Thelma RitterFilmography

The Incident

Actors: Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Jack Gilford, Ed McMahon, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Boeing Boeing

Actors: Tony Curtis, Jerry Lewis, Dany Saval, Christiane Schmidtmer, Suzanna Leigh

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Move Over, Darling

Actors: Doris Day, James Garner, Polly Bergen, Chuck Connors, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

A New Kind of Love

Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, Eva Gabor, George Tobias

Synopsis: 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 Read More

For Love or Money

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Mitzi Gaynor, Gig Young, Thelma Ritter, Julie Newmar

Synopsis: 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 Read More

How the West Was Won

Actors: James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Widmark, George Peppard, Karl Malden, John Wayne

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Birdman of Alcatraz

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand, Betty Field, Telly Savalas

Synopsis: 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 Read More

The Misfits

Actors: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: 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 Read More

The Second Time Around

Actors: Debbie Reynolds, Steve Forrest, Andy Griffith, Juliet Prowse, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Ford Startime: The Man

Synopsis: "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 Read More

Pillow Talk

Actors: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, Nick Adams

Synopsis: 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 Read More

A Hole in the Head

Actors: Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Baby Sitter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

The Proud and Profane

Actors: William Holden, Deborah Kerr, Thelma Ritter, Dewey Martin, William Redfield

Synopsis: In this war romance, set during WW II, a widow falls for a Marine colonel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Daddy Long Legs

Actors: Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Terry Moore, Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Lucy Gallant

Actors: Edith Head, Jane Wyman, Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Death Paints a Legacy

Synopsis: Valuable paintings owned by a New England woman are discovered forcing her to the center of attention. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

27th Annual Academy Awards Presentations

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Rear Window

Actors: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Pickup on South Street

Actors: Richard Widmark, Jean Peters, Thelma Ritter, Murvyn Vye, Richard Kiley

Synopsis: 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) Read More

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Actors: Betty Grable, Dale Robertson, Thelma Ritter, John Carroll, Eddie Foy, Jr.

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Titanic

Actors: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: 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 Read More

With a Song in My Heart

Actors: Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner

Synopsis: 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 Read More

As Young As You Feel

Actors: Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, David Wayne, Jean Peters, Constance Bennett

Synopsis: 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 Read More

The Mating Season

Actors: Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling, Larry Keating

Synopsis: A pair of top 20th Century Fox contractees were loaned to Paramount as stars of The Mating Season. Gene Tierney plays globe-trotting socialite Maggie Carleton, while Thelma Ritter is cast as Ellen McNulty, the hash-slinging mother of Maggie's husband, Val (John Lund). Perceiving that her son is Read More

The Model and the Marriage Broker

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Scott Brady, Thelma Ritter, Zero Mostel, Michael O'Shea

Synopsis: The model (Jeanne Crain) is stuck in an unhappy relationship with a married man. The marriage broker (Thelma Ritter) doesn't like this and tries to match the model with a lonely x-ray technician (Scott Brady). The model is so grateful that she tries to find an eligible bachelor for the broker. The Read More

All About Eve

Actors: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill

Synopsis: Based on the story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr, All About Eve is an elegantly bitchy backstage story revolving around aspiring actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter). Tattered and forlorn, Eve shows up in the dressing room of Broadway mega-star Margo Channing (Bette Davis), weaving a melancholy Read More

Perfect Strangers

Actors: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, Thelma Ritter, Margalo Gillmore, Anthony Ross

Synopsis: The Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur Broadway comedy Ladies and Gentlemen formed the basis of the Warner Bros. laughspinner Perfect Strangers. The title characters are Terry Scott and David Campbell, played by Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan. She's a divorcee, he's a husband and father. Terry and David Read More

I'll Get By

Actors: June Haver, William Lundigan, Gloria de Haven, Dennis Day, Harry James

Synopsis: I'll Get By is an updated remake of the 1940 20th Century-Fox musical Tin Pan Alley. William Lundigan and Dennis Day play William Spencer and Freddie Lee respectively, successful song publishers who make hits out of such numbers as "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo", "Deep in the Heart of Texas", "You Read More

Father Was a Fullback

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara, Betty Lynn, Rudy Vallee, Thelma Ritter

Synopsis: First came 20th Century-Fox's Mother Was a Freshman; then, a few months later, the same studio's Father Was a Fullback. Fred MacMurray stars as college football coach George Cooper, whose team can't win a game to save its life. George finds some comfort in the arms of his wife Elizabeth (Maureen O'Hara Read More

City Across the River

Actors: Stephen McNally, Thelma Ritter, Luis Van Rooten, Jeff Corey, Sharon McManus, Tony Curtis

Synopsis: This slightly bowdlerized version of Irving Shulman's The Amboy Dukes was used by Universal-International to showcase several of its new male contractees. Set in the slums of Brooklyn, the film follows the exploits of the Amboy Dukes, a teenaged street gang. Foremost among the Dukes is Frank Read More

A Letter to Three Wives

Actors: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas

Synopsis: Three wives, played by Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell, are about to embark on a boat trip when each receives a letter, written by a mutual friend named Addie, informing her that Addie is about to run off with one of their husbands. In flashback, each wife wonders if it is her marriage Read More

Miracle on 34th Street

Actors: Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood, Harry Antrim, Jerome Cowan, William Forrest, Herbert Heyes, Gene Lockhart

Synopsis: Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, a bearded old gent who is the living image of Santa Claus. Serving as a last-minute replacement for the drunken Santa who was to have led Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Kringle is offered a job as a Macy's toy-department Santa. Supervisor Maureen O'Hara soon begins Read More