and more commonplace. I end up feeling that I am probing more into the mind of the commentary editor than the participants.
Problems aside, it's still a fascinating film and I am thrilled to have it on disc.