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It's the love story of an unsung hero!
Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother, is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward, he faces constant badgering from family and friends to get married but has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood. He then meets Clara, an unattractive school teacher. Realising their emotional connection, Marty promises to call, but family and friends try to convince him not to.
badelf
Jul 2, 2026 · via TMDB
Summary: 7/10: a well-crafted slice of 1950s life that earns its Best Picture Oscar even if much of it feels like anthropology now. Funny, amusing, and quite dated, but an enjoyable watch anyway. Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning screenplay, expanded from his own television play, captures a specific moment in working-class Bronx life with sharp ear for dialogue and genuine affection for its characters, even when those characters are casually cruel to each other in ways that feel distinctly of their era. Ernest Borgnine is wonderful as Marty, the lonely butcher who's been told he's too ugly, too boring, too old to find love. Borgnine brings vulnerability and dignity to a man who's internalized everyone else's low opinion of him, and when he meets Clara at a dance, you believe completely in his cautious hope. Betsy Blair matches him perfectly as Clara, a schoolteacher equally convinced of her own undesirability. Their tentative connection feels real, hard-won, precious. The supporting cast is uniformly good, from Marty's suffocating mother to his buddies who offer terrible advice while standing on street corners with nothing better to do. Director Delbert Mann keeps the pacing tight and the focus intimate, preserving the television play's chamber piece quality even as it opens up to film. What dates the film isn't just the casual sexism and ethnic stereotypes, but the very specific social world it depicts: one where unmarried thirty-somethings are considered tragic figures, where mothers wield guilt like surgical instruments, where men gather nightly to complain about their boring lives without ever considering they might change them. Still, at its core, this is a sweet story about two lonely people finding each other, and Borgnine and Blair make you root for them.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Ernest Borgnine
Marty
Betsy Blair
Clara
Esther Minciotti
Mrs. Piletti
Augusta Ciolli
Aunt Catherine
Joe Mantell
Angie
Karen Steele
Virginia
Jerry Paris
Tommy
James Bell
Mr. Snyder (uncredited)
John Beradino
Man in Bar (uncredited)
Charles Cane
Lou (uncredited)
Paddy Chayefsky
Leo (uncredited)
John Dennis
Andy (uncredited)
John Milford
(uncredited)
Silvio Minciotti
Butcher (uncredited)
George Nardelli
Bar Patron (uncredited)
Jerry Orbach
Ballroom Patron (uncredited)
Glenn Strange
(uncredited)
Frank Sutton
Ralph (uncredited)
Minerva Urecal
Mrs. Rosari (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey
Man on Church Steps (uncredited)
Jack Klugman
Bar Patron (uncredited)
Delbert Mann
Director
Alan Crosland, Jr.
Supervising Editor
Paddy Chayefsky
Associate Producer
Burt Lancaster
Producer
Roy Webb
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Paddy Chayefsky
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Apr 11, 1955
New York City, New York
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The Stranglers - Live '78, SF
1978
Saddle Leather Law
1944
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Battle your watched movies head-to-head
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Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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1978 · 13 wins
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2000 · 12 wins
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1981 · 11 wins
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