Blogging By Cinema-light: Don't Make a Scene: Marty

The Story: "What are you gonna do?" "What do you wanna do tonight?" Most repeated phrases of The 2020 Pandemic beside "when can I get a vaccine appointment?" (Sorry, that's a 2021 line). It's a line that is almost a mantra in Paddy Chayevsky's Marty. I say "Paddy Chayevsky's" (as opposed to "Delbert Mann's" even though he directed this Oscar-winning Best Picture and the original television version on "The Philco Television Playhouse" in 1953) because Chayevsky is so much more an influence over it (in my mind) than Mann.

That extended to the casting. Rod Steiger played Marty in the TV version, but when Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster acquired it for the movies, they wanted Steiger to sign a multi-picture deal to do it. Steiger refused. Chayevsky had control over who directed and who was cast and Lancaster's co-star in From Here to Eternity, Ernest Borgnine was hired.

Fortuitous, I think. Borgnine had made an impression as the sadistic sergeant, "Fatso" Judson, and could have gone his whole career type-cast as villains. But, Marty showed another side to the actor. With a bulky frame and a face like granite, Borgnine could not be considered handsome, but he was inventive, moved quickly, and he had a performer's malleability to turn an emotion on a dime.

When you watch Steiger do this scene, there is that vulnerability that is essential. But, when the character blows up, Steiger takes the frustration to a level of self-pity that borders on the helpless. Borgnine takes that path differently. With him, it's through anger. When he blows up, he blows big, and it's dangerous—he moves fast, and there's a feeling of reckless incapacitation. And his voice cracks. And for a moment, you feel the vulnerability in the rage, the power all busted up. It's impressive.

I always enjoyed watching Borgnine, good or bad; I remember the delight I had when he turned up in a bit-part in 2010's Red. He died in 2012, still working—mostly in voice-over—up to the last.

The Set-Up: Bronx butcher Marty Pilletti (Ernest Borgnine in his Oscar-winning role) is 34 years old and living with his Mother. Sounds pretty compact, but this is New York and everybody in the neighborhood knows everybody. And everybody knows Marty ain't married, so they tell him, as if he didn't know. So, why ain't he? You'd think you could escape from these questions in your own home, from your own mother.

But, what are you gonna do?

Action...

Mrs. Pilletti ladles portions of food from the steaming kettles onto a plate that she brings into...

THE DINING ROOM.

...and sets it down before her son. Without a word, he picks up his fork and spoon and plunges into the mountain of spaghetti, adds cheese, eats away.

Mrs. Pilletti takes her seat, folds her hands on the table, and sits watching Marty eat.

MRS. PILLETTI So what are you gonna do tonight, Marty?

MARTY I don't know, Ma. I'm all knocked out. I may just hang arounna house.

Mrs. Pilletti nods a couple of times. A moment of silence.

MRS. PILLETTI Why don't you go to the Stardust Ballroom?

This gives Marty pause. He looks up.

MARTY What?

MRS. PILLETTI I say, why don't you go to the Stardust Ballroom? It's loaded with tomatoes.

Marty regards his mother for a moment.

MARTY It's loaded with what?

MRS. PILLETTI Tomatoes.

MARTY Ha! Who told you about the Stardust Ballroom?

MRS. PILLETTI Thomas. He told me it was a very nice place.

MARTY Oh, Thomas. Ma, it's just a big dance hall, and that's all it is. I been there a hundred times. Loaded with tomatoes. Boy, you're funny, Ma.

MRS. PILLETTI Marty...

MRS. PILLETTI I don't want you hang arounna house tonight. I want you to go take a shave and go out and dance.

MARTY Ma, when are you gonna give up? You gotta bachelor on your hands. I ain't never gonna get married.

MRS. PILLETTI You gonna get married.

MARTY Sooner or later, there comes a point in a man's life when he gotta face some facts, and one fact I gotta face is that whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it. I chased enough girls in my life. I went to enough dances. I got hurt enough. I don't wanna get hurt no more.

MARTY I just called a girl just now, and I got a real brush-off, boy. I figured I was past the point of being hurt, but that hurt. Some stupid woman who I didn't even wanna call up. She gave me the brush.

MARTY I don't wanna go to the Stardust Ballroom because all that ever happened to me there was girls made me feel like I was a bug.

MARTY I got feelings, you know. I had enough pain. No, thank you.

MRS. PILLETTI Marty...

MARTY Ma, I'm gonna stay home and watch ~~Jackie Gleason~~ The Hit Parade.

MRS. PILLETTI You gonna die without a son.

MARTY So I'll die without a son.

MRS. PILLETTI Put on your blue suit...

MARTY Blue suit, gray suit, I'm still a fat man. A fat ugly man.

MRS. PILLETTI You not ugly.

MARTY (his voice rising) I'm ugly...

MARTY I'm ugly! I'm UGLY!

MRS. PILLETTI Marty...

MARTY Ma! Leave me alone!

He stands abruptly, his face pained and drawn. He makes half- formed gestures to his mother, but he can't find words at the moment. He turns and marches a few paces away, turns to his mother again.