Posted on 05/24/2015 7:16:57 PM PDT by lowbridge
Marty is a 1953 teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky. It was telecast live May 24, 1953, on The Philco Television Playhouse with Rod Steiger in the title role and Nancy Marchand, in her television debut, playing opposite him as Clara. Chayefsky's story of a decent, hard-working Bronx butcher, pining for the company of a woman in his life but despairing of ever finding true love in a relationship, was produced by Fred Coe with associate producer Gordon Duff.
Was remade into a theatrical movie starring Ernest Borgnine
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
What movie would that have been?
Regards,
If you like drab and depressing you’ll love Marty.
Ernest Borgnine and John Belushi shared the same birthday (Jan. 24) but that was one of the few things they had in common, I think...other than last names starting with the same letter.
“We thought it was quite miraculous.”
Yeah, the analog in my time was owning a 333Mhz computer with, take a deep breath, a 100Mhz PCI buss! I remember thinking “Man, I can do ANYTHING now...”
I could never understand why Marty and his friends termed Clara a ‘dog’. Clara (Betsy Blair) was pretty, nice and intelligent.
It was Marty and his friends who were ‘dogs’.
That just didn’t compute. They should have used a less attractive actress or done something to ‘ugly up’ Betsy Blair.
“I could never understand why Marty and his friends termed Clara a ‘dog’. Clara (Betsy Blair) was pretty, nice and intelligent.”
I’m reminded of the scene where martys friends are flipping through the pages of some girlie magazine. Chances are they were comparing Clara, as well as every real life girl they ran across, with their ideal beautiful girls that they saw in those magazines.
I suppose that could account for some of their reasoning- considering their small little minds.
But she was so far above that bunch of losers.
I realize she was very shy, but what on earth would she want with Marty?
Granted, he was a fairly decent guy and often endearing, but still..I would have rather remained ‘an old maid school teacher’.
An unattractive actress could have made it all more believable.
Did you know Betsy Blair (Clara) was once married to Gene Kelly?
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Ethel Merman was in a number of movies, but her main fame was as the queen of the Broadway musical. I can always tell it’s her on a recording- the only human being who ever lived who’s voice sounded like a trumpet!
What struck me about the play is how differently he played “Marty” from the way he did so many of his movie characters. On the other hand, I saw a lot of live Tv performances in the ‘50s, and many of the stars came across very differently than in “films.” Much better, I remember. For some reason, something Bruce Cabot did on Playhouse 9o comes to mind. So much better than I expected from him, since he never seemed to improve in his “movies” after King Kong. But in this one, he seemed very much alive. We saw him ”in the round,”
PS
But still, it was a great movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Borgnine was great in that.
He was a good character actor, God rest his soul.
He was great but he was paired with the wrong actress. Clara is supposed to be plain looking and Betsy Blair wasn't.
Thank you for that quote! I saw it just recently on the web. I’m guessing it was due to a freeper thread - but perhaps not. I thought it was an enjoyable movie.
Rod told me he didn’t accept the movie role because they wanted him to sign a five year contract with the studio and he said he would never sign a contract that long with anyone. The role went to Ernest Borgnine.
He had a great career anyway,
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