MARTY Review
There is a undeniable sweetness to the simplicity of Delbert Mann’s MARTY. Written by Paddy Chayefsky and headed by Ernest Borgnine in the lead role, MARTY is the tale of a 34-year-old Italian-American man simply looking for companionship in the big city. Biding his time during the day as the friendly, neighborhood butcher, Marty Piletti spends his nights chilling at either his mother’s (Esther Minciotti) home or at a local drinking spot with his pal and wingman Angie (Joe Mantell), where they spin their wheels as lonely bachelors.
But in the span of one night, Marty finds a surprising, possible partner in the meek and mousy Clara (Betsy Blair), an equally sweet schoolteacher who also finds herself struggling to find an interested man in the big city. Like a sort of proto-BEFORE SUNRISE, MARTY follows these two good-hearted yet lonely lovers as they meet and get to know each other throughout the night. In that form, Mann’s film feels rather unique to its specific time as it takes on a leisurely structure and pace operating as both a character study and lowkey romantic comedy. Indeed, the burgeoning attraction between a loud, large man and a small, quiet woman brings out the best qualities of the film with Mr. Borgnine and Ms. Blair anchoring a rather sweet, if underdeveloped romance. While the two performers are able to bring the sense of authentic connection and attraction to their scenes together, with Borgnine’s energetic ramblings matching nicely with Blair’s soft spoken demeanor, one still can’t shake the feeling that the characters are only attracted to each other because the script says they should. To his credit, Chayefsky sprinkles a touch of awkwardness to the courtship that adds an air of authenticity, but even so his script makes a few pivots into some B-plots, such as Marty’s mother dealing with the impending arrival of her cantankerous sister (Augusta Ciolli) or Angie’s own hassled night, that take the focus away from Marty and Clara’s wooing of one other resulting in a central romance that doesn’t allow the audience to fully become involved emotionally with these two characters.
Nevertheless, MARTY never overestimates its narrative importance; as it is, this is literally just a film about a lonely man looking to finally find a girl who loves him, but there’s a beauty in watching a film about such a relatively small, non-extravagant problem. While the film is far from gritty, Mann and his production team add a lot of character to not only the people involved, displayed mainly in Marty’s Italian-American family, but to the sets as well, offering up unassuming locations such as bars and dancehalls filled to the brim with little details and busy background work courtesy of its background actors. Those smaller pieces usually go unnoticed in other films but in MARTY they only add to its blue collar charm. However, the low-stakes don’t always make for the most engaging emotional moments with scenes that involve Marty going all sad boy on us with monologues about women avoiding him, veering very close to “nice guy” territory, leaving a slightly sour taste in a more modern viewing. But hey, who hasn’t become somewhat overdramatic and morose in the face of perpetual single-ness? Indeed, in those moments where the flames of love flicker between Marty and Clara, MARTY comes to life. In one standout sequence, set during the beginning portions of Marty and Clara’s meet-cute, Mann and cinematographer Joseph LaShelle glide their camera ever so slowly and subtly through a swaying sea of dancing lovers to frame Marty and Clara soothingly opening up to one another. As they air their own respective troubles with love and a connection arises, the camera stops in its tracks, framing just the two lovers before once more softly gliding back to its original spot as the two lonely birds simply commit to a quiet dance of attraction and mutual understanding. It’s pure magic and honestly counts for a whole point towards this film’s final score.
Moments like those are magnificent in their pure-ness and MARTY would be a better film if it simply trained itself to stick with Marty and Clara throughout their night and their relationship rather than skipping over to other less interesting characters. Regardless, MARTY gets a lot of mileage out of its low-stakes atmosphere and just all around good-naturedness. Like a lot of guys similar to Marty, this is a film that you generally can enjoy hanging around with, at least until he starts moping about being sad and lonely all the time.
3/5
