"Actor: Esther Minciotti"

• Marty | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £7.79   |  Saving you £5.20 (66.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Before beginning the main feature make sure you watch Burt Lancaster's endorsement of Marty in the appended theatrical trailer first. Yes, he was involved as coproducer, but his conviction clearly stems from the film itself. This screen adaptation of Paddy Chayevsky's play was a breakthrough in an American neo-realism that would sustain itself for two decades. Ernest Borgnine is in his element as the Bronx butcher in his mid-30s seemingly destined for a bachelor existence on account of past disappointments. There's a winningly natural performance from Esther Minciotti as his well-meaning, ever-interfering mother, while Betsy Blair is inspired casting as schoolteacher Clara, plain and diffident but with the proverbial good heart. The supporting cast is one of telling cameos, simply and unselfconsciously delivered. Delbert Mann conveys the energetic bustle of the Italian ex-pat community, and ensures that the intimacy of the original play is not lost. On the DVD: Marty's black-and-white print reproduces crisply in the DVD format, as does Roy Webb's score, which vividly evokes 1950s American city life. There's dubbing in four and subtitles in five European languages, together with the original trailer mentioned above. Having seen Marty, you'll surely agree that Lancaster's enthusiasm was not misplaced. --Richard Whitehouse