Marty
Composite Score: 86.9
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell, Karen Steele, and Jerry Paris
Director: Delbert Mann
Writer: Paddy Chayefsky
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy
MPAA Rating: Approved
Box Office: $3.50 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Marty is the film adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s teleplay of the same name about an unmarried butcher living with his mother in the Bronx who just might find love after having resigned himself to life as a bachelor. It stars Ernest Borgnine as the titular Marty Piletti across from Betsy Blair as Clara Snyder, the homely teacher who spends the evening walking and talking through the Bronx with Marty. It also features Esther Miciotti as Marty’s widowed mother Teresa and Joe Mantell as Marty’s best friend and fellow bachelor Angie. Typically classified as a romantic drama, the film also contains many of the elements that we’ve come to expect from romantic comedies – a meet cute, friends and family with differing opinions about the potential romance, and even a grand gesture – and it could be seen as the prototype for the conventional rom-com as we know it today, in the style of Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers, a major deviation from the typical screwball and sex comedies that were typical of the genre in the 1950s. In addition to winning the first Palme d’Or at Cannes, Marty also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay, making it one of three films (possibly soon-to-be four) to win the top prize at both Cannes and the Oscars, alongside The Lost Weekend (1945) and Parasite (2019).
Though it presupposes the modern rom-com in many ways, Marty is by no means a pure romantic comedy. It’s also a conversation film, reminiscent of Before Sunrise in the way it follows Marty and Clara as they walk around New York, enjoying each other's company and conversation. In these moments, the film offers thoughts on singleness, romance, family expectations, and societal expectations through the eyes of these two less than conventionally attractive individuals (though neither is as much of a “dog” as they or the film would have us believe). On the one hand, there’s a sense of tragedy to the situation of these two chronically single people, both finding each other as a result of being stood up by other, on the surface more desirable, dates. At the same time there’s a cosmic irony at work that the pair seem perfect for each other even as their friends and families seem a bit less convinced. In that, the film really starts to feel like the modern romantic comedies with seemingly insurmountable (and in this case very realistic) obstacles standing between the love of the two leads and the audience questioning on the edge of their seats whether love will prevail. Again, it’s the realism and lack of melodrama that takes the edge off of the comedy and leans back into drama, but even the realism gives us moments of comedy to appreciate as we see ourselves in the awkward interactions, the forlorn single friends, the lonely widows, the heckled first-time parents, and even the looks of the leads whose faces are far less Hollywood than, say, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Rock Hudson, or Doris Day. Then it is their two performances that really bring the whole thing home and help it transcend all genres but romance. Blair plays Clara with this reserved sense of hope and self-assuredness that makes her the perfect sympathetic supporting romantic interest for Borgnine’s Marty, even earning an Oscar nomination herself for the performance. She plays well off of the much louder and somehow less confident performance that Borgnine gives for Marty. Borgnine, meanwhile, gives one of the best male leading performances in any romance film as Marty, bringing this desire and desperation to the character who appeals to any audience because of his humanity, and it’s more than deserving of his win.
Between the stellar lead performances, poignant realism, and a romantic story that we’re all familiar with but still love to see, Marty earns its spot among the greats and in the history of cinema. Some might knock it for its simplicity and familiarity, but they’re missing the profound nature of romance films and their ability to comment not just on love but also society, family, and friendship as Marty does to the fullest. If you’d like to watch this film yourself, you can currently stream it with ads on Tubi or rent it on most streaming platforms.
