Thelma Ritter

I love her. But I imagine she was never a part of the Hollywood social scene. She just came in and did her job (always brilliantly) and then went home to raise her family. So there'll be no scandals or even particularly interesting stories here.

You saw how quickly we finished off Irene Dunne earlier this week.

Thelma Harper: "And now you think that at your age, you're going to fly outta here, and take Hollywood by storm!"

Eunice Harper Higgins: "Lots of actresses get late starts! Look at Thelma Ritter!"

Thelma Harper: "Thelma Ritter was BORN TALENTED!"

Eunice Harper Higgins: "Well, SO WAS I!"

She's one of the best things in "All About Eve," but she vanishes one-third of the way in and never is mentioned again, even though it would be natural for her to be part of the action.

I just watched Rear Window again tonight and she was so fabulous in it. She should have been nominated for her performance.

[quote] but she vanishes one-third of the way in and never is mentioned again, even though it would be natural for her to be part of the action.

No it would not be natural for her to return. She closed the first half for eleven years an' you know it!

R3

Birdie (Thelma Ritter) was Margo's personal maid and assistant. It was natural for her to be seen early on as film was setting things up and Eve had not yet taken over. Once Eve began putting her plots and schemes into motion action moved towards how all that played out.

Birdie served her purpose, she had Eve's number from the start and sounded the alarm.

Pick-up on South Street...

Thelma Ritter in her element, old New York City...

Yes, as some say Ms. Ritter often played the same thing over and over, but she was a great character actress.

She and John Ritter used to have wild monkey sex in John’s dressing room while Suzanne was fucking Alan Hamel in hers. I, on the other hand, was too busy keeping Audra Linley from licking my snatch in between takes….

She was Oscar nominated times but never won. DL's usually see that as a sign that the star in question wasn't particularly well liked.

Not even given screen credit in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES! Connie Gilchrist as Lora Mae's Mom does. Lora Mae is the fabulous Linda Darnell.

Lora Mae Hollingsway: [amused by Sadie's maid uniform] "Sadie Dugan, what are you supposed to be, Baby Snooks?"

Sadie: "Hiya Lora Mae."

Lora Mae Hollingsway: "Get a load of that cap - I can't wait to tell Ma!"

Rita Phipps: "Lora Mae, would you sit there please?" Porter Hollingsway: "Come on, sit down". Sadie: "There's a couple of things I could tell your Ma about you too." Mrs. Manleigh:" This great situation belongs in a true-to-life drama - are you two related?" Lora Mae Hollingsway: "No we just had the same governess." Sadie: [laughing]" Ya kill me!"

Mr. Manleigh: "Sadie may not realize it, but whether or not she thinks she's listening, she's being penetrated." George Phipps: "Good thing she didn't hear you say that."

Thelma's billed fourth, but it's her movie.

I've always loved her. And she loved Marilyn Monroe, which makes me love her more.

She was also great in Miracle on 34th Street. "Mamma wants to thank Santa Claus, too."

Debbie Reynolds cited Thelma Ritter, along with a handful of other actors, who could steal a scene right out from under you without your even knowing it until you watched the dailies.

R12, Was Thelma cast in "Something's Got to Give" with Marilyn or was she not cast until it became "Move Over, Darling" with Doris Day?

FUN FACT: Thelma was Pat Nixon's name at birth.

What a thread about me!

Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at my rear end.

"Not even given screen credit in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES!"

Another injustice was Butterfly McQueen given no screen credit for "Mildred Pierce".

That fact is not fun, R16. There is nothing fun about it.

Not to hijack this thread to make it about the Nixons, R16 & 19, but one fun fact about them IS that they lived almost the exact number of days. Pat was born in March 1912 & died in June 1993, while Dick was born 10 months later, in January 1913, & died 10 months later, in April 1994.

You never know, R19. I once won a trivia contest($500) for knowing Gerald Ford's middle name was Rudolph.

That's what I was saying, R14!

Her presence was just so strong that you couldn't help but focus on Thelma.

[quote] She was Oscar nominated times but never won. DL's usually see that as a sign that the star in question wasn't particularly well liked.

I can't imagine that Thelma Ritter wasn't liked.

If anything, she was probably too direct and honest with people. She seems like a very up-front kind of person. No BS.

She was great in an atypical role in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents as a scheming, delusional frau who develops a crush on the married man whose children she looks after, in The Baby Sitter. He may have sinister plans.

Thelma created the role of the overeager Jewish mother-of-the-bride in Paddy Chayefsky's A CATERED AFFAIR when it debuted as a television play in the early 1950s. A couple of years later, Bette Davis replaced her in the role and the family became Irish when it was transformed into a feature film. I wonder what Thelma thought of that? BTW, Thelma was not Jewish.

One of my favorite performances of hers was in the 1960 Frank Sinatra film A HOLE IN THE HEAD, in which she played Sinatra's sister-in-law and Edward G. Robinson's wife. I love that film: I don't know why it's not more fondly remembered.

But my absolute favorite film of Thelma's was WITH A SONG IN MY HEART starring Susan Hayward as 1930s/40s singing star Jane Froman. Thelma plays nurse and companion to Froman, who suffers a horrible plane crash and most of the use of her legs. I weep every time.....

Margo: You don't like Eve do you?

Birdie: You want an answer or an argument?

Margo: An answer..

Birdie: No!

Margo: Why not?

Birdie: Now you want an argument...

Did Susan Hayward ever play anything but sluts, bar flies, boozers or those other sort of women.

Cannot recall name of film but think it was based upon a true story. Susan Hayward plays some singer too fond of booze. She marries some guy (played by a good looking Italian-American actor), and while they are on train leaving for honeymoon he beats the crap out of her in their compartment.

Later we see the husband on telephone making date with some other woman while Susan Hayward was lying on couch looking beaten up, in her slip and drunk. Oh and the husband was going through that singer's money like water to fund his whores and otherwise lavish lifestyle.

[quote]Jeff: She sure is the "eat, drink and be merry" girl.

[quote]Stella: Yeah, she'll wind up fat, alcoholic and miserable.

For that alone, Thelma, god love you and give you rest.

Thelma had a great line in Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE screenplay that got cut from the final print. It's in the dressing room scene, when Eve is revving up her sad dramatic tale about finding Margo's play in San Francisco.

EVE: Anyway. . . I found myself going the next night -- and the next and the next. Every performance. Then, when the show went East -- I went East.

BIRDIE: I'll never forget that blizzard the night we played Cheyenne. A cold night. First time I ever saw a brassiere break like a piece of matzo.

Sorry, but Mank was wise to cut that line, r28.

Mank said he regretted cutting her out of Eve so abruptly.

After Eve, my favorite role of hers is Stella the nurse in Rear Window.

"He better get that trunk out of there before it starts to leak."

More from Rear Window:

Stella: We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes sir. How's that for a bit of homespun philosophy?

Jeff: Readers Digest, April 1939.

Stella: Well, I only quote from the best.

Lisa: What's he doing? Cleaning house?

Stella: Must've splattered a lot.:

Come on, that's what we're all thinkin'. He killed her in there, now he has to clean up those stains before he leaves.

Lisa: Stella... your choice of words!

Stella: Nobody ever invented a polite word for a killin' yet.

And as a Molly Brown prototype in the 1953 Titanic:

Maude: Look at that crowd! Where I come from that's either a revival meetin' or a crap game!

Maude: Over trumped. Don't send a baby to buy the beer.