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In honour of Ernest Borgnine's 100th birthday, which was on Tuesday (January 24), this week on «Film Friday» I bring you the picture for which he is best known, which also happens to be the one that gave him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Directed by Delbert Mann, Marty (1955) tells the story of Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine), a good-natured but socially awkward Italian-American butcher who lives in The Bronx with his mother, Teresa (Esther Minciotti). Unmarried at 34, Marty faces constant badgering from family and friends to settle down, as all his brothers and sisters are already married and have children. One night, he goes to the Stardom Ballroom and meets Clara Snyder (Betsy Blair), a plain-looking 29-year-old high school chemistry teacher from Brooklyn who has been abandoned by her blind date. Mutually attracted, they spend the evening together dancing and walking the busy streets, and then Marty takes Clara home by bus, promising to call her at 2:30 the next afternoon...

In honor of Deborah Kerr's 94th birthday, wh ich was on Wednesday, this week on "Film Friday" I though I'd to tell you a little bit about one of my personal favorite films of hers. Theatrical release poster Directed by Delbert Mann, Separate Tables (1958) revolves around a group of lonely residents of a small British seaside hotel, including the plain and overly protected Sybil Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr) and her domineering mother Maude (Gladys Cooper), who disapproves of her daughter's friendship with the pompous Major David Angus Pollock (David Niven). Mrs. Railton-Bell is determined to have the major expelled from the hotel, after finding an article revealing his arrest for indecent behavior to several women at the local theater and that his military stories and ranking are fraudulent. Meanwhile, the glamorous Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth) arrives at the hotel looking for John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a drunken American writer to whom she used to be...