40 Fun Facts About Marty (1955)

What does a stranger at the dance hall offer Marty Piletti five dollars to do in the film Marty?

Take his date home is the callous request Marty turns down, saying no woman should be treated that way. Moments later he asks the abandoned Clara to dance himself.

Marty star Ernest Borgnine later voiced the superhero Mermaid Man on which cartoon?

SpongeBob SquarePants cast Borgnine as Mermaid Man from 1999 until his death in 2012. His old sitcom partner Tim Conway voiced the sidekick, Barnacle Boy.

Which dancing movie star, then Betsy Blair's husband, pressed the studio to keep her in Marty?

Gene Kelly reportedly threatened to pull out of his MGM musical It's Always Fair Weather unless his wife got the part of Clara. The studio backed down.

In the film Marty, what trade does Ernest Borgnine's lonely bachelor Marty Piletti work at?

Butcher Marty spends his working day fending off customers who want to know why he is still single. Their nagging sets the whole story in motion.

Which 2019 film was the first since Marty to win Best Picture and the top prize at Cannes?

Parasite ended a 64-year wait when Bong Joon-ho's Korean-language film repeated the double. Before Marty, only one 1945 drama had managed it.

Ernest Borgnine won Best Actor for Marty over which young star, nominated months after his death?

James Dean was nominated for East of Eden after his fatal car crash the previous autumn. Borgnine also beat Frank Sinatra, James Cagney and Spencer Tracy.

Marty was the first film to win which top prize, introduced at Cannes in 1955?

Palme d'Or replaced the festival's old Grand Prix as its highest award that year. A low-budget American romance with no big stars was its first winner.

Which New York borough, home of Arthur Avenue, does Marty Piletti live in with his mother?

The Bronx appears throughout, with scenes shot on Arthur Avenue, Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road. Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the story, was born in the borough.

Which 1960s sitcom starred Marty's Ernest Borgnine as the gruff skipper of a wartime PT boat?

McHale's Navy ran from 1962 to 1966, and began as a serious one-hour drama before it was reworked as a comedy. Borgnine had spent nearly ten years as a real sailor.

Which future In the Heat of the Night star played Marty in the 1953 television play?

Rod Steiger played the lonely bachelor live on NBC in May 1953, in a part first meant for Martin Ritt, who later became a director.

What is the day job of Clara, the college graduate Marty Piletti meets at the dance hall?

Teacher Clara gives high school science lessons and, at 29, still lives with her parents. Marty urges her to take a promotion that would mean moving out.

Which relative moves in with Marty Piletti and his mother after rows with her son's wife?

His aunt Catherine arrives full of dark warnings that a son who weds will push his mother aside too. Her fears soon turn Marty's mother against Clara.

On which night, after a full day's work, does Marty Piletti go dancing and meet Clara?

Saturday finds Marty tired of looking for a girl and ready to stay home. He goes out only because his mother nags him into it.

Marty was photographed in which format, which still had its own Oscar categories in 1956?

Black and white films had separate cinematography and art direction Oscars, and Marty was nominated for both. Its cameraman, Joseph LaShelle, had already won for Laura.

Before Marty, Ernest Borgnine played the brutal Sergeant Fatso Judson in which war drama?

From Here to Eternity had Borgnine beating Frank Sinatra's character in an army stockade. Playing the gentle Marty two years later was a complete change of image.

Marty writer Paddy Chayefsky won a third Oscar for which film about a raging news anchor?

Network made Chayefsky the first writer to win three screenwriting Oscars without a co-writer. The Hospital brought him the one in between.

Marty, filmed in under three weeks, set which record among Best Picture Oscar winners?

Shortest running time suits a film that lasts about an hour and a half. It was shot in sixteen days, with three more for retakes.

What kept Betsy Blair out of films for years before Marty, despite her famous husband?

The Hollywood blacklist shut Blair out after her left-wing politics drew a congressional investigation. Marty restarted her career and earned her an Oscar nomination.

Which ballroom, renamed for the film version, is where Marty Piletti meets Clara?

The Stardust was called the Waverly in the television play. Marty's mother sends him there after hearing from his cousin that it is full of eligible girls.

Where is Marty Piletti standing when he finally calls Clara in the last scene of Marty?

A phone booth door closes on Marty just as Clara picks up, so the audience never hears the conversation. The film ends on his greeting.

Overjoyed after seeing Clara home, what does Marty Piletti punch on the street in Marty?

A bus stop sign takes the happy blow, and Marty then weaves through the traffic to hail a cab rather than wait for a ride. It is the film's one burst of pure joy.

Which film set Ernest Borgnine against Spencer Tracy, his rival for the Marty Oscar?

Bad Day at Black Rock cast Borgnine as a villain, the kind of part he was known for before Marty. Tracy was nominated for it, and lost to his own co-star.

Which big purchase does Marty Piletti weigh up, asking his cousin Tommy for advice?

His boss's shop is the purchase Clara tells Marty to go ahead with. His cousin, an accountant, asks why a single man would want the debt.

Which holiday does Marty Piletti ask Clara to spend with him, hinting at a future?

New Year's Eve is the invitation that wins Clara over, because it shows he is thinking well beyond one evening. They kiss just before his mother walks in.

Why did the star of the television Marty lose the lead in the 1955 film version?

He refused a long contract that the producers made a condition of the part, so they turned to a character actor known for playing heavies.

Which movie star co-owned the company behind Marty and introduced its trailer?

Burt Lancaster co-produced with Harold Hecht but stayed off screen. Hecht said they were gambling on unknown names, and the gamble won their company the top Oscar.

Which studio, co-founded by Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, released Marty to cinemas?

United Artists agreed in 1954 to release the film. After the Oscars it ordered 200 extra prints to meet the demand from cinemas.

According to Ernest Borgnine, what was Marty first meant to be for its producers?

A tax write-off was the plan, Borgnine said: start the film, abandon it and book the loss. The tax authorities insisted it be finished and shown at least once.

Which first-time director made Marty after staging the live television original in 1953?

Delbert Mann had directed more than 100 live television dramas, and Chayefsky insisted he be hired. He won the Best Director Oscar with his first feature.

Which drama about an alcoholic writer did the Best Picture and Cannes double before Marty?

The Lost Weekend shared the top award at the very first Cannes festival, when it was still called the Grand Prix. Billy Wilder directed it.

The Library of Congress picked Marty in 1994 to join which preservation list?

National Film Registry status goes to works judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Marty was one of 25 titles added that year.

In Quiz Show, which film does a contestant name when ordered to miss the answer Marty?

On the Waterfront had won Best Picture the year before, which made the slip believable. The real contestant, Herb Stempel, said Marty was one of his favourite films.

Marty opened in 1959 as the first of ten American films bought under a cultural exchange with which country?

Soviet Union officials bought it to open a cultural exchange with America, and it premiered in Moscow that November. A Soviet director on the Cannes jury had praised it in Pravda.

Which Step Brothers actor sang the title role in a 2002 stage musical version of Marty?

John C. Reilly led the show when it opened in Boston, with songs by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. Jason Alexander had been attached years earlier but dropped out.

Which comedian replaced Bob Hope as host of the Oscar night when Marty won Best Picture?

Jerry Lewis hosted from Los Angeles on a night when all four acting winners were first-time nominees. Marty led the field with four awards.

Which crime novelist, creator of Mike Hammer, do Marty Piletti's friends like to quote?

Mickey Spillane gets quoted between looks at girlie magazines, a picture of the aimless bachelor life that Marty finally walks away from.

Which actress, later Tony Soprano's mother, played Clara in the 1953 television Marty?

Nancy Marchand was at first expected to repeat the part on film. She later won four Emmys as the newspaper publisher in Lou Grant.

What was Paddy Chayefsky's original title for Marty, which NBC asked him to change?

Love Story was meant plainly: Chayefsky set out to write the most ordinary romance in the world. He was still writing the third act when rehearsals began.

Which Henry Fonda shipboard comedy-drama was among the films Marty beat to Best Picture?

Mister Roberts lost the top prize but won Jack Lemmon the supporting actor Oscar. Picnic, The Rose Tattoo and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing were the other nominees.

Jerry Paris, cousin Tommy in Marty, later directed most episodes of which sitcom?

Happy Days kept Paris busy for 237 of its 255 episodes. He was first known as Jerry Helper, the dentist next door on The Dick Van Dyke Show.