Movie Review – Marty

Marty (1955) – A thirty-something Italian butcher getspressure from every direction about getting married.  Try as he will, he never seems to find the right girl.  Until one night, in a dance hall he meets a young woman who had given up on ever finding love as well.  A warm and wonderful story about people who had decided they didn’t have what it took for love.

Paddy Chayefsky adapted his TV script of a few years earlier into the movie version.  Ernest Borgnine stars in the title role.  Up to this time he had played mostly bad guys and Borgnine credits this movie with changing his career forever.  This is such a warm and gentle picture that it’s the perfect follow up to the intense emotional ordeal of last week’s movie (Long Day’s Journey Into Night).  Marty is just a nice guy.  The kind of nice guy that so many woman say they want but all too often turn up their noses when they meet one.  He hangs out with a bunch of sad sack friends who haven’t figured out that their current plan (“What you want to do tonight?  I dunno, what you wanna do?”) is getting them precisely nowhere.  Problems arise when Marty tries to change his life with Clara (Betsy Blair).  His friends object and his mother suddenly feels like she’s about to be replaced.  The only question is this – will Marty stay true to himself or not?

In addition to being a great, little film (Oscar winner for Best Picture AND only 90 minutes long.  Shortest Best Film winner.  Also Best Director, Best Leading Man and Best Screenplay) “Marty” is a treasure trove for the movie trivia lover.  First time a director won Best Director in the director’s film debut (Delbert Mann).  First film to spend more on the Oscar campaign than the actual production budget.  Only the second film to win the Best Picture Oscar and the Palme d’Or at Cannes (“Lost Weekend” was the first).  It was the film debut for Jerry Orbach (uncredited) plus featured actors who would become familiar on television in the ’60s – Jerry Paris as Marty’s cousin (Rob and Laura’s neighbor on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”) and Frank Sutton as one of Marty’s seedier friends, Ralph (Sgt. Carter on “Gomer Pyle, USMC”).

But that is simply bonus material.  The script is compact without losing an ounce of warmth and humanity.  The characters are believable, with Borgnine’s Marty being the true gem. The characters of Marty’s mom and aunt are delightful (maybe in part because I’ve older ladies just like them). It’s the kind of movie that makes you wonder why you’d never seen it before (or if you have seen it before, whats taken you so long to see it again)

Rating – ***** Highly Recommended