Marty Pilletti is a 36-year-old butcher who lives with his mother, who is always asking him why he doesn't find a nice girl and get married. The truth is Marty is lonely and would like nothing better, but he has low self-esteem and admits to his mother that he's ugly and no one wants him. He's tired of going to the Saturday night dance with his buddies and then going home more depressed than he was when the evening started. But at one of those dances he meets Clara. They have a great deal in common but Marty will have to overcome peer pressure if he and Clara are to have a relationship.
Acting
Rod Steiger's trembling chin should be in museums.
Writing
Paddy Chayefsky invents the modern TV drama in real time.
Direction
Delbert Mann makes a Bronx dance hall feel like church.
Director
Delbert Mann
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This live 1953 TV broadcast was so successful it became a theatrical film two years later, essentially birthing the 'TV-to-film' pipeline.
Nancy Marchand (Clara) later played Tony Soprano's mother—a full circle of Italian-American matriarchs crushing their sons' souls.
US
