Marty
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
There’s a movie that no one seemed to think would amount to much, only to have it stun everyone and become a classic. It’s called Marty. It was made in 1955 and starred Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The story had already been made as a teleplay for TV when—legend has it—some film producers hatched the idea of remaking the play as a low-budget feature film that was sure to bomb at the box office, and they could use the loss as a tax-write off.
That’s when this underdog of a movie surprised everyone by getting up on its hind legs and punching its producers in the teeth. Marty proved to be a sensation with audiences and critics alike. It won the first ever Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and took home that year’s Best Picture Academy award. Borgnine won the Oscar for Best actor. Delbert Mann won for Best Director. And the great writer Paddy Chayefsky won for Best Screenplay.
So why did Marty become such a hit with everyone? At first glance, nothing about it sounds remarkable.
Marty is a 34-year-old bachelor. Slightly overweight, he makes his living as a butcher in the Bronx where he still lives with his widowed mother. Despite the fact that nearly everyone he meets in the neighborhood constantly reminds him that he should be married by now, Marty takes it all in stride. He’s cheerful and warm to everyone he meets.
Tired of being rejected by women, he’s resigned himself to a life of being alone.
But inside Marty is in pain. He tells his mother he thinks he's ugly. Tired of being rejected by women, he’s resigned himself to a life of being alone.
One Saturday night, however, his married brother convinces him to go to a dance at the Stardust Ballroom and give “meeting a girl” another try. Grudgingly, Marty decides to go, expecting the worst. But then Fate intervenes. While at the dance, a man approaches Marty and says he’s on a blind date with a girl named Clara who’s turned out to be ugly. He offers Marty a few bucks if he’ll take the homely girl off his hands. Marty is appalled and tells the man to get lost.
But then Marty sees Clara sitting alone, crying over how the man has treated her. Moved by her tears, he goes to console her…and what follows is a revelation. Marty is a low-key, unpretentious, realistically told tale about two average people, trapped in lonely lives, who happen to meet and find in each other the tender promise of love. I give Marty a joyful, uplifting four out of four stars. It’s one the most natural and relatable portrayals of romance ever filmed. No wonder the movie won so many hearts in 1955…and why it still wins hearts all these years later.
