Everything about Marty totally explained
Marty is a
low-budget 1955 love story directed by
Delbert Mann, based on a teleplay of the same name by
Paddy Chayefsky, which starred Rod Steiger in the title role, and Nancy Marchand as the female lead. The theatrical film differs from the teleplay in several respects: the part of Clara was fleshed out to a great extent; a subplot regarding Marty's mother and her sister has been added; and a subplot regarding Marty's career has been added.
A
sleeper hit, the film enjoyed national and international success, winning the 1955
Academy Award for Best Picture and becoming only the second American film to win the
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival.
Marty and
The Lost Weekend (
1945) are the only two films to win both awards. It was also the first American film officially screened in the Soviet Union.
Plot
The film stars
Ernest Borgnine as Marty Piletti, a heavy-set
Italian-American butcher who lives in the
Bronx with his mother. Unmarried at 34, the good-natured but socially awkward man faces near constant badgering from family and friends to get married. Not averse to marriage but disheartened by lack of prospects, Marty has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood.
After being by his mother into going to the Bronx's
Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty connects with Clara—an unattractive school teacher who has just been nastily abandoned by her
blind date. Spending the rest of the evening together, Clara and Marty realize they've an emotional connection, and Marty leaves with a promise to call her again the next day.
Realizing that Marty actually having marriage prospects might cause her to end up alone and abanded, Marty's mother belittles Clara. Likewise, Marty's friends are unimpressed with her plainness, and try to convince Marty to forget about her. Finally harangued into submission, Marty doesn't call Clara.
Back in the same lonely rut, Marty realizes that he's giving up a chance at love with a wonderful woman. Over the objections of his friends, he impulsively dashes to a phone booth to give Clara a call.
Reception
At the
Cannes Film Festival, the producers were initially taken aback when it was announced that the film won the
Palme d'Or (Golden Palm). After they'd won, they decided to promote the film heavily for its general release. (The trailer has
Burt Lancaster claiming the film was superb in every way.) The opinions of critics were overwhelmingly positive. Ronald Holloway of
Variety Magazine felt it was an excellent film and said "If 'Marty' is an example of the type of material that can be gleaned, then studio story editors better spend more time at home looking at television."
TIME felt the film was "Wonderful".
Louella Parsons enjoyed the film however, she felt that it wouldn't likely be nominated for Oscars. At a budget of $343,000 (
USD) the film generated revenues of $3,000,000 in the USA alone, making it a box office smash. The film ended up receiving eight Academy Award nominations, with four major wins: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor, becoming one of two films to date to win both Best Picture and the Palme d'Or.
In 1994,
Marty was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
United States National Film Registry.
Awards and recognition
Academy Awards
Cannes Film Festival
This film also won the
1955 Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the
Cannes Film Festival. To date,
Marty and
The Lost Weekend (
1945) are the only films ever to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d'Or.
Popular culture references
- The film, and Herbert Stempel's knowledge of its status as Best Picture of 1955, played an important role in the so-called quiz show scandals. See also Quiz Show.
- The 1991 film Only the Lonely starring John Candy, Ally Sheedy, and Maureen O'Hara, has a similar plot and characters.
- The film Fort Apache, The Bronx was set 30 blocks from where this film was set, in 1981, and shows the devastation the entire South Bronx, including this location, experienced before its current revitalization in the 2000s. Marty's house still exists, on Belmont Avenue off of Fordham Road, just where he said it was in the movie, though the house has been extensively renovated since the 1950s.
- The 2006 film I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With features a similarly stocky male protagonist living with his mother having difficulty finding love. A remake of the film Marty and the protagonist's agony over its miscasting are central plot lines of the film.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Marty'.
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