Marty 1955

The Film:

The main thing I know about this film is that it's the answer to the question that Herbie Stempel has to pretend not to know in the film (and real life events of) Quiz Show. Which places me and my moviegoing experiences clearly in a very different decade to the one in which Marty itself was released.

Other than that I have no knowledge, or any pre-conceived ideas about Marty at all. A little bit of research tells me that this is still the shortest film ever to win Best Picture (at just short of 90 minutes long) and is the only winner to have been adapted from a TV programme (unlike several TV programmes that were adapted from Best Picture winning films....)

It's one of the last winners to be shot in Black and White (we've got one more coming up in a few films' time, and then nothing until Schindler's List and The Artist) and is one of the earliest examples of what we now call a "sleeper hit". Sleepers often tend to bag a nomination (Juno and Little Miss Sunshine spring to mind first) but it's unusual for them to win - so what is so special about Marty?

The Ceremony:

The Awards were given out on March 21st 1956 - again in both Los Angeles (presented by Jerry Lewis) and New York (with Claudette Colbert and Joseph L Mankiewicz). I'm not much of a Jerry Lewis fan. I think I'd have rather been in New York!



Other Notable Winners That Night:

Jack, Jo and Ernest

Marty took four of the big five awards - Best Actress went to Anna Magnani (who I've never heard of) for The Rose Tattoo (which I know practically nothing about!). The Supporting awards went to Jack Lemmon and Jo Van Fleet - the latter being the only award for either of the two James Dean-starring films that received nominations that year.

Several years before Patty Duke won an Oscar for playing her, Helen Keller won (or at least accepted) her own Oscar this year, as the Best Documentary award went to the documentary about her life. Something I do remember watching many years ago after having a bit of a mild obsession with Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan when I was about ten (it's a teacher thing.....).


Best Song:

This year it's Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing. It's a classic, but I'm personally not a fan. Not my type of song really. (Tender Trap and Unchained Melody were among the nominees - I'd go for either of those over this one!)

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Do students still put pictures of him on their walls???

It's another one of those rare years where I haven't seen any of the Best Picture nominees (Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tattoo and Love Is A Many-Splendored thing). And I'm a bit shocked that neither of the James Dean films from this year are in that list. East of Eden got a Director nomination for Elia Kazan along with three other nominations (including one win, and a nom for Dean). Rebel Without A Cause got three nominations - including Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood. It might just be the tragic Dean legend that has kept both of these films in public consciousness, but they are both really good films!

This aside, I'm happy to go with the Academy here. I'm just as likely to watch Marty again as either of Jimmy's first two big films (his third one I'll come on to next time....)

Our Verdict:

Lonely, depressed, unlucky? But definitely lovely!

We sat down to watch this on a weekday evening, with work the next day - probably the first time we've done that during this challenge. Partly this was because of the short length of the film, but also the subject matter seemed right for a cold winter evening when there's nothing else on the telly. I was pretty certain I'd like the film - and I was more interested in trying to work out what the fuss was about. How did this very low budget film win Best Picture?

Firstly, the plot. Marty (Ernest Borgnine, very much shaking off the "He killed Sinatra!" image of From Here to Eternity) is the last remaining unmarried child of a fairly typical New York Italian widow. Everybody tells him he needs to find a girl and settle down - some even say he should be "ashamed" that he hasn't done so far. He wants to find the right girl but so far hasn't and he is very aware that he is getting older and is physically less attractive than most of his contemporaries. His friends don't seem to be a great deal of help and he seems destined to stay living with his mother and doing the same things week in week out.

What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?

One night, at the suggestion of his cousin, he heads out to the Stardust Ballroom and (in a lovely scene that really makes you fall for his character) he meets Clara (Betsy Blair - Gene Kelly's wife!) when he helps her after she is unceremoniously dumped by her absolute git of a blind date. The two spend the evening together and start to get to know each other - and clearly begin to fall for each other.

Meanwhile Marty's bitter widowed aunt moves in with him and his mother and starts to lay a bit of a guilt trip on him when she complains that all their children have left them and forgotten them and they are now just getting in the way.

Marty and Clara

Marty has arranged to meet Clara the next day - but starts to have doubts that it's the right thing to do. Will he go through with it?

And that's it. That's pretty much the whole film. There are some great comic moments, mainly exchanges between either two comic Irish women, two comic Italian women, two or more stereotypical 50s "lads". And it all seems to work really well.

She's not even Italian.....

The script is very good, particularly the way Marty's character is so quickly and sympathetically established. Ernest Borgnine is brilliant and deserved his Oscar - he plays Marty with such subtlety and sensitivity that you get completely sucked into his situation. And the supporting actors all do exactly that - support his central performance and help his story and his character to shine out.

The only slight let down in the cast, for me, was Clara. Betsy Blair was clearly not an unattractive woman in real life (although the strong implication is that Clara is) and a lot of her unattractiveness seems to be shown through bad lighting and unflattering facial expressions - which reminded me a bit too much of Jerry's Two-Face girlfriend in Seinfeld!

There are several things about the film that are very much of its time - particularly the (seemingly perfectly acceptable) derogatory attitude that even the "nice" single men in the story have towards women. The social conventions implied throughout are a fascinating part of the story in themselves and it is difficult to really put ourselves in the shoes of 50s Americans watching this film (over and over) at the cinema. That being said, Marty definitely struck a chord with audiences back then - and I'm grateful for that, because it means we got to watch it 60 years later. It's short and sweet and I really liked it.

The original TV play is intact and up on Youtube - only 50 minutes long and with Rod Steiger playing the lead. I've not watched it yet but it's on my to-do list. Here it is: