Movie review: Marty

Ernest Borgnine in a romance? It works, because of the nature of the movie. Borgnine plays a 34-year-old Italian Catholic butcher who still lives with his mother in NY City's Little Italy. Sounds like quite a catch, right?

His mother is hassling him to get married. His friends are pestering him to go out. Marty hasn't had a lot of luck with girls, but things change when he meets Clara. Suddenly, Marty doesn't feel like a fat, ugly loser. Now his mother's getting nervous, his friends are feeling neglected and his cousin has foisted off his own mother into Marty's household.

It's a sweet, charming story, although I honestly can't imagine why it won an Oscar. Was there really nothing better that year?