FILM · 1955 · USA
Marty
- Directed by
- Delbert Mann
- Runtime
- 90 min
- Studio
- Hecht-Lancaster Productions
31 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
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.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (31)
- #001
Betsy Blair, who played Clara, was nearly barred from appearing in the film by Hecht-Lancaster Productions and United Artists because of the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s. Her then-husband Gene Kelly, however, pressured United Artists and Hecht-Lancaster at the last minute to cast her, threatening that he would not direct or star in any production by UA or Hecht-Lancaster if she did not get the role.
- #002
Delbert Mann had no idea whom to cast in the lead, so he asked his friend Robert Aldrich, who immediately suggested Ernest Borgnine. Mann was skeptical because Borgnine was known only for playing heavies, but Aldrich convinced him. Borgnine regularly said he owed his career to Robert Aldrich.
- #003
This is the only time in film history that producers spent more on a film's awards campaign ($400,000) than on making the film itself ($343,000).
- #004
At 90 minutes, it is the shortest of all the films that have won the Best Picture Oscar.
- #005
The film's screening in Moscow during a 1959 cultural exchange program made it the first American feature film seen in the USSR since World War II.
- #006
Ernest Borgnine's reading for the part moved both screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and director Delbert Mann to tears. When Borgnine finished the reading, both Mann and Chayefsky knew they had found their Marty.
- #007
Film historians have noted that this film demonstrated the viability of low-budget, independently produced films in the US and that such films proliferated. Studio executives were aware that low-budget, independent and realistic films had been successful in Europe for many years, but most studios doubted such successes could happen in the US. The financial and critical success of "Marty" showed that low-budget productions with lesser-known actors could be profitable in the US and could compete artistically with European art films. The film cemented United Artists' reputation as a haven for bold, independent producers and inspired rival studios such as MGM and 20th Century-Fox to explore a similar style of filmmaking with some of their productions.
- #008
The film, which cost only $340,000 to make and returned $3,000,000 in rentals from domestic box office receipts, has been reported to be one of the most profitable films ever made.
- #009
Rod Steiger, who originated the role of Marty in the TV production (Marty (1953), part of The Philco Television Playhouse (1948)), said he turned down the film role because his Hecht-Lancaster Productions contract would have bound him for years. Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster, for their part, said they did not want Steiger in the cast because they thought the public would not pay to see an actor they had already seen for free on television.
- #010
Paddy Chayefsky won the first of his three Academy Awards for Best Screenplay for his work on this film. He is the only screenwriter to have won three Oscars as a sole writer.
- #011
Betsy Blair's career was ruined as a result of the Hollywood blacklist. By the early 1950s all film offers had dried up. The only reason Betsy won the female lead in this film was that her husband Gene Kelly threatened to stop firing for MGM if they did not let her work despite the blacklist. It would be the role of her life. As Ernest Borgnine's butcher Marty Piletti's touching, plain Jane girlfriend, she won the Cannes Film and British Film acting awards, not to mention an Oscar nomination. But it did not help her overcome the blacklist.
- #012
United Artists pressured Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster to cast Marlon Brando in the lead. The studio thought Brando was a more recognizable star and would make the film more appealing to audiences. Hecht and Lancaster opposed the suggestion and pursued a lesser-known cast for the film.
- #013
Producers Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster were said to have financed the film as a tax write-off because they believed it would lose money.
- #014
Washington lawyer Edward Bennett Williams was offered 10 percent ownership of the film in exchange for his legal work. He turned down the share and took his fee instead, thereby losing a significant amount of money.
- #015
Paddy Chayefsky wrote his play (first shown on television) with his friend, actor/director Martin Ritt, in mind for the lead, and even named the main character after him. Ritt, however, had been blacklisted during the McCarthy "Red Scare" and the network would not allow him to be hired; the role eventually went to Rod Steiger.
- #016
It was shot in only 16 days, plus 3 more days for reshoots.
- #017
Nancy Marchand was to make her screen debut in this film as Clara, but Gene Kelly lobbied hard for his wife Betsy Blair to get the role, and she was ultimately cast instead of Marchand, who had played the role in the original TV production.
- #018
Marty (1953) was the first Best Picture Oscar winner adapted from a television program.
- #019
In the scene where Marty and Clara dance, the orchestra plays the theme from Marty.
- #020
Marty was the first American film to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It was not, however, the first American film to win the festival's top prize: since its inception the festival had given its grand prize the name "Grand Prix du Festival International du Film," but after the 1954 ceremony the festival's board decided to change the prize's name and design to the Palme d'Or, a golden palm. Previous American films had won the festival's top prize, but Marty was the first American film — and in fact the first film — to win the newly designed Palme d'Or at the 1955 festival.
- #021
Esther Minciotti (Mrs. Piletti), Augusta Ciolli (Aunt Catherine) and Joe Mantell (Angie) reprise their roles from the television version of Marty (1953).
- #022
Burt Lancaster does not appear in the film, but he appears in the theatrical trailer as the co-producer who brought the film to audiences.
- #023
Burt Lancaster decided to appear in the film's trailer because he believed it would be difficult to promote the film without star power.
- #024
It was Jerry Orbach's first film (uncredited).
- #025
The film's box-office returns were so unexpected that United Artists had to order 200 additional prints to meet demand.
- #026
It was Delbert Mann's first feature-length directing effort; he had also directed the original Philco Television Playhouse production of Marty (1953). He became the first director to win the Best Director Oscar with his first film, a feat not repeated until Robert Redford won in 1981 for Ordinary People (1980).
- #027
It was the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar produced by an actor who does not appear in the film, Burt Lancaster.
- #028
It was selected for the National Film Registry in 1994.
- #029
Ernest Borgnine's Best Actor Oscar statuette was presented to him by Grace Kelly (RKO Pantages Theatre Hollywood / 21.03.56).
- #030
Burt Lancaster wanted to cast Ernest Borgnine, with whom he had appeared in From Here to Eternity (1953), in one of his company's films, and Harold Hecht concluded after seeing the television production that Borgnine was right for the role.
- #031
United Artists was willing to send the film out as a second feature, but Paddy Chayefsky insisted it premiere as a kind of first-run release, so the film premiered at the Sutton Theatre in New York, normally a venue for art films. Hecht-Lancaster's New York publicity chief Bernie Kamber ran a personal campaign for the film, arranging special screenings and persuading major press outlets to feature it favorably. His greatest success was getting influential columnist Walter Winchell to hail the film as one of the greatest sleepers in Hollywood history. The slow growth in attendance began with strong reviews. The film then won the Grand Prix at Cannes, gaining more press and more box-office revenue. As a result it played at the Sutton for 39 weeks, mostly to packed audiences. For subsequent openings, UA planned two-week runs in various markets so that community leaders would generate positive word of mouth. The move paid off, because although the film could not compete with the major studios' big blockbusters, it turned a small profit on its initial release. Its success at the Academy Awards, which led UA to re-release the film in 5,000 theaters, also helped.
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