And it's time for another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com! With this film under my belt I'm down to only five remaining calendar years where I haven't seen any of the Best Picture nominees: 1935, 1936, 1949, 1956 & 1959.
Today's subject is the 1955 Best Pic winner, which at 93 minutes holds the distinction of being the shortest film to ever take home the big trophy, Marty, starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. This light-hearted dramedy directed by Delbert Mann and written by Paddy Chayefsky (based on his own teleplay) is about a lonely bachelor in his mid-thirties whose siblings have all gotten married. Marty works as a neighborhood butcher and despite pressure from his family and customers, has more or less accepted that he'll never find a nice girl to settle down with. We learn very early in the film that it's not for lack of trying; at his friend Angie's suggestion he makes a phone call to a woman he met at a movie theater a month earlier and asks her out again, but she turns him down flat. Marty lives with his widowed, old-fashioned mother who all but pushes him out of the house that night to go to a singles dance, and after striking out all night he notices a sad girl sitting by herself, her blind date having ditched her. Marty and Clair spend the evening dancing, talking, walking around the neighborhood, and form a rather sweet, innocent connection despite their shared social awkwardness. But by the next day his mother and his friends discourage him from calling her up again, entirely for their own selfish reasons.
Borgnine won the Best Actor award for his performance here, a mostly subtle portrayal of a perfectly decent poor schlub who never seems to get the girl. Marty is so eager to please he lets everyone in his life push him around to the point that he's talked out of what's best for himself. This trait seems inherited from his mother, whose sister (also widowed and asked by her son and daughter-in-law to move out) convinces her that if she lets Marty get married he'll abandon her. Marty's mother begins parroting her sister's exact words: "College girls are one step from the street!" Marty is so reluctant to stand up for himself he nearly gets talked out of buying the butcher shop from his boss, when his accountant cousin Tommy urges him to remain a bachelor with no responsibility (after fighting with his wife). And of course Marty's friends almost convince him not to call Clair back because she isn't good-looking enough for their tastes. Borgnine adeptly makes us sympathize with this sad, self-pitying lug, while Betsy Blair conveys Clair's sweetness and patience. There's a scene toward the end of their date when Marty tries to kiss her and she rebuffs him, not because she doesn't like him but because she's too shy to know what to do. Even after he gets upset at yet another rejection she assures him that she does in fact want to see him again.
I found the structure of Marty kind of strange; it all takes place over a single weekend and the eventual payoff doesn't occur until the film's final moments. It's really a character study of two lonely misfits, both of whom have somewhat promising job prospects (she's a teacher with an offer to take a better-paying job upstate), but are afraid to take the leap; in his case he isn't sure about the financial risk, in hers it would involve a long commute. As with their love lives, they've become so accustomed to failure the idea of taking a risk intimidates them. In each other they've found someone safe and understanding with whom to share their respective insecurities. Watching Borgnine I was reminded of John C. Reilly's pitiable cop from Magnolia and I wonder if this character was an influence.
Marty wasn't a blowaway film experience for me - I think the third act could've used more fleshing out - but it's a good, solid piece of filmmaking with a noteworthy lead performance and strong supporting ones. The dialogue is well-written if a tad repetitious at times, and the two lead characters are certainly easy to identify with.
I give Marty *** out of ****.
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