• Marty (1953 TV)

8/31/20 (Mon)

Paddy Chayefsky’s 1953 television play, telecast live back in the day when they did that sort of thing. Its favorable reception spawned a slightly expanded and largely recast movie version that became a sleeper hit, snaring an Oscar against Hollywood heavyweights and sparking a boom in TV-to-movie adaptations.

A portly 36-year-old butcher from an Italian family, still living with his mother, is constantly being badgered by friends, relatives and customers to get married. He has tried to meet women, but his looks and modest character have worked against him. Still, hope reigns eternal, and when he goes to a local ballroom, he manages to meet a not-too-attractive teacher (he’s offered money by her blind date to take her off his hands). His mother, fearing being left alone, now tries to discourage him, and his friends tell him he can’t be serious about someone who looks like her. He has to decide between his old life and the chance at true love.

The sweet, decidedly low-key story about a homely butcher looking for love benefits from a beautiful pared-to-the-essence script by Chayefsky and a superb performance in the title role by a then-unknown Rod Steiger, who squeezes every bit of pathos from the part while never dipping into sentimentality. He puts up a good front as he deals with others, but his hurt is palpable as he describes his painful attempts to meet women and dismisses his chances of ever finding someone who would accept a short, ugly and unexciting (in his words) person like him.

The play could easily have tipped into ethnic comedy. The whining self-centered Italian aunt, the worried mother who wants her son married and then not married, the fellow bachelor (“Whaddya wanna do tonight?” “I don’t know, what do you wanna do?”), the ugly girl – Chayefsky never panders to these characters or takes the easy path of comic stereotypes. He achieves a great ensemble feel. The whole thing could have been performed almost as is as a Jewish family drama (Mom: “That girl doesn’t look Italian”, Aunt: “You’ve got pains? My pains are worse” and so forth), though I imagine other ethnicities could say the same given the universal nature of the guy’s loneliness and desire to connect, not to mention the secondary theme of parent-child relations. The dialogue feels real, and the story proceeds unexpectedly, especially the ending when Marty comes under strong social pressure regarding his relationship.

Steiger is the heart and soul of the play, but he has great help from Nancy Marchand in her television debut as the girl, as well as the mother, aunt and bachelor friend, who all went on to repeat their strong performances in the movie. I can’t imagine how this wonderfully minimalist script can be improved on in a longer version, but I’m eager to find out. A terrific show from TV’s so-called Golden Age.