Enormously influential, it spawned Hollywood's interest in smaller scale, prosaic dramas, few of which failed to match its resonance.
Marty (1955)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:28
Fresh:28
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: Scriptwriter Paddy Chayefsky's solid dialogue is bolstered by strong performances from Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair in this appealingly low-key character study.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Delbert Mann's big-screen remake of Paddy Chayefsky's 1953 teleplay, one of the most successful works of film's Golden Age, stars Ernest Borgnine as Bronx butcher, Marty Piletti. A good-natured... Delbert Mann's big-screen remake of Paddy Chayefsky's 1953 teleplay, one of the most successful works of film's Golden Age, stars Ernest Borgnine as Bronx butcher, Marty Piletti. A good-natured man, if plain and overweight, the 34-year-old bachelor has become fed up with the dreariness of life with vacant, dead-end friends like Angie (Joe Mantell), omnipresent relatives like his cousin Tommy (Jerry Paris), and his nagging mother, Theresa (Esther Minciotti), with whom he shares a house. Often rejected by women, he feels that he is too unattractive to marry, and is far from eager to endure further humiliation. Still, Marty finds himself at a local dance hall, where he angrily refuses a man who offers him a few bucks to take home a blind date who has turned out to be a dog. The butcher seeks out the humiliated woman, Clara (Betsy Blair), who's in tears, and after he comforts her, they return to the dance. As Marty confesses similar experiences of his own to Clara, he realizes that he may have found the woman he's been looking for. Influenced by neo-realist masterpieces like UMBERTO D, Chayefsky's poignant, brilliantly observed kitchen-sink drama remains as persuasive as ever, as it explores the universal need to give and receive love. [More]
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Joe De Santis, Joe Mantell
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Joe De Santis, Joe Mantell, Esther Minciotti, Karen Steele, Jerry Paris, Frank Sutton, Walter Kelley, Robin Morse, Augusta Ciolli
Director: Delbert Mann
Director: Delbert Mann
Screenwriter: Paddy Chayefsky
Story: Paddy Chayefsky
Producer: Harold Hecht
Composer: Roy Webb
Reviews for Marty
Ernest Borgnine as Marty lives up to all the promise he showed as the sadist in From Here to Eternity, and at the same time brilliantly shatters the type-cast he molded for himself in that picture.
It's a warm, human, sometimes sentimental and an enjoyable experience.
Paddy Chayevsky's script, adapted from his own TV play, shows his flair for dialogue at its best, and the film manages to be touching, if minor.
Ernest Borgning and Betsy Blair are the highlights of this short and unassuming picture about the trials of love and family.
Too self-conscious by half, the film both invites you in and makes you wonder if it's not all a trick.
A modest film (for an Oscar-winner) that captures with attention to detail its Bronx working class milieu, but it patronizes its "little" people: "You're not really as much of a dog as you think you are, the butcher Marty tells his girlfriend Clara.
Tragicomic and simple, Marty's celebrated status is rightly earned, but it may be a bit to naive and simplistic for today's hard-bitten audiences.
Ernest Borgnine can act!?!?!? He was great in this classic tale about a guy who thinks love is unattainable.
A warm and winning film, full of the sort of candid comment on plain, drab people that seldom reaches the screen.
Latest News for Marty
January 23, 2009:
Five Favorite Films With Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is one of Hollywood's most venerable character actors, with a career that spans more than five decades. To celebrate Borgnine's 92nd birthday this week, Turner... More...
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