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Rated: NR
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, et al.
Director: Delbert Mann Review
Originally broadcast as a 50-minute drama on Philco Television Playhouse
in 1953, Marty ensured Paddy Chayefsky's status as one of the greatest
writers of television's golden age. When Chayefsky, director Delbert Mann,
and actor Ernest Borgnine reunited for this 90-minute film version, the
play had been polished with extra scenes, further perfecting Chayefsky's
timeless study of loneliness and heartbreak. And the film, in which
Borgnine excels as the single, 35-year-old "fat and ugly" butcher Marty
Pilletti, received well-deserved Oscars® for Best Picture, Director,
Actor, and Screenplay. Although Chayefsky's central theme is the pain of
being unwanted (as felt by Marty himself as well as his elderly Aunt
Catherine, who's become a burden to her married daughter), the film is
never somber or depressing, and achieves a rare quality of honesty, humor,
and hopefulness without resorting to artifice or sentiment.
Marty's just about given up on love when he meets plain-looking Clara
(Betsy Blair), a 29-year-old teacher who's endured similar cycles of
rejection. Much of Marty explores the simple decency of these characters,
their admirable qualities and mutual connection, and the slow escalation
of self-esteem that will hold them together. Marty is a supremely
compassionate film, but it's also an entertaining one, trimmed (like a
good butcher's meat) of any dramatic fat. And although Blair (who earned
an Oscar nomination) is superb in her role, it's worth noting that she's
more conventionally "attractive" than Nancy Marchand (late of The
Sopranos), who played Clara with arguably greater authenticity in the
original 1953 telecast. --Jeff Shannon
------------ Starring Ernest Borgnine, this
1955 film adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's original television drama won
four academy awards. Filmed it black and white, it is a character study of
an awkward Italian-American Bronx butcher in his thirties who would like
get married but has trouble meeting women. It's a simple story but it is
so real that I felt I knew Marty personally. I felt his struggle to make a
phone call to ask for a date only to get a brush off. I saw his annoyance
and embarrassment when his customers all scolded him for not being
married. I sensed his boredom and frustration of another Saturday night
hanging out with his buddies in a futile quest for something interesting
to do. There's real drama here and it's not just Marty who
has problems. There are his young married cousins who are feeling the
frustrations of living in a cramped apartment with their baby and widowed
mother. There is Marty's mother who is afraid of living her own old age
alone. There are his buddies who are as equally bored as Marty. But most
of all, there is the wallflower schoolteacher, played by Betsy Blair, who
is just a mite to pretty for the role. When Marty meets her at a dance
where she has just been dumped by a blind date, he finds they have a lot
in common and they both enjoy the evening immensely. In
spite of the film being made more than 46 years ago, it was still fresh
and real. Paddy Chayefsky was a master with dialog. For example there is
the exchange between Marty and his friend Angie. "Hey Marty, what do you
feel like doing tonight?" "I don't know Angie. What do you feel like
doing?" These lines get repeated a few times. And the audience just "gets
it". Another famous line is when Marty says to the young woman who has
just been crying on his shoulder. "Hey, you're not as much of a dog as you
think you are."
This film is about people. It's about family and love and
simple things in life. The acting was so real that I forgot they were
actors. I loved it and give it one of my highest recommendations. See it
if you can.
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