Marty (1955)
Decided to start watching all of the Oscar best picture winners, in order. I hadn’t heard of some of these movies, some I love and have seen multiple times already and I actively hate others, planning to never watch them again. Fair warning, there will be spoilers in these and other reviews to help explain my point of view.
This movie is…interesting. I understand that times were different in the 50s and that it was considered scandalous to reach a “certain age” and be unmarried, but oh man, does this movie beat you over the head with that!
We meet Marty (Ernest Borgnine) working in the bitcher shop he is considering buying. All the female customers can talk about is his brother’s recent wedding and the fact that Marty should be ashamed since he is still a bachelor while all of his many younger siblings have all gotten married before him. It is clear that Marty hears this all the time and is fed up with the situation, so you can’t help but feel sorry for him. Marty’s life is so boring and rather pathetic. In addition to being badgered about marriage by customers, his friends are just as pathetic, without women in their lives and are stuck in an endless loop of doing the same thing every weekend, which isn’t much of anything. Marty’s mom is also pushing him to get married, but at the same time, she is worried that when he does get married, Marty and his future wife will not want her living with them anymore. This is because her sister Catherine is being pushed out of her son Tommy’s house because she doesn’t get along with her daughter-in-law, Virginia. The solution to this is to have Catherine move in with Marty and his mother. There is no problem with this, as they live in a huge house and Marty doesn’t mind having his Aunt living with them, but his Aunt’s insecurities and feelings of uselessness start to rub off on his mother.
In one scene toward the end of the movie, we see Tommy and Virginia quietly fight in their house over the decision they both made to have Catherine move out, since having her with them in their small apartment prevents them from having privacy and the two women argue about everything, including the care of Tommy and Virginia’s infant son. It is funny how Catherine’s mere presence causes such tension, yet Tommy doesn’t want her to leave, but Marty doesn’t lean into the comedic potential of the situation enough, resorting to melodrama instead. Even when Tommy and Virginia continue their fight at Marty’s house, as they drop Catherine off and listen to Marty ask about the financial implications of buying the butcher shop, the way the scene plays out begs for drops of humor, even if just by adding in an upbeat score, but we don’t get it. Such a missed opportunity!
Marty did take his mother’s advice and went out dancing with his lame friend, hoping to shake things up and meet someone. This is where the movie got really weird. Clara and her friend are on a double date; Clara’s date thinks Clara is a “dog”, a term this movie throws around quite a lot. It must have been tough living during the 50s if people actually called everyone who wasn’t model-beautiful, a dog. Clara’s date offers Marty $5 if he will take her off his hands, which, WHAT??!!?? Who does that?? Marty rightfully refuses, but when someone else takes the date up on his offer, but is rejected by Clara, Marty sees how upset Clara is and goes after her, genuinely asks her to dance and lets her cry on his shoulder. They end up spending much of the night together, talking and getting to know each other. It is cute to see these two self-described “losers” awaken a bit of confidence in each other and start to feel a mutual attraction. The letdown comes the next day though as everyone recalls how Marty was stuck with a dog the night before, and his Mom (who met Clara when Marty brought her home for a bit) says she doesn’t like Clara and thinks she looks “35 or 40” which would of course be too old for 34 year-old Marty. Marty’s Mom says this only because she is afraid of being cast aside, but that doesn’t make it any less mean-spirited and soul-crushing to Marty. He did what EVERYONE in his life was pushing him to do; he went out and met someone who he liked and who liked him, yet everyone gave him crap for the person he chose, which was ridiculous. Clara is portrayed by Betsy Blair, a perfectly attractive woman. Blair was married to Gene Kelly at the time this film was made, after lobbying hard for the role. Before learning this I wondered how she felt about the terrible things said about Clara, but she must not have minded, and did a great job in the role, as did Borgnine as Marty.
I am glad the movie ended with Marty ignoring what everyone said and reaching out to Clara for another date. The promise of what they can be together is there, in spite of the negativity from everyone in Marty’s life.
Did this movie deserve to with Best Picture? Of course not! There isn’t enough here to justify being nominated, let alone winning, so I am not sure how this happened. Marty also won Best Director, Actor and Adapted Screenplay! Marty isn’t terrible, but it is so slight and doesn’t lean into the comedy lurking under the surface, therefore I think it falls short of being a classic or worthy of this level of acclaim. Apparently, I am in the minority of thinking so, just as Marty was in the minority in thinking Clara was a worthy woman. As he was correct, so am I. 2.5 out of 5 stars.
