Marty

Shy, lonely butcher Ernest Borgnine meets shy, lonely school teacher Betsy Blair. Directed by Delbert Mann.

This must have been a strange film when it came out in 1955. No movie stars, but rather regular people talking like regular people. It actually feels pretty modern. The dialogues by Paddy Chayevsky almost feel a bit David Mamet-y in the use of repetition. I dunno, what do you wanna do tonight? There's even the Tarantino pop culture moment of characters talking about Mickey Spillane. Not all the threads are tied up. Did he buy the butcher shop at the end? We're not told. Ernest Borgnine, stepping up from lots of bad guy roles, is very appealing, and so is Betsy Blair. She's too pretty to be the "dog" she is referred to in the film, but that's fine, that's Hollywood, and they look good together on the screen. I got really invested in the film, and started looking worriedly at the timer towards the end - five minutes left, are they gonna end up together or not?