REVIEW: MARTY

Does anyone else remember Halliwell's Film Guide?  It was like IMDB back in the days before the internet when we had these things called "books" and was written by some old fart called Leslie Halliwell who didn't like any films made after 1962.  I remember his review of "Rocky", because unusually he liked it but commented that "'Marty' is preferable".

It's an odd comparison, because there is no boxing in Marty, no Apollo Creed and no drinking six eggs before running up and down steps.  But I kind of see what he meant.  "Marty" is what "Rocky" would have been like if the whole movie had been about the romance between Rocky and Adriaaaaaaaan.

It stars Ernest Borgnine in the title role.  He's a 34 year old Italian butcher who lives with his old-country mother.  He's seen all his younger brothers and sisters married off and is desperately lonely.  But he's given up on ever finding anyone until he meets Clara at a dance.  She's just been dumped, and since no-one else will dance with him they dance together and find they get along, "Maybe we're not such dogs as we think we are."

It's a nice scene, and Ernest Borgnine plays it well (he got an Oscar for this role).  If you're just used to seeing him playing only gruff army men, it's quite a surprise seeing him playing a sensitive chap.  So he and Clara get along great - but how's Italian ma going to feel about another woman in Marty's life?

This is a terrific little film, written by Paddy Chayefsky who is best known for for the Peter Finch film "Network".  He's got a great ear for dialogue and one of the joys of the film is all the side-bits of overheard conversation.  I particularly like the scene where two old ladies try to out-do each other with stories of people they know who have died.  It's also a great film for getting the feel of the 1950's, with those weird dances my father used to go to, where the women lined up on one wall and the men lined up on the other.  It's full of 50's dialogue and set in dingy pubs and coffee bars with jukeboxes and people who smoke.

I loved it, and if you're willing to give an old b&w movie a go, I'd definitely recommend it.  It's worth adding it to your LoveFilm list just to remember Ernest Borgnine for something other than "Airwolf".

MAN 1: I reckon a guy should marry a girl 20 years younger than him, so that when he's an old man of 41, she's still a pretty young doll of 21.
MAN2: That would mean he'd have to marry her when she's one year old.
MAN 1: I had not thought of that.