Week 6 (Part 2): Italian Moms

Let's talk about two great films, which have a lot in common, especially on the topic of romance and Italian moms:

• Marty (Won 1955)
• Moonstruck (Nominated 1987)

Before this project, I always knew Marty as the answer to the question in Quiz Show that John Turturro's character is supposed to pretend not to know when he throws the game. I wish I could find a clip of that scene, but the dialogue will have to suffice:

Dan Enright: Now the last category is movies. We're gonna ask you what won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1955. You don't know it. You answer "On the Waterfront."

Herb Stempel: Oh, no. Oh, no. Don't, don't do that. Not "Marty." I saw "Marty" three times. The Best Picture from two years ago, and I don't know it?

Enright: Someone of your intellect, and it's such a simple question. Don't you see the drama of that?

Stempel: Drama?

Enright: Herb, don't do this to yourself.

Stempel: Please, let me lose on a physics question, not "Marty," Dan. Don't do this to me. It's too humiliating.

Enright: For 70 grand, Herb, you can afford to be humiliated.

This supposedly happened in real life, too! And having finally seen it, I know why Herb Stempel loved this film. Marty stars Ernest Borgnine as a butcher from a heavily Italian Bronx neighborhood and who's in the advancing stages of bachelorhood, much to the chagrin of his overbearing mother, extended family and friends. The movie takes place over the course of what appears to be two days, and the romance between the homely Marty and Betsy Blair's also somewhat homely character, Clara, develops in one evening. In the background is a lot of wonderfully vintage New York and/or Italian paraphernalia, e.g., milkshakes at Howard Johnson's, eating a gigantic plate of spaghetti at home, living with one's in-laws, having enormous houses in the middle of New York City, A&P grocery stores, etc.

Where it lacks for scale and ambition, Marty compensates with pace and tight, witty writing. It is the absolute perfect length for its genre at 90 minutes. It's brilliantly written and simple. Many scenes involve lines of dialogue that are cleverly repeated by one or more characters (a technique now frequently used by the Coen Brothers). Borgnine and Blair are both wonderful as leads, and Marty's cast of friends and family are all funny and believable. 

I give Marty an 8.6, one of the highest scores yet in this project among films that I had not yet seen.

Fast forward more than 30 years to Moonstruck, nominated in 1987. A very entertaining film on many levels, it stars Cher in one of her small handful of meaningful roles, and a young Nicolas Cage doing very Cagey things (before they would come to be known as Cagey).

Like Marty, Moonstruck is a story of love between two "outcasts" with the Italian family dynamic jutting sharply out of the background. Like Marty, there is a lot of dialogue that takes place within enormous New York  brownstone homes and over pasta. Like Marty, the main character's mother (here, the fantastic Olympia Dukakis) occupies a lot of screen time. Unlike Marty, it takes place in Brooklyn and not the Bronx, but I think the 30+ year difference may have something to do with that.

Olympia Dukakis + Pasta

Ernest Borgnine + Pasta

Moonstruck is a little funnier than Marty, but it's also not quite as cohesive. There are sub-plots, mostly involving Cher's character's parents, that periodically kill the momentum of the film. And I'm not sure that I really saw a lot of chemistry between Cher and Cage. Probably his fault more than hers. Overall, I give Moonstruck a rating fitting for a very good film: 7.6. And I will leave you with this, because this is one of the rare moments in this project (especially since I've already seen Leaving Las Vegas and do not plan to watch it again) in which we get to honor Nicolas Cage: