Marty
A celebration of the 'small' film. Of the ordinary man. Of the Bronx and of butchers, of eras gone by and of... Borgnine.
John Turturro takes a dive in Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994) by answering On the Waterfront to the question he knows all to well as a fellow Bronx man: What won best picture in 1955?
At a time when PanaVision, VistaVision, CinemaScope, 3-D, sweeping epics with lush production values and over-the-top musicals were de rigueur at the box office, Marty (Mann 1955), not only quietly and stealthily won over hearts of moviegoers everywhere, but also the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the decidedly snootier judges at Cannes.
Winner of the Best Film Oscar in 1955, Marty is a celebration of the plain and prosaic. A stripped down, simple story — yet so touching, so tender and ultimately... so influential, in its wake filmmakers churned out other unadorned masterpieces such as 12 Angry Men (Lumet 1957), Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger 1959) and The Graduate (Nichols 1967).
Previously known for his roles as the menacing 'heavy', Ernest Borgnine's lighthearted, warm and good-natured Marty, won him an Oscar winner for Best Actor.
Marty with his mother, played by Ester Minciotti. Hold on to your britches — he was supposed to be 34 years old, OK, believable enough, but she was playing a 56 year old. That's me on my next birthday. WTF? Mrs. Piletti, a fine example of the Beloved Smother trope.
Though heart-warming and a tad funny (thinking of Marty's Aunt and Mother who are preoccupied with who died in the neighborhood and thinking, if not for Marty, perhaps no Moonstruck (1987). But Marty is not without it's faults.
Touted for his strong script, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky imbued so much sexism into his characters this film is at times hard to watch. Even with strong consideration to context, women are constantly referred to as 'dogs' — even by men who are not exactly, shall we say, soon to be mistaken for Montgomery Clift (the 1950s version of Chris Pine, if you don't know).
In fact, patriarchal, societal norms are the true antagonists in Marty; the 'bad guy' he must overcome to find happiness and win the girl. This alone makes it, if not groundbreaking, then highly unusual. Ugly men are endearing and worthy of love (or at least a sweaty commingling in the backseat of a spacious sedan), but ugly woman... well they are doomed to a lifetime of celibate spinsterhood. And as evidenced in the clip above, college girls are one rung above prostitutes. Ouch.
Every dog will have her day... Betsy Blair as Clara.
'nuff said
Like her character, Betsy Blair nearly drowned in the dangerous tides of societal norms. Black-balled in the Red Scare of HUAC, she almost didn't get to play Clara but was championed by her then husband, Gene Kelly (swoon!). She moved to Europe post haste and worked infrequently, but notably: Remember The Hours (Daldry 2002), the multi-generational, timeline bending, ode to Nicole Kidman in a fake nose, female force of film? Blair filmed scenes as the older version of repressed 1950s housewife, Laura Brown, played by Julianne Moore, but pulled out of the project when her then husband, Karel Reisz, grew gravely ill. Oh! how I love film and all the internet rabbit holes they provide.
Julianne Moore as Laura Brown in The Hours
Clara, apparently an early forerunner of the women in STEM movement, is a Chemistry teacher. More educated than Marty, (again, gird your loins for the video clip above). She is nonetheless lower on the social totem pole than he, hampered by her physical attractiveness, or more accurately... lack thereof. In the film's final act Marty decides to pursue her, despite her looks and the advice of friends and his sainted Mother, in lockstep with the gender stereotypes of of the day. In this Oscar pre-week, enjoy Marty, as I did. These older films deserve your consideration, if not for their current relevance, but for their multi-filtered snapshot of where we were, and where we are now. #metoo
