Marty

Ernest Borgnine, in case any eight year-olds are interested, is the voice of Mermaid Man in SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s also the main actor in Marty, a 1955 movie I’ve wanted to see for a long time.

We watched it last night and thoroughly enjoyed it although the more cynical teenage child called it quits soon after it started. The less cynical teenager stayed with it but kept saying, “This is stupid.”

Marty is 34 and never married. Clara is 29 and never married. It’s a great love story as well as a sad look into how single men spent their time in 1955. It might be sadder if a remake was done now. Interestingly, the actress who played Clara, Betsy Blair, was married to Gene Kelly at the time. According to her bio, she had been on the blacklist and couldn’t find work. Gene Kelly threatened to stop making movies unless she got the part of Clara.

There were some strange parts. If you see it, let me know how believable Aunt Catherine’s age is when she tells her (hopefully) older sister. Also, a scene in the bar with three grandmotherly-aged (I hope) women sitting at the bar drinking beer. Not that I would know (anymore) but isn’t that strange?

Marty is a lovely movie. It won several Oscars in 1955, although I have little faith in the Oscars ever since Frances McDormand won Best Actress for Fargo and didn’t come on-screen until half-way through the movie. I thought she was good but strange. I thought Kristin Scott Thomas in the English Patient should have won, not only for superb acting, but also for the amount of work she had to do like stay on-screen the entire time. I’m not sure why that matters to me. It just struck me at the time as odd.

Speaking of the Oscars, the screenwriter of Marty, Paddy Chayefsky, is the one who told Vanessa Redgrave in the 1978 Oscars in response to her Zionist remark, "I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple 'Thank you' would have sufficed." (thank you, Wikipedia) Regardless of my feelings about what she said, I love a good comeback. Mine always come a day late.

But the best part? Ernest Borgnine looks an awful lot like Dad in his younger years.

Also, it was nice to see a movie from the ‘50’s where the main characters weren’t smoking the entire time. Clara never smoked and Marty was only shown smoking once or twice, although there were an awful lot of butts in the plate when they went to the coffee shop.

If you ever saw Back To the Future then you’ll remember that the main character’s name is Marty and he travels back to 1955. The speed he has to travel is 88mph which is how old Mickey Spillane was when he died last year. Now you have to watch Marty to see where Mickey Spillane comes in. Using Spillane in the movie was a great way to underscore how lonely the men were. When I sailed in the merchant marines many of us always had a copy of one of his books in our back pocket. We were lonely men. Desperate seamen. Les Miserable. Professors of pain.

Hey, Marty!