Cinema Sunday: Marty

Today’s Cinema Sunday post  is an Academy award winning picture from 1955.  

 

It’s a movie that I heard about for years and finally had a chance to watch a few months back.

 

Starring Ernest Borgnine, today’s post is about the film Marty.

 

Marty is about a guy named Marty.

 

Some stuff happens to Marty.

 

The end.

 

…

 

Who said writing about movies is hard?

 

OK, perhaps a little more detailed might be helpful.

Marty is Marty Piletti,  a pudgy friendly guy who runs the local butcher shop.

 

Marty is the oldest of his siblings and to date, the only one not married off.

 

This is a subject of some concern on the part of Marty’s customers.

 

“When are you getting married, Marty?”

“Why’s a nice boy like you not married, Marty?”
“Oh, you should a get a nice girl and get married, Marty!” 

 

Marty smiles politely, hands over packages of beef and lamb and chicken in exchange for money and does NOT hack these annoying people to death with the meat cleaver in his hand.

 

Look, Marty’s doing all right.  He’s looking after his mother like a good son. He runs a good butcher shop that his customers enjoy. He has friends.

 

Married? Who needs to be married?

 

His mother worries so about Marty and urges him to put on his good suit and go down to the local dance club one Saturday night.  Marty does not want to go.  The club is loud and crowded and filled with lots of people who are younger and better looking than him. 

 

Eventually Marty acquiesces and goes down to the dance hall where he meets Clara.

 

Clara was at the club with her roommate. Her roommate’s boyfriend had arranged a double date with a friend of his but tosses her aside for a younger, prettier girl he meets at the club, leaving Clara abandoned. 

 

Marty and Clara’s paths cross and they start up an awkward conversation.

 

That gets slightly less awkward. 

 

The next thing you know, hours have passed with Marty and Clara enjoying each other's company.   

 

Has Marty the butcher found love? 

 

Marty and Clara go out some more and things are going well enough.

Until Marty picks the worst time and place to make a move to kiss Clara. Insecure lug that he is, Marty takes it personally but really, Clara likes him. His timing was bad. 

 

Meanwhile, all the people who have been bugging Marty with this…

 

“When are you getting married, Marty?”

“Why’s a nice boy like you not married, Marty?”
“Oh, you should a get a nice girl and get married, Marty!” 

 

Take a good look at Clara and wonder, gee, can’t he do better than that? 

 

Marty lets people get in his head and leads him to standing up Clara for a date.

 

Until he realizes that he is STUPID!

"You don't like her, my mother don't like her, she's a dog and I'm a fat, ugly man! Well, all I know is I had a good time last night! I'm gonna have a good time tonight! If we have enough good times together, I'm gonna get down on my knees and I'm gonna beg that girl to marry me! If we make a party on New Year's, I got a date for that party. You don't like her? That's too bad!"

Marty calls Clara to ask forgiveness for not being where he was supposed to be and the smile on his face tells us it’s gonna be OK and we…

 

Fade out. 

 

OK, how ugly is Clara?

 

Well, she’s not.

 

She is what you might call “Hollywood ugly”. 

 

Played by Betsy Blair, Clara is a school teacher and dresses the part in prim dresses and her hair pulled up.  But when we first meet Clara in the film, my first thought was how pretty she is.

 

No, she is not glamourous.  But she is pretty. Marty thinks she’s beautiful and I agree with him. 

 The role of Marty won Ernest Borgnine a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.

And the film itself won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  

In 1994, Marty was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

There's more to Marty than just  the story of a poor schlub who actually finds love and narrowly avoids losing it forever.  The screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky does a lot of world building with Marty's Italian American neighborhood and his family and friends, building a rich and detailed tapestry of how life is in Marty's corner of the world.  

On a personal level, I share in Marty's worries and frustrations. As a socially awkward outcast, I used to wonder if I was to be denied what every one else seem to have in life. (To be honest, I still worry about that.) 

Marty speaks to all who just want to find love, acceptance and belonging.