Marty

Movie Review: Marty

Year of Release: 1955
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Delbert Mann
Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell

Plot outline: A touching story about two lonely people who have almost resigned themselves to never being truly loved (IMDb).

This neat little character study of a lonely fellow and a lonely girl who find each other in the prowling mob at a Bronx dance hall makes a warm and winning movie, full of the sort of candid comment on plain, drab people that seldom reaches the screen. Ernest Borgnine as the fellow and Betsy Blair as the girl - not to mention three or four others - give performances that burn into the mind. Except for a rather sudden ending that leaves a couple of threads untied and the emotional climax not quite played out, it is a trim and rewarding show. Within the dramatic time-lapse of a little more than twenty-four hours, our hero breaks through the inhibitions of his fearful and inferior attitudes. He poignantly recognizes someone just as lost and desperate as he. And he amusingly and bravely grabs for her over the pitiful scoffing of his friends. Chayefsky's script is loaded with accurate and vivid dialogue, so blunt and insensitive in places that it makes the listener's heart bleed while striking a chord of humor with its candor and colorfulness. Mann's excellent staging has got the feel and the flavor of the Bronx, where all of the picture's exteriors and many of its interiors were filmed. As for Borgnine's performance, it is a beautiful blend of the crude and the strangely gentle and sensitive in a monosyllabic man. It is amazing to see such a performance from the actor who played the Stockade sadist in From Here to Eternity. And Miss Blair is wonderfully revealing of the unspoken nervousness and hope in the girl who will settle for sincerity. The two make an excellent team. As the disquieted mother of the hero, Esther Minciotti is superb, and Augusta Ciolli is devastating as a grimly dependent aunt. Jerry Paris is briefly amusing as the aunt's conscience-smitten son, and Joe Mantell is funny and incisive as the hero's pal. (NYT)

My judgment: ***1/2 out of 4 stars