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Marty

Marty

Drama · Romance · 1955

Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother, is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward, he faces constant badgering from family and friends to get married but has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood. He then meets Clara, an unattractive school teacher. Realising their emotional connection, Marty promises to call, but family and friends try to convince him not to.

Movie details

Marty

“It's the love story of an unsung hero!”

1955 Drama · Romance 1h 30m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.7 / 10

29.8K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

96 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

82 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.5 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother, is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward, he faces constant badgering from family and friends to get married but has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood. He then meets Clara, an unattractive school teacher. Realising their emotional connection, Marty promises to call, but family and friends try to convince him not to.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Marty?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Delbert Mann

Written by

Paddy Chayefsky

Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine

Marty

Betsy Blair

Betsy Blair

Clara

Esther Minciotti

Esther Minciotti

Mrs. Piletti

Augusta Ciolli

Augusta Ciolli

Aunt Catherine

Joe Mantell

Joe Mantell

Angie

Karen Steele

Karen Steele

Virginia

Jerry Paris

Jerry Paris

Tommy

Court is in session

Put Marty on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.