Marty

Marty (1955)

Timing: 1:30 (90 min)

7.424/10
361

All about film

Video 2

Photo 19

Actors and characters

Release date

1955-04-11

Country

United States

Production

United Artists, Hecht-Lancaster Productions

Genre

Drama, Romance

Budget

$343 000

Revenue

$3 000 000

Website

Director

Delbert Mann

Actors

Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli, Joe Mantell, Karen Steele, Jerry Paris, James Bell, John Beradino, Charles Cane
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Burt Lancaster, Harold Hecht

Operator

Joseph LaShelle

Composer

Roy Webb

Artist

Audition

Editing

All team (20)

• Betsy Blair (born Elizabeth Winnifred Boger, 1923-2009), who played Clara, had difficulty getting permission to film in the movie because she was on the Hollywood blacklist. However, her then-husband, Gene Kelly (1912-1996), literally forced Hecht-Lancaster Productions and United Artists to give Blair the role, threatening that he would otherwise not participate as either a director or an actor in any of these companies’ projects.
• Director Delbert Mann (1920-2007) had no idea who to cast in the lead role and asked his friend, also a director, Robert Aldrich (1918-1983), for advice, who immediately suggested Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012). Mann was initially skeptical of this suggestion, but Aldrich managed to convince him.
• The only case in the history of cinema where the film's producers spent more on promoting the film ($400,000) than on creating it ($343,000).
• Film historians claim that the release of this film specifically demonstrated the success of low-budget independent cinema in the American film market and contributed to the promotion of such films in the United States. Leading figures in American studios had long known that this type of cinema was successful in Europe, but they doubted whether it could achieve the same success in the American market. The box office success and critical acclaim of 'Marty' demonstrated that low-budget films with unknown actors, produced in the USA, could compete with European art-house cinema on an artistic level. This film cemented the reputation of United Artists as a haven for daring independent producers, and rival companies MGM and 20th Century Fox also began releasing similar films.
• Rod Steiger (1925-2002), who played Marty in television adaptations, said he turned down the role in the film because he was bound by a long-term contract with Hecht-Lancaster Productions. On the other hand, producers Harold Hecht (1907-1985) and Burt Lancaster (1913-1994) did not want to film Steiger, stating that audiences would hardly want to pay money to see an actor they had already seen at home on television for free.
• Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (1923-1981) decided to write the screenplay when he came across a sign at the entrance to a dance hall in the Abbey Hotel in New York: 'Ladies invited by men, remember men get hurt too.'