Ernest Borgnine plays the good-hearted New York butcher Marty, who lives alone with his mother and dreams of someday owning his own butchery. His mother still hopes that Marty will find a good girl to settle down with, a dream that Marty has become increasingly reluctant to pursue after years of romantic failure and heartache. Nevertheless he lets his mother persuade him to go to the Bronx’s Stardust Ballroom one Saturday night and there encounters the plain, soft-spoken schoolteacher Clara. They quickly hit it off in their endearing, socially awkward way. Their fragile courtship encounters several obstacles when Marty’s friends think Clara is too homely and not worth Marty’s attention. Marty then finds himself confronted with a choice between maintaining the safe status quo in his life and taking a chance on real happiness. Borgnine delivers a heartfelt, career-making performance that earned him a Best Actor Oscar. Marty also won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1955, as well as the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, one of only two American films to win both awards. (The Lost Weekend is the other.)