What it’s about
Approaching his middle years, lonely, overweight butcher Marty Pilletti (Borgnine) lives with his mother and has given up on love, until one day he meets plain but warm-hearted schoolteacher Clara (Blair). They begin dating, but Marty becomes conflicted when his mother (Esther Minciotti) and friends seem thrown off-balance by this unlikely romance.
Why we love it
Written by the vastly talented Paddy Chayefsky, who'd go on to script “Network” two decades later, “Marty” is a sweet, perceptive film about two lost souls who finally find each other. Borgnine, a skilled character actor and supporting player, won the Best Actor Oscar in 1955 over several more photogenic leading men, and the film itself— a playhouse gem from television's golden age — won for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. A unique and irresistible film romance.