Product Details

• Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell
• Directors: Delbert Mann
• Writers: Paddy Chayefsky
• Producers: Burt Lancaster, Harold Hecht, Paddy Chayefsky
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: December 6, 1993
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301973259
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,907 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Originally broadcast as a 50-minute drama on Philco Television Playhouse in 1953, Marty ensured Paddy Chayefsky's status as one of the greatest writers of television's golden age. When Chayefsky, director Delbert Mann, and actor Ernest Borgnine reunited for this 90-minute film version, the play had been polished with extra scenes, further perfecting Chayefsky's timeless study of loneliness and heartbreak. And the film, in which Borgnine excels as the single, 35-year-old "fat and ugly" butcher Marty Pilletti, received well-deserved Oscars® for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Screenplay. Although Chayefsky's central theme is the pain of being unwanted (as felt by Marty himself as well as his elderly Aunt Catherine, who's become a burden to her married daughter), the film is never somber or depressing, and achieves a rare quality of honesty, humor, and hopefulness without resorting to artifice or sentiment.

Marty's just about given up on love when he meets plain-looking Clara (Betsy Blair), a 29-year-old teacher who's endured similar cycles of rejection. Much of Marty explores the simple decency of these characters, their admirable qualities and mutual connection, and the slow escalation of self-esteem that will hold them together. Marty is a supremely compassionate film, but it's also an entertaining one, trimmed (like a good butcher's meat) of any dramatic fat. And although Blair (who earned an Oscar nomination) is superb in her role, it's worth noting that she's more conventionally "attractive" than Nancy Marchand (late of The Sopranos), who played Clara with arguably greater authenticity in the original 1953 telecast. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars New DVD version of Marty incomplete!, June 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Marty (DVD)

I just noticed that a scene is missing from the DVD that was in my previous VHS version. The scene that I am refering to is right after Marty takes Clara home there is a short scene where she tells her parents about her date and how happy she is. This scene lasted about a minute or two. I don't know what's wrong with MGM lately. They forgot to include the original subtitles in "Spinal Tap" they butchered half the "Bond" films with either missing scenes or non existent subtitles and now this. I think we as consumers deserve better than this. We've had to endure MGM's blunders for far too long. Let them know that you're not satisified at all with the quality of their DVD's.

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THERE IS SOMEONE FOR EVERYONE..., October 13, 2003

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marty [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Written by the gifted Paddy Chayefsky, this is a memorable film, deftly directed by Delbert Mann. That it has a stage-like, theatrical feel to it is not surprising, considering that it was first a made-for-television play that was later augmented for the silver screen. This element of theatricality, however, does not detract in the least from this gritty, thematically complex film.

Ernest Borgnine plays the role of Marty Piletti, a stocky, thirty-four year old, lonely Italian butcher living at home in the Bronx with his mother. He is the last of the Piletti brood still in the nest. Physically unattractive and a bit doltish, he is a socially awkward, lumbering lummox of internal pain and angst. His mother wants him to get married, or so she thinks, until the reality of what such might ultimately mean for her sinks in. She takes her cue from her sister, Marty's Aunt Catherine, who is living with her son and daughter-in-law and making their lives hell. Consequently, she is going to move in with Marty and his mother.

Marty spends most of his spare time with his friend Angie, as well as with a bunch of other losers. Unloved, unmarried, and unable to get a date, Marty has all but given up on finding Miss Right, when he meets a twenty-nine year old high school teacher, also from the Bronx, Clara Snyder (Betsy Blair), at the famous Stardust Ballroom. Clara, a well educated, nice plain-Jane, is there as part of a pity double date arranged by her brother-in-law. Unfortunately, her date turns out to be a total cad who unceremoniously tries to fob her off on anyone he can, so that he can get some action going with a hot babe he knows. Marty feels Clara's pain, so he asks her to dance, not knowing that he is meeting his feminine counterpart and soul-mate.

As the film peels the layers from Marty, the viewer meets the sensitive, kind man who lives within the unattractive exterior. The viewer really gets to feel his pain, as well as that of some of the other characters in the film. One senses the feelings of alienation and loneliness in Clara, as she is dumped by her caddish date. One senses the fear that Mrs. Piletti has at the reality of what Marty's getting married might mean for her. Aunt Catherine's ouster from her son's home, as the older, unwanted woman with few options in life, also makes an impact on the viewer. The angst of Aunt Catherine's son at having to cleave to his wife, rather than to his mother, is also palpable, as is that of Angie at the thought of the possibility of no longer having Marty around to share his own social isolation.

The themes in this film, such as loneliness, isolation, alienation, and fear are all themes still relevant today. The only real anachronistic note is struck by the fact that Mrs. Piletti and Aunt Catherine both appear to be in their late sixties or early seventies, but I found to my complete surprise that Aunt Catherine is supposed to be fifty-six, and Mrs. Piletti is her younger sister! Trust me when I say that, nowadays, women in their fifties do not look like that.

All in all, this is an excellent film. Those who enjoyed this film should also seek out another Paddy Chayefsky film, "The Catered Affair", starring Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine, which is a bitter sweet film about another Bronx family.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So real I felt I knew these characters personally, September 26, 2001

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Marty [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Starring Ernest Borgnine, this 1955 film adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky's original television drama won four academy awards. Filmed it black and white, it is a character study of an awkward Italian-American Bronx butcher in his thirties who would like get married but has trouble meeting women. It's a simple story but it is so real that I felt I knew Marty personally. I felt his struggle to make a phone call to ask for a date only to get a brush off. I saw his annoyance and embarrassment when his customers all scolded him for not being married. I sensed his boredom and frustration of another Saturday night hanging out with his buddies in a futile quest for something interesting to do.

There's real drama here and it's not just Marty who has problems. There are his young married cousins who are feeling the frustrations of living in a cramped apartment with their baby and widowed mother. There is Marty's mother who is afraid of living her own old age alone. There are his buddies who are as equally bored as Marty. But most of all, there is the wallflower schoolteacher, played by Betsy Blair, who is just a mite to pretty for the role. When Marty meets her at a dance where she has just been dumped by a blind date, he finds they have a lot in common and they both enjoy the evening immensely.

In spite of the film being made more than 46 years ago, it was still fresh and real. Paddy Chayefsky was a master with dialog. For example there is the exchange between Marty and his friend Angie. "Hey Marty, what do you feel like doing tonight?" "I don't know Angie. What do you feel like doing?" These lines get repeated a few times. And the audience just "gets it". Another famous line is when Marty says to the young woman who has just been crying on his shoulder. "Hey, you're not as much of a dog as you think you are."

This film is about people. It's about family and love and simple things in life. The acting was so real that I forgot they were actors. I loved it and give it one of my highest recommendations. See it if you can.