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Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair in Marty (1955)

Metacritic reviews

Marty

82

Metascore

16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
  • 100
    Los Angeles Times
    Los Angeles Times
    Marty is a must-see picture. [11 Jan 1956, p.6]
  • 88
    ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
    ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
    It’s a cliché to remark that “they don’t make them like they used to” but, in the case of Marty, it’s true.
  • 88
    Boston Globe
    Boston Globe
    Marty is one of those films that appear every few years or so -- a picture so sensitively acted, so tenderly written, so human in its appeal, that it has the utmost distinction, no matter what kind of audience is in the theatre. [04 Aug 1955, p.21]
  • 88
    Chicago Tribune
    Chicago Tribune
    Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the script, has captured the human element deftly. Here are human beings as they really are, refreshingly life-like, piteously real, and often hilariously funny. [16 May 1955, p.15]
  • 80
    Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
    Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
    This 1955 example of kitchen-sink realism about the awakening love life of a Bronx butcher (Ernest Borgnine) and his shy girlfriend (Betsy Blair), directed by Delbert Mann, has never been popular with auteurists, but Paddy Chayevsky’s script, adapted from his own TV play, shows his flair for dialogue at its best, and the film manages to be touching, if minor.
  • 80
    EmpireWilliam Thomas
    EmpireWilliam Thomas
    Enormously influential, it spawned Hollywood's interest in smaller scale, prosaic dramas, few of which failed to match its resonance.
  • 80
    Variety
    Variety
    It’s a warm, human, sometimes sentimental and an enjoyable experience.
  • 80
    The New York TimesBosley Crowther
    The New York TimesBosley Crowther
    Marty makes a warm and winning film, full of the sort of candid comment on plain, drab people that seldom reaches the screen.
  • 70
    Time Out
    Time Out
    Overrated at the time, largely because its teleplay origins (by Paddy Chayefsky) brought a veneer of naturalism and close-up intimacy to the Hollywood of the day. But it does have doggy charm and a certain perceptiveness (the butcher's continuing doubts as to what his mates will think; his mother's jealousy despite constant nagging about marriage).
  • 50
    The New YorkerPauline Kael
    The New YorkerPauline Kael
    You have to have considerable tolerance to make it through Chayefsky's repetitive dialogue, his insistence on the humanity of "little" people, and his attempt to create poetry out of humble, drab conversations.
  • See all 16 reviews on Metacritic.com
  • See all external reviews for Marty

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