Philco Television Playhouse “Marty” (May 24, 1953)

Paddy Chayefsky’s empathetic but never sugar-coated chronicle of the tentative connection between two lonely souls at the Stardust Ballroom is still as poignant today as it was in 1953, due in large part to Rod Steiger’s unforgettable performance in the title role.  Filmgoers who have only seen Ernest Borgnine’s sentimental Marty from the compromised 1955 film version (also directed by Delbert Mann) should track down a copy of the live broadcast and study Steiger’s work, which runs an amazing gamut of emotions.  For one thing, Steiger’s Marty was an authentic loser: morose, self-pitying, indecisive, overly fixated on his mother.  Steiger made clear the limitations of character that went beyond Marty’s looks, and that was why Marty’s decision to take action – to ignore his friends and trust his instincts about the “dog” he’s attracted to – remains so moving.  This was the “kitchen sink” school of live television at its purest: a glimpse at authentically downtrodden people whose reality could not be digested by the classical Hollywood cinema’s process of manufacturing fantasy.