Directed by Delbert Mann from the screenplay/teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky, and starring Ernest Borgnine (4 Oscars in 1956).
Borgnine and his co-stars wonderfully inhabit their roles. Great in a simple way: 24 hours in the life of a lonely 34yo Bronx butcher from an Italo-American family told with empathy, pathos, and without melodrama. Coming from a similar background but growing up half a world away, I recalled what my dear late father used to say, “Tutt’il mondo e un paese [All the world is one country]“. From a tradition in film-making that finds universal truth in stories of simple humanity told with sincerity, respect, and affection, with a feeling for place and the wonderful nuance of character that shines in family life, the movie is also about the richness of language that develops from a transmigration of cultures. My favorite lines are when Marty’s mamma is talking to her sister about the girl Marty has just met, a shy school-teacher:
MRS. PILLETTI
Hey, I come home from your house
last night, Marty was here with a girl.
CATHERINE
Who?
MRS. PILLETTI
Marty.
CATHERINE
Your son Marty?
MRS. PILLETTI
Well, what Marty you think is gonna
be here in this house with a girl?
CATHERINE
Were the lights on?
MRS. PILLETTI
Oh sure. (frowns at her sister)
This girl is a college graduate.
CATHERINE
They’re the worst. College girls are
one step from the streets. They smoke
like men inna saloon. My son Joseph,
his wife, you know, she types onna
typewriter. One step from the streets,
I tell you.
(Mrs. Pilletti ponders this philosophy for a moment.)
MRS. PILLETTI
That’s the first time Marty ever
brought a girl to this house. She
seems like a nice girl. I think he
has a feeling for this girl. You
heard him sing. He been singing like
that all morning.
There is an interesting counterpoint in the screenplay where the unmarried guys talk about Mickey Spillane and how he depicts women. Not as savage a critique as Bezzeridis’ in Kiss Me Deadly, but quite witty:
JOE
…so the whole book winds up, Mike
Hammer, he’s inna room there with
this doll. So he says, “You rat, you
are the murderer.” So she begins to
con him, you know? She tells him how
she loves him. And then Bam! He shoots
her in the stomach. So she’s laying
there, gasping for breath, and she
says, “How could you do that?” And
he says, “It was easy.”
LEO
(without looking up
from his magazine)
Boy, that Mickey Spillane, boy he
can write.
[ ... ]
JOE
What I like about Mickey Spillane is
he knows how to handle women. In one
book, he picks up a tomato who gets
hit with a car, and she throws a
pass at him. And then he meets two
beautiful twins, and they throw passes
at him. And then he meets some
beautiful society leader, and she
throws a pass at him, and…
LEO
Boy, that Mickey Spillane, he sure
can write.
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