Marty (1955)

Marty
Directed by Delbert Mann
Written by Paddy Chayevsky
1955/USA
Hecht-Lancaster Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rentaL
#291 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Marty Pilletti: Listen Angie, I been looking for a girl every Saturday night of my life. I’m 34 years old. I’m just tired of looking, that’s all. I like to find a girl. Everybody’s always telling me get married, get married, get married. Don’t you think I wanna get married? I wanna get married. Everybody drives me crazy.[/box]

The ending makes me cry every time.

Marty (Ernest Borgnine) is a good-natured butcher who still lives with his mother into his thirties.  All his many brothers and sisters are married.  His mother is forever nagging him to meet a girl and his man friends always want him to join them in their sexual escapades. The problem that he is not particularly good-looking and is awkward around women.  His life has made him a “professor of pain”.

Then one night, he goes to a local dance hall and rescues a Clara (Betsy Blair), an equally shy girl who has been dumped by her blind date.  Marty finds he can talk up a storm around her and enjoys her company.

However, as soon as he thinks he has found his match, his mother and man friends start getting very nervous.  And poor Marty does not have much of a record of standing up for himself.

A lot of this film is almost painful for me. People are certainly cruel.  I am so glad not to be out there in the dating world!  However, I love the movie any way for the performances and for the human story.  Borgnine reveals depths he did not show often before or after this picture.  Recommended.

Marty won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Director; and Best Writing, Screenplay.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Mantell); Best Supporting Actress (Blair); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black and White.

Trailer