Marty (1955)

The wonderful, short and sweet story of Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine,) a low self-esteemed butcher who is shamed and pressured by his family and customers because he's still single well into his thirties; (those guys Marty hangs out with share his same status, a fact which goes unmentioned till the film's conclusion.)

Marty talks of having given up on women and even of suicide.

Nowadays we'd recognize these as signs of clinical depression.

Things finally turn around for him when he rescues Clara (Betsy Blair,) a nearly thirty-year-old teacher after she's dumped by her blind date and chooses not to leave the dance hall with the jerk who accepted five bucks to take her home.

Marty and Clara have a wonderful, relaxed, time just talking about themselves and resolve to meet the next day after church... But when his friends insist she's a dog, Marty begins to have second thoughts: "You don't like her, my mother don't like her, she's a dog and I'm a fat, ugly man!"

For all its defenders I think it's curious that this is never makes it into The Most Romantic Movies of All Time lists, (it's generally simply classified as a straight Drama, ignoring even its Comedy aspects,) because why should it? We never identify with Marty or Clara, or if we do, we refuse to accept it.

The movie is presented, and watched, as if Marty and Clara were unfortunate, unattractive people we might know of, but never us.

The Most Romantic Movies of All Time lists are made up of movies featuring attractive movie stars. That's the number one prerequisite, it seems; but frankly, neither of the leading actors is truly unattractive. At most, they seem like ordinary, regular, everyday people (which is not even true, just the fact that they are played by movie stars is already extraordinary.)

There's nothing really physically wrong with either of them; and the reality is that the characters simply view and present themselves as desperate and unattractive.

The dialogue is unique, not because it's realistic, but simply because it's an attempt at more realistic dialogue than most while still being highly stylized, mostly in its repetitive qualities: A MAD Magazine spoof of it (in a Donald Duck as if written by Paddy Chayefsky) was basically a direct transcription of what we get here.

Mickey Spillane's name is not only seen on a movie poster but dropped in the dialogue as well.

One particularly funny aspect (from me) is that Marty's aunt, even when merely 56 years old (my current age,) is seen as an old, useless person.

I'm not saying I'm not old, but I am saying my productive life is not even close to being done. Just one of those weird little things which show how much culture has changed over the decades, I suspect.

This is another one of those atypical, modest films which surprised everyone by getting an Academy Award for Best Picture and beating out The Blackboard Jungle, East of Eden, Kiss Me Deadly, Mister Roberts, Rebel Without a Cause and even the truly underrated The Night of the Hunter!

Marty is a cute movie, but is it a better film than Charles Laughton's sadly overlooked, single directorial effort?