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Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Black & White, Theatrical Version, Trailers
Marty may be the biggest "sleeper" in Hollywood history. This modest 1955 film proved so fresh, joyful and heartbreakingly real it achieved overwhelming critical and box-office success... and walked off with the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine), Best Director and Best Screenplay. Borgnine (From Here To Eternity, Bad Day At Black Rock) broke away from playing sadistic screen villains to give an eloquent performance as Marty, a likable, pudding-faced Bronx butcher who's given up looking for love until he meets an equally plain and lonely schoolteacher (Oscar-nominee Betsy Blair). But Marty's newfound happiness is soon threatened. His protective mother fears losing her son. His pals disdain any woman who doesn't fit the voluptuous ideal found in a Mickey Spillane paperback. And Marty may not have the courage to defy them. Marty's ensuing struggle to find love awoke the hearts of movie fans and turned this "sleeper" into a four-time Oscar-winner!
"Rich in laughs and tears...a masterpiece of warm-hearted storytelling" The Hollywood Reporter
"A heartwarming and timeless movie." Video Review
"...a poignant and utterly memorable performance by Borgnine..." The Motion Picture Guide
Editor's Note
Delbert Mann's big-screen remake of Paddy Chayefsky's 1953 teleplay, one of the most successful works of film's Golden Age, stars Ernest Borgnine as Bronx butcher, Marty Piletti. A good-natured man, if plain and overweight, the 34-year-old bachelor has become fed up with the dreariness of life with vacant, dead-end friends like Angie (Joe Mantell), omnipresent relatives like his cousin Tommy (Jerry Paris), and his nagging mother, Theresa (Esther Minciotti), with whom he shares a house. Often rejected by women, he feels that he is too unattractive to marry, and is far from eager to endure further humiliation. Still, Marty finds himself at a local dance hall, where he angrily refuses a man who offers him a few bucks to take home a blind date who has turned out to be a dog. The butcher seeks out the humiliated woman, Clara (Betsy Blair), who's in tears, and after he comforts her, they return to the dance. As Marty confesses similar experiences of his own to Clara, he realizes that he may have found the woman he's been looking for. Influenced by neo-realist masterpieces like UMBERTO D, Chayefsky's poignant, brilliantly observed kitchen-sink drama remains as persuasive as ever, as it explores the universal need to give and receive love.
Plot Summary
Oscar-winning drama about two socially inept introverts who eventually find love with each other. For Marty, one of the two outcasts, falling in love brings the realization that life is more meaningful and exciting than he had ever believed possible.
| Features | Spanish Mono Track | | French Subtitles | | Spanish Subtitles | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | English Mono Track | | French Mono Track |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: MGM |
| Release Date: 11/21/2008 |
| Running Time: 90 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1955 | | Catalog ID: 1002062 | | UPC: 00027616862921 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | 4:3 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1956) |  | Ernest Borgnine, Winner, Best Actor | | Delbert Mann, Winner, Best Director | | Harold Hecht, Winner, Best Picture | | Paddy Chayefsky, Winner, Best Screenplay | | | Ted Haworth, et. al., Nominee, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration | | | Joseph LaShelle, Nominee, Best Cinematography (B&W) | | | Joe Mantell, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Betsy Blair, Nominee, Best Supporting Actress | |
Golden Globe (1956) | | Ernest Borgnine, Winner, Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama |
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| | Professional Reviews | The Motion Picture Guide 10 of 10
If any film deserves to be called "heartwarming" this one does. Along with providing a poignant and utterly memorable performance by Borgnine, one he found impossible to equal and, of course, that has to do with the part he made into magic... Borgnine's virtuoso performance is enthralling and won for him a well-deserved Oscar... Mantell also gives a superb performance as the pal addicted to the more bloody passages of Mickey Spillane... UA executives were not enthusiastic about the production and almost canceled the movie; they, along with the rest of Hollywood's elite, were amazed at the movie's universal success and Marty soon set a trend toward the small-budget, prosaic films to come.
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