Don't Make a Scene: Marty

The Story: I like Paddy Chayevsky's writing a lot. I must like him, I've done enough of these scenes from his screenplays. A couple from The Americanization of Emily. A couple from Network. Another from The Hospital.

 

And one from Marty, the movie that this little scene comes from.

 

When I first watched the movie—it was only a couple years ago—this scene made my jaw drop a little. It's nothing. It's just a moment...a blip...a distraction in the screenplay, part of the stuff he wrote to expand his teleplay for The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse into a bona-fide screenplay for the movie theaters. 

But, it made me laugh. Two little Irish ladies in a bar gossiping, telling stories about other people and their stories to make their lives seem a little better. And with a little spite.

And it's perfect. You never see these two ladies again—they're extras (I can't even find the names of the actresses on IMDB)—but there's a whole story going on along with their never-mentioned back-story about why they might be there and why they're having this conversation, which has a wide range of emotions behind their words and why they would be talking about this. It's complete unto itself.

And it has nothing—absolutely nothing—to do with the rest of the movie. But, it gives you some of the atmosphere of a Bronx where leisure-time is spent looking for leisure, where gossip has more impact than what's in a newspaper, and where guys might belittle the girl you're seeing because she isn't something out of a Mickey Spillane novel.

Boy, that Paddy Chayevsky, he sure can write.

 

The Set-up: Another Saturday Night in The Big Apple. But, for such a big place packed together with so many people, loneliness is right at its core. Angie (Joe Mantell), best friend of Marty (Ernest Borgnine), is doing what he usually does on a Saturday night—looking for Marty, and so he goes to their usual hangout, the speakeasy—apparently the precursor to social media—but, Marty ain't there—he's on a date...with a girl (Betsy Blair)...unheard-of. He spends just enough time to get distracted, then leaves for another distraction. "Such a sad story."

 

Action.

 

THE BAR. NIGHT.

The SOUNDS of Saturday night revelry are loud, coming mostly from the Irish contingent of the neighborhood. They are grouped along practically the whole bar.

Three or four WOMEN and a number of shirt-sleeved MEN, mostly in their late forties, early fifties. We know they're Irish, because one of the younger men is chanting an auld country ballad. 

CAMERA ANGLES disclose the entrance to the bar in the background, showing Angie coming in, looking here and there. He starts toward the bar. 

NEAR BAR. 

TWO IRISH WOMEN, middle-aged, squat heavily on bar stools over their schooners of beer, gassing away at each other.

FIRST IRISH WOMAN ...so she told me at the risk of her life... 

Angie shuffles in, pausing near the bar and standing behind the two Irish women.

SECOND IRISH WOMAN She was always a bit thin in the hips...

FIRST IRISH WOMAN ...well, she told me that the doctor told her that if she had any more babies, she would do so at the risk of her life...  

FIRST IRISH WOMAN Well, at the time she told me this, she already had six. 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN Every time I saw the woman, she was either... 

ANGIE Hey, Lou! 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN ...going to the hospital or coming from it. She was hatching them out like eggs. 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN And that husband of hers is a skinny bit of a fellow, isn't he? 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN Well, I bumped into her on the street, and she was as big as a barrel. 

ANGIE (loudly) Hey, Lou! 

CAMERA ANGLES to include Lou, the Bartender. 

BARTENDER (looking up from opening a batch of beer bottles) What? 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN ...so I said to her, "Mary... 

ANGIE (calling to the Bartender) Ya seen Marty?

BARTENDER I ain't seen Marty all night... 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN "...Mary, for heaven's sakes,"

ANGIE (calling to the Bartender, but even more to himself) Where is everybody? I been walking around, I can't find anybody... 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN "...didn't you tell me that another one'll kill you?" 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN And her husband is a little bit of a man, isn't he? 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN Well, last week Tuesday, she gave birth to the baby in Saint Elizabeth's hospital... 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN ...a fine healthy boy of nine pounds... 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN Oh, that's fine. So the doctor was wrong, wasn't he? 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN Oh, no! She died right there in the hospital... 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN Oh, that's a sad story. 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN And her husband is that little fellow, works in Peter Reeves. 

FIRST IRISH WOMAN That's the one. 

SECOND IRISH WOMAN Oh, that's a sad story. 

Angie has nothing better to do than give his attention to the last lines of the story.

Perturbed, he turns and leaves.

 

Marty

Words by Paddy Chayevsky

Pictures by Joseph LaShelle and Delbert Mann

Marty is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Video and Kino-Lorber.