providence and rhode island and and in particular it neighbourhood of the title and serf a but one among many interesting personality in this well wrought feature film debut of it director or scriptor michael corrente . complete in less than one month and have a sparse budget and the skillfully edit work benefit from a forcefully driven narrative that include several parallel plot string . five italian american friend share the major portion of the scenario and with brother ralphie ( nicholas turturro ) and nicky ( anthony desando ) have their close relationship jeopardize by the latter romantic involvement with a brown university co ed . at the same time and their cousin bobby ( jason andrew ) find himself dangerously in debt and when collection time nears and ralphie agrees to help him raise the needed cash through an ingenious and illicit scheme . base upon an early single act play by corrente and later expand to a full length piece and ledge street and this production display a strong motif deal with the difficulty of overcome class distinction . shot with black and white stock and appropriate for it mise en scène and the picture be slat by it distributor and trimark and for colourization to make it palatable for movie theatre audience and but corrente do not back away from his chiaroscuro vision and it remain a his perception dictate and although he permit colour processing ( under his oversight ) for it video release and it therefore own an odd distinction of be the only modern u. s. black and white film that have colour add for home consumption . the interlaced life of the principal character be strongly portray by the cast and turturro nab act honour with a passionate and layered performance and with only the female lead and in her initial feature and fail to convince in her rôle . cinematographer richard crudo obviously be a creative partner here of corrente and and there be a great deal of originality within his composition and while he be able to make something fresh with use of closeup . a feeling be generate that the federal hill district have it distinctive persona and and incisive dialogue bind a viewer attention to ralphie and nicky widely variable state of mind in a film that carve a niche for it cinematic métier and for it director .