This is a great movie--why don't more people know about it?

I dunno it wasnt praised as years went on...a pity because it is really, really good actually an excellent about rarely shown subjects.

My happiness is your hap-penis

Most haven't heard about it because most are stupid and short-sighted, and possibly lazy. This is a small gem that has sadly been overlooked, like hundreds of other movies.

I see what you mean, I felt the same way when I first saw it, but I think the point is that the Aunt and the mom and the friends and everything else going on in his life were not important enough for him to let go of this woman who he loved so completly.

As for his aunt's behavior being revenged I don't know how neccassary that is! I mean I think she was in the picture more for her lonely position's variation on the main theme than as a means of destroying Marty and Clara's relationship. Her unhappiness at growing old and, in her own mind useless, was what was causing her to speak the way she did to Marty's mother which in turn was what caused Marty's mother to speak the way she did to Marty. Marty's friends were the same way and for the same basic reason, they're own selfish fears.

Marty folds to the pressure he feels to please everyone, at first, but eventually sees what is most important. The last scene was saying that things would still be complicated, as in real life, but they'd still work out.

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This film was based on a television play by Paddy Chayefsky ("Playhouse 90" first broadcast that version). In it Rod Steiger played Marty and Nancy Marchand (later of "Lou Grant" and "The Sopranos") played Clara. Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht got together to produce the film a couple of years later and cast Ernest Borgnine (who was known for playing villain roles, e.g. Fatso Judson in "From Here to Eternity" who so brutally attacks Frank Sinatra's character of Maggio. Betsy Blair (known at the time primarily for being Gene Kelly's wife) was cast as Clara. The film should receive more air time. It is hard to believe that it is fifty years old, having won Academy Awards for 1955.

The movie was easier to watch than the tv version (for me anyway) probably because of Borgnine. It is such a quiet film but speaks volumes about ordinary people who try to find the 'cover for the pot', and do endure jealousies of family and friends when a new person enters the social setting, or hurt at rejection.

I truly wonder given the Method actors who came along and the change of Hollywood dynamics, if the film was made today, how it would be received? Would it be too quiet to get Academy recognition? Borgnine won the Best Actor Oscar on his first and only nomination to date and Betsy Blair was nominated but lost in the Supporting Actress category.

I would still love to think that it would have gotten the much deserved kudos. Not every Academy award winning actor has to play a biographical, emotionally vocal ("This is my Oscar moment people, look at me") role, or be given a physical disability in order to achieve the invite to walk to the stage to receive the 'little golden guy'.

"they say that East of Eden (starring James Dean) should have won"

This was one of the rare times they voted right. Marty is a superior movie to the bloated East of Eden, and Borgnine is an infinitely better actor than the ultimate ham, Dean (sorry he died young, but that doesn't make him great).

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