Thelma Ritter Movies
At the tender age of eight, Thelma Ritter was regaling the students and faculty of Brooklyn's Public School 77 with her recitals of such monologues as "Mr. Brown Gets His Haircut" and "The Story of Cremona". After appearing in high school plays and stock companies, Ritter was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Throughout the Depression years, she and her actor husband Joe Moran did everything short of robbing banks to support themselves; when vaudeville and stage assignments dried up, they entered slogan and jingle contests. Moran forsook performing to become an actor's agent in the mid-1930s, while Ritter also briefly gave up acting to raise a family. She started working professionally again in 1940 as a radio performer. In 1946, director George Seaton, an old friend of Ritter, offered her a bit role in the upcoming New York-lensed Miracle on 34th Street. Ritter's single scene as a weary Yuletide shopper went over so well that 20th Century-Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that the actress' role be expanded. After Ritter garnered good notices for her unbilled Miracle role, Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote a part specifically for her in his 1948 film A Letter to Three Wives (1949). She was afforded screen billing for the first time in 1949's City Across the River. During the first few years of her 20th Century-Fox contract, Ritter was Oscar-nominated for her performance as Bette Davis' acerbic maid in All About Eve, and for her portrayal of upwardly mobile John Lund's just-folks mother in The Mating Season (1951). In all, the actress would receive five nominations -- the other three were for With a Song in My Heart (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953) and Pillow Talk (1959) -- though she never won the gold statuette. Ritter finally received star billing in the comedy/drama The Model and the Marriage Broker (1952), in which she assuages her own loneliness by finding suitable mates for others. After a showcase part as James Stewart's nurse in Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), Ritter made do with standard film supporting parts and starring roles on TV. In 1957, Ritter appeared as waterfront barfly Marthy in the Broadway musical New Girl in Town, a bowdlerization of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie. Ritter interrupted her still-thriving screen career in 1965 for another Broadway appearance in James Kirkwood's UTBU. Shortly after a 1968 guest appearance on TV's The Jerry Lewis Show, Ritter suffered a heart attack which would ultimately prove fatal; the actress' last screen appearance, like her first, was a cameo role in a George Seaton-directed comedy, What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1968
In this comedy, New York City undergoes a dramatic change when a toucan carrying a strange virus is smuggled through customs. In those it infects, the virus causes an intense euphoria and a desire to do good. The first man to receive the infected bird is a misanthropic, cynical artist who lives in an apartment with his girlfriend. The couple names the toucan "Amigo," and soon they are indeed happy. They decide to spread it around and so the bird is freed. The Big Apple goes into an economic tailspin as its residents become deliriously happy and stop buying cigarettes, booze and tranquilizers. To save the financially foundering city, the mayor and a presidential envoy begin distributing unpleasant masks to the happy city-dwellers. The artist and friends thwart the officials' scheme by infecting the masks. So begins a battle between the officials and the artist. Eventually Amigo is caught, and an antidote is delivered. The renowned rudeness, cruelty and selfishness of the native New Yorkers quickly returns, and the city is saved. The artist realizes that his quest has been futile, and he devotes the rest of his time and energy to making his girlfriend happy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Mary Tyler Moore, (more)
- 1967
Martin Sheen may be the Grey Eminence of movies nowadays, but back in 1967 he often as not played switchblade-wielding punks. This he does, in the company of Tony Musante, in The Incident. After mugging a helpless old man, Sheen and Musante take over a subway car, terrorizing its occupants. In Stagecoach fashion, all the best and worst qualities of the passengers are brought to the surface by the presence of danger. Among the passengers are angry black man Brock Peters and his supplicative wife Ruby Dee, ex-alcoholic Gary Merrill, timorous Jewish couple Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter, blowhard Ed McMahon, and homosexual Robert Fields. It is furloughed army private Beau Bridges who puts an end to Sheen and Musante's reign of terror. Based on Ride with Terror a 1963 TV play by Nicholas E. Baehr, The Incident is an unpleasant but undeniably fascinating character study. And yes, that cute young blonde playing Alice Keenan is Donna Mills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, (more)
- 1965
Marc Camoletti's popular stage farce Boeing Boeing is watered down and realigned into a Tony Curtis/Jerry Lewis vehicle. Curtis plays an American journalist living in Paris; Lewis is his goonish (but surprisingly restrained) buddy. Partial to stewardesses, Curtis manages to juggle the affections of three luscious flight attendants (Dany Saval, Christiane Schmidtmer, and Suzanna Leigh), whose schedules are such that their visits to Curtis' bachelor pad never overlap. Complications ensue when the Boeing company speeds up its air service, and when Lewis tries to muscle in on Curtis' "racket." The best lines go to Thelma Ritter as Curtis' disapproving housekeeper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, (more)
- 1963
In this romantic comedy, Deke Gentry (Kirk Douglas) is a lawyer who gets an unusual assignment from Chloe Brasher (Thelma Ritter), a wealthy widow, owner of a successful hotel chain, and one of his most prominent clients. Chloe has three daughters, sensible Kate (Mitzi Gaynor), bohemian Jan (Leslie Parrish), and heath food fanatic Bonnie (Julie Newmar), and she wants Deke to find them husbands. Though Deke protests that matchmaking is outside his traditional area of expertise, Chloe is insistent, and he ends up taking the job. To be sure that he's going through with it, Chloe assigns her security chief Joe (William Bendix) to keep his eye on Deke. Eventually, Deke fixes up Bonnie with Harvey Wofford (Richard Sargent), a meek IRS agent, and pairs Jan with artist Sam Travis (William Windom), but Kate turns out to be the hardest Brasher sister to marry off, until he throws his own hat into the ring. Richard Sargent would later shorten his first name to Dick and find success on the popular television comedy Bewitched. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor, (more)
A man makes the highly unexpected discovery that he has two wives in this romantic comedy. Widower Nick Arden (James Garner) has just set off on his honeymoon with his new wife Bianca (Polly Bergen) when his mother Grace (Thelma Ritter) receives a very unexpected guest -- Nick's late wife Ellen (Doris Day). While Ellen was proclaimed legally dead five years after her plane disappeared in a flight over the Pacific Ocean, in truth her flight crash-landed on a desert island where she was stranded with Stephen Burkett (Chuck Connors) and only now has managed to return to civilization. When Grace informs Ellen that Nick has just left town with his new wife, Ellen heads out to the resort where the newlyweds are staying, and comic confusion ensues. Move Over, Darling began life as a project called Something's Got to Give, which was the film that Marilyn Monroe was working on at the time of her death; besides Monroe, the original cast included Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse, and Phil Silvers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, James Garner, (more)
A man falls for an exotic "bad girl," unaware he's already met the nice girl lurking beneath the surface, in this romantic comedy. Samantha Blake (Joanne Woodward) works for a large department store in New York City as a sort of industrial spy; while ostensively a buyer, Blake's greatest responsibility is to find out what the hot new fashions are going to be, so her store can have cut-price knockoffs on the racks once they hit the boutiques. Samantha is flying to Paris with her co-workers Leena (Thelma Ritter) and Joe (George Tobias) when she meets Steve Sherman (Paul Newman), a no-nonsense reporter who has been assigned to cover the unveiling of the new designer lines. Samantha and Steve don't exactly hit it off, and after arriving in Paris, a depressed Samantha makes her way to a beauty salon after a few cocktails too many. Decked out in a new wig and dressed to the nines, Samantha bumps into Steve, who is convinced she's one of the city of lights' glamorous high-priced call girls. Samantha plays along, and Steve writes a story about her which proves to be a hit with his readers, but as she finds herself falling for Steve, she isn't sure how to tell him that she's really the mousy woman he met on his flight to Paris. A New Kind Of Love also features cameo appearances from Maurice Chevalier and Frank Sinatra, the latter of whom sings the title song. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, (more)
Filmed in panoramic Cinerama, this star-studded, epic Western adventure is a true cinematic classic. Three legendary directors (Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall) combine their skills to tell the story of three families and their travels from the Erie Canal to California between 1839 and 1889. Spencer Tracy narrates the film, which cost an estimated 15 million dollars to complete. In the first segment, "The Rivers," pioneer Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) sets out to settle in the West with his wife (Agnes Moorehead) and their four children. Along with other settlers and river pirates, they run into mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who sells animal hides. The Prescotts try to raft down the Ohio River in a raft, but only daughters Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) and Eve (Carroll Baker) survive. Eve and Linus get married, while Lilith continues on. In the second segment, "The Plains," Lilith ends up singing in a saloon in St. Louis, but she really wants to head west in a wagon train led by Roger Morgan (Robert Preston). Along the way, she's accompanied by the roguish gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck), who claims he can protect her. After he saves her life during an Indian attack, they get married and move to San Francisco. In the third segment, "The Civil War," Eve and Linus' son, Zeb (George Peppard), fights for the Union. After he's forced to kill his Confederate friend, he returns home and gives the family farm to his brother. In the fourth segment, "The Railroads," Zeb fights with his railroad boss (Richard Widmark), who wants to cut straight through Indian territory. Zeb's co-worker Jethro (Henry Fonda) refuses to cut through the land, so he quits and moves to the mountains. After the railway camp is destroyed, Zeb heads for the mountains to visit him. In the fifth segment, "The Outlaws," Lilith is an old widow traveling from California to Arizona to stay with her nephew Zeb on his ranch. However, he has to fight a gang of desperadoes first. How the West Was Won garnered three Oscars, for screenplay, film editing, and sound production. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Henry Fonda, (more)
In this film based on a true story, Burt Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a withdrawn prison inmate who cures a sick bird that flies into his cell and eventually becomes a world-renowned ornithologist -- all while serving a life sentence. An overbearing warden (Karl Malden) eventually transfers Stroud to the notoriously brutal prison on Alcatraz, but he is able to continue his research, abort a riot, start a romance, and eventually get his story out through a determined reporter (Edmond O'Brien). Directed with his usual solid craftsmanship by John Frankenheimer, Birdman Of Alcatraz tells a quietly moving tale for which Lancaster, Telly Savalas (as one of Stroud's fellow inmates), and Thelma Ritter (as Stroud's mother) all received Oscar nominations. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, (more)
- 1961
Though the title suggests that this film is a musical romance built around the song hit of the same name, Second Time Around is actually a comedy western. Debbie Reynolds plays a young widow who in 1912 moves with her children to a wild and wooly Arizona town. At first having trouble coming to grips with frontier life, Reynolds adjusts quite well--to the extent that she is appointed sheriff. She is courted by Andy Griffith and Steve Forrest, both of whom ride to the rescue when Reynolds bites off more than she can chew and she is captured by outlaws. Sheriff Reynolds marries Forrest, while Griffith, presumably, moves on to a new job in Mayberry. The big selling angle of Second Time Around was a very brief farcical scene involving Debbie Reynolds and a bathtub, which ended up plastered all over the advertising material for this film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, (more)
The final film of stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe is an elegy for the death of the Old West from writer Arthur Miller and director John Huston. Gable stars as Gay Langland, an aging hand traveling the byways and working at rodeos with his two comrades, Guido (Eli Wallach) and young Perce Howland (Montgomery Clift). The three men come up with a plan to corral some misfit mustangs and sell them for dog food, but Gay's new girlfriend Roslyn Taber (Marilyn Monroe), a high-minded ex-stripper who has just divorced her husband Ray (Kevin McCarthy) in Reno, is appalled by the plan. Although both Guido and Perce are also in love with Roslyn, she stands by Gay, sure that in the end he will do the right thing, even as he and his pals begin their planned roundup. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, (more)
- 1960
"The Man" is the title of this television drama that tells the story of a disturbed veteran visiting an army buddy's mother. ~ All Movie Guide
Although the main character, Tony Manetta (Frank Sinatra), in this light comedy tends to tip the scales towards being unbelievably unrealistic, the story is pulled off because everyone else is convincing. Tony is a widower in need of a financial bailout for himself and his son, so he asks for help from his brother Mario (Edward G. Robinson), a wealthy New Yorker. Tony owns a small hotel in Miami Beach but his impractical ways have made it a losing proposition. After Mario and his wife (Thelma Ritter) arrive in Miami, thinking of taking custody of Tony's son, they suddenly decide to try to match Tony up with the widowed Mrs. Rogers -- maybe that will teach him some responsibility. This was one of the last movies directed by Frank Capra. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, (more)
The fabulously successful Pillow Talk was essentially Shop Around the Corner for the 1950s. Playboy composer Rock Hudson and interior-decorator Doris Day are obliged to share a telephone party line. Naturally, their calls overlap at the least opportune times, and just as naturally, this leads to Hudson and Day despising each other without ever having met in person. In a cute but convenient coincidence, Doris' boy friend is Tony Randall, who also happens to be Hudson's best pal. Thus Hudson gets a glimpse at Day, and it's love at first sight. To avoid revealing that he's her telephone rival, Hudson poses as a wealthy Texan and turns the charm on Day. But when he starts pitching woo, Day instantly recognizes all the "make-out" lines Hudson has used on the phone with his other conquests. She gets even by decorating Hudson's apartment in a hideous manner. But Hudson loves her all the same; he "kidnaps" her, carrying her through the streets in her nightgown in full view of everyone, including a laughing cop who refuses to intervene. He praises her horrifying interior decoration job effusively, and at this point Day can't help but give in to his marriage proposal. A bit too arch and cute for modern tastes at times, Pillow Talk is still one of the best of the frothy Doris Day-Rock Hudson vehicles; it made a fortune at the box office and garnered five Oscar nominations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Doris Day, (more)
- 1956
Thelma Ritter, previously seen as the delightfully ghoulish nurse in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 theatrical feature Rear Window, is here cast as babysitter Lottie Slocum. When her most recent client, Mrs. Nash, is murdered, Lottie is interviewed by the cops, but she has no vital information. She does, however, claim to know that Mrs. Nash was cheating on her husband (Theodore Newton), but this she tells to everyone except the cops. As it turns out, Lottie doesn't know anything except that she is infatuated with Mr. Nash...and it is this infatuation which proves to be her undoing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1956
In this war romance, set during WW II, a widow falls for a Marine colonel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1955
An unusually matronly Jane Wyman plays the title character in Lucy Gallant. Adapted from a novel by Margaret Cousins, the story concerns the efforts by Lucy Gallant to make the wide-open spaces of Texas a mecca for High Fashion. Jilted at the altar, Lucy retreats to a booming oil town, where she courageously opens up a gown shop. Rancher Casey Cole (Charlton Heston) is disdainful of "working women", but he never hides the fact that he's madly in love with Lucy. As the film progresses, Lucy nearly loses her business due to financial reverses, but Casey secretly pumps money into her operation, all the while declaring publicly that she's doomed to failure. Lucy's gowns were actually designed by Edith Head, who makes an appearance towards the end of the film, as does the then-governor of Texas, Allan Shivers. Lucy Gallant was the last of the incredibly successful Pine-Thomas productions for Paramount Pictures; there might have been more had not William H. Pine died shortly after completing the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, (more)
- 1955
This video presents archival footage of the Academy Awards ceremony held in 1955 for movies released in 1954. The program shows an evening hosted by Bob Hope, during which the Elia Kazan anti-union picture On the Waterfront took top honors with eight wins out of twelve nominations, including the prize of Best Picture, while its star, Marlon Brando, won his first Best Actor Oscar after four consecutive nominations. Kazan garnered the Oscar for Best Director as well, while Grace Kelly received the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in The Country Girl. This video also features nominees such as Humphrey Bogart (for The Caine Mutiny) and Bing Crosby (for The Country Girl). ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Valuable paintings owned by a New England woman are discovered forcing her to the center of attention. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1955
This last remake (thus far) of the Jean Webster novel Daddy Long Legs was extensively revised to accommodate the talents of Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. Fragments of the basic plot remain: American millionaire Astaire is the unknown benefactor of French orphan girl Caron, financing the girl's education on the proviso that his identity never be revealed to her. Moved by Caron's letters of thanks, Astaire's secretary Thelma Ritter advises Astaire to go to France to visit the "child". When he arrives, he finds that his ward has grown up rather nicely, and the two fall in love--though Caron never knows until the very end who Astaire really is. The old story has been updated to allow for an elaborate "cowboy" number and a couple of Eisenhower jokes. Highlights include a solo ballet by Caron and a wonderful Astaire routine involving a set of drums. The score for Daddy Long Legs is unremarkable save for Johnny Mercer's hit "Something's Gotta Give". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, (more)
Laid up with a broken leg, photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to his tiny, sweltering courtyard apartment. To pass the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), the binocular-wielding Jeffries stares through the rear window of his apartment at the goings-on in the other apartments around his courtyard. As he watches his neighbors, he assigns them such roles and character names as "Miss Torso" (Georgine Darcy), a professional dancer with a healthy social life or "Miss Lonelyhearts" (Judith Evelyn), a middle-aged woman who entertains nonexistent gentlemen callers. Of particular interest is seemingly mild-mannered travelling salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), who is saddled with a nagging, invalid wife. One afternoon, Thorwald pulls down his window shade, and his wife's incessant bray comes to a sudden halt. Out of boredom, Jeffries casually concocts a scenario in which Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of the body in gruesome fashion. Trouble is, Jeffries' musings just might happen to be the truth. One of Alfred Hitchcock's very best efforts, Rear Window is a crackling suspense film that also ranks with Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960) as one of the movies' most trenchant dissections of voyeurism. As in most Hitchcock films, the protagonist is a seemingly ordinary man who gets himself in trouble for his secret desires. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Grace Kelly, (more)
- 1953
The Farmer Takes a Wife is a musicalized remake of the 1935 film of the same name. Betty Grable and Dale Robertson star in the roles originally essayed by Janet Gaynor and Henry Fonda. Set in the early 19th century, the plot details the trials and tribulations of those hardy souls who settled along the Erie Canal. Grable plays Molly Larkin, the girlfriend of rough-and-tumble canal-boat captain Jotham Klore (John Carroll). Much to Klore's dismay, she hires mild-mannered farmer Daniel Harrow (Robertson) to work on the boat. Molly and Daniel fall in love and marry, but there's many a heartbreak and letdown before a happy ending can be reached. Though not in any way a "typical" Betty Grable musical, Farmer Takes a Wife was misleadingly advertised as such: one promotional still showed a grinning Grable anachronistically garbed in tight jeans and a bare-midriff blouse! Both versions of The Farmer Takes a Wife were adapted from the stage play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Grable, Dale Robertson, (more)
The 1912 sinking of the luxury liner Titanic is used as a backdrop for a several fictional subplots, chief of which involves snooty socialite Clifton Webb and his wife Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck has booked passage on the ill-fated passenger ship with her daughter (Audrey Dalton) and son (Harper Carter), leaving Webb far behind. Webb manages to board the ship at the last minute, and discovers that Stanwyck plans to divorce him; she further informs him that he is not the father of their son. When the Titanic sideswipes an iceberg and begins its slow descent in the Atlantic, the women and children are put on the lifeboats while the men stay behind to face death (except for cowardly cardsharp Allyn Joslyn, who disguises himself as a woman). The formerly class-conscious Webb acts with conspicuous bravery, seeing to it that several steerage passengers are ushered to safety. He is reunited with his son, who has given up his lifeboat seat to an elderly woman. All misunderstandings swept aside, Webb and his son face their final moments on earth together. In the film's best moment, a miniature recreation of the Titanic is seen sinking beneath the waves as the survivors watch from their lifeboats in numb horror. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, (more)
Samuel Fuller scarcely used Dwight Taylor's source material, a languid courtroom romance, in crafting this pugnacious potboiler. Pickup on South Street is strictly Fuller film noir -- lean and wicked straight to its core. Barely out of prison, loner and pickpocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) quietly helps himself to the contents of a woman's purse. His beautiful victim, Candy (Jean Peters), turns out to be an unwitting courier for the communist underground; McCoy's booty is actually microfilmed U.S. government secrets, formerly en route to Moscow. Both the FBI and Candy's employers are desperate to retrieve the film. The apolitical and arrogant McCoy has a plan to play both ends against the middle and come up ahead. However, dealing with the authorities may mean life in the clink, and the sadistic communists would rather kill McCoy than pay him off. He quickly becomes embroiled with Candy, who will risk everything to right her wrongs, and eventually even more to save her new man. When McCoy loses a cohort and Candy is almost killed, the cocksure pickpocket finds a stronger motivation than personal gain. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, (more)
With a Song in My Heart is the story of popular 1930s songstress Jane Froman, here portrayed by Susan Hayward. We first see Ms. Froman as a humble staff singer at a Cincinnati radio stations, but it doesn't take her long to rise to the uppermost rungs of network radio fame. Jane gratefully marries her agent (David Wayne), but soon both realize they're not truly in love. While touring with the USO during World War II, Jane is in a plane crash, which severely injures her. She nonetheless valiantly makes a professional comeback, and begins a relationship with the pilot (Rory Calhoun) who rescued her. Jane Froman herself provided the vocals for With a Song in My Heart, with Susan Hayward doing a topnotch miming job. Watch for Robert Wagner in his starmaking cameo as a shell-shocked GI. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, (more)
Based on a story by Paddy Chayefsky, this is the tale of a man who is being forced to retire from his job, at the age of 65, and decides to fight back. Impersonating the head of the company, he sets out to convince them to get rid of their outmoded retirement policy and gives a creditable speech on the dignity of man, gaining national attention. This movie features good performances, but it will probably be remembered more for the bit part played by a young Marilyn Monroe as the boss' secretary. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, (more)
