Marty

“Whadya wanna do tonight?” “I dunno, Angie, whadda you wanna do?” So goes a typical conversation for 34-year-old Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine), a good-natured but lonely Bronx butcher and self-proclaimed “fat, ugly man” who lives with his smothering widowed mother (Esther Minciotti) and hangs out with dead-end pals. Marty is almost crippled by shyness when it comes to women, adopting a self-deprecating humor as a kind of defense until he meets lonely schoolteacher Clara (Betsy Blair) at a dance and makes a connection. But Marty's mom and friends suddenly become hostile toward the romance, putting down Clara (whom they call a “dog”) while trying to convince Marty to dump her, despite the happiness she clearly brings him. Paddy Chayefsky originally wrote the story as a live TV drama in 1953 and expanded it for this 1955 feature film, adding more characters and an extended family with its own relationship problems, while still maintaining the focus on working-class folks and their everyday lives. The story's simplicity, the characteristic New York City dialogue, the casting of excellent but mostly unknown performers in supporting roles, and the gentle power of Borgnine's performance made this modest production a big success, earning rave notices from critics, winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and then sweeping the Academy Awards, with Oscars for Borgnine, writer Chayefsky, director Delbert Mann, and for Best Picture. Appearing in a newly remastered edition for this DVD re-release and Blu-ray debut, this is highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)