THE STARDUST BALLROOM. NIGHT
CAMERA PANS the crowd, picking up Marty and Clara dancing cheek-to-cheek on the crowded, darkened dance floor. The MUSIC rides over the top of the scene.
MARTY
You come up here often?
CLARA
I was up here twice before. Once with a friend of mine and once I came up alone. The last time… do you see that girl in the gray dress sitting over there?
MARTY
Yeah.
CLARA
Well, the last time I was up here, that’s where I sat. I sat there for an hour and a half, without moving a muscle. Now and then, some fellow would sort of walk up to me and then change his mind. I’ll never forget just sitting there for an hour and a half with my hands in my lap. Then I began to cry, and I had to get up and go home.
MARTY
I cry a lot too. I’m a big cryer.
CLARA
This is something recent with me, this bursting into tears at the least thing.
MARTY
Oh, I cry all the time, any little thing. My brothers, my brother-in-laws, they’re always telling me what a goodhearted guy I am. Well, you don’t get goodhearted by accident. You get kicked around long enough, you get to be a real professor of pain. I know exactly how you feel. And I also want you to know I’m having a very good time with you now and really enjoying myself. So you see, you’re not such a dog as you think you are.
CLARA
I’m having a very good time, too.
MARTY
So there you are. So I guess I’m not such a dog as I think I am.
CLARA
You’re a very nice guy, and I don’t know why some girl hasn’t grabbed you off long ago.
MARTY
I don’t know either. I think I’m a very nice guy. I also think I’m a pretty smart guy in my own way.
Clara smiles briefly at this.
MARTY
Now I figure, two people get married, and they gonna live together forty, fifty years. So it’s just gotta be more than whether they’re good looking or not. You tell me you think you’re not very good-looking. My father was a really ugly man, but my mother adored him. She told me that she used to get so miserable sometimes, like everybody, you know? And she says my father always tried to understand. I used to see them sometimes when I was a kid, sitting in the living room, talking and talking, and I used to adore my old man, because he was so kind. That’s one of the most beautiful things I have in my life, the way my father and mother were. And my father was a real ugly man. So it doesn’t matter if you look like a gorilla. So you see, dogs like us, we ain’t such dogs as we think we are.
They dance silently for a moment, cheeks pressed against each other.
CLARA
I’m twenty-nine years old. How old are you?
MARTY
I’m thirty-four.
Marty – Written by Paddy Chayefsky
MARTY. Another one of my all-time favorite movies. Along with THE APARTMENT, the only other true romantic comedy that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture. This scene takes place after a guy was set up on a date with Clara. Seeing that she is a “dog”, he offers a couple of guys in the stag line $5 to take her home. Marty turns down the money, but another guy accepts. Clara sees what is going on and she tells them that she is just going to go home. As she begins to leave sobbing, Marty consoles her and they begin to dance.
Here is a synopsis of the movie from The Wiki:
Marty Piletti is an Italian-American butcher who lives in The Bronx with his mother. Unmarried at 34, the good-natured but socially awkward Marty faces constant badgering from customers, family, and friends to settle down as they point out that all of his brothers and sisters are married, most of them with children. Not averse to marriage but disheartened by his lack of prospects, Marty has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood.
After being harassed by his mother into going to the Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night, Marty connects with Clara, a plain high school science teacher, who is weeping outside on the roof after being abandoned by her blind date. Marty and Clara spend the evening together dancing, walking the busy streets, and talking in a diner. Marty eagerly spills out his life story and ambitions, and they encourage each other. He takes Clara to his house, where he awkwardly tries to kiss her and is rebuffed. Clara explains that she just didn’t know how to handle the situation; she does like him and wants to see him again. They kiss briefly and embrace.
At this point, Marty’s mother returns, not pleased to see her son with a strange woman. Marty takes Clara home by bus, promising to call her at 2:30 the next afternoon, after Mass. Overjoyed on his way back home, he punches the bus stop sign and weaves between the cars, looking for a cab instead.
Meanwhile, Marty’s Aunt Catherine reluctantly moves in with Marty and his mother. Catherine privately warns her sister that Marty will soon marry and cast her aside. Fearing that Marty’s new romance could spell her abandonment, his mother belittles Clara to Marty the next day before Mass.
Marty’s friends, with an undercurrent of envy, deride Clara for her plainness. They try to convince Marty to forget her and remain with them, unmarried, in their fading youth. Harangued into submission by the pull of his friends, Marty fails to call Clara.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_(film)
I cut off how the movie ends. Cause I don’t want to ruin it for you. Cause you should watch it yourself. You can book a viewing of it at The Union Street Theater any time you want. I’ll even provide the popcorn.
But Thursday’s are for flowers. This collection concludes the flower pictures I took at the Iowa State Fair last year:
Next Thursday’s flowertography session will take place in my yard.