Thelma Ritter makes blunt speech funny without making the speaker seem pleased with herself. Her timing and lived-in delivery are worth seeking out, especially when a part lets her show the hurt beneath the wisecracks.
Fi1m perspective
In Rear Window (1954), Thelma Ritter's Stella supplies dry humour that fits easily into the suspense. She is the nurse attending James Stewart's character, with a practical job amid all that watching. We laughed at her blunt observations because Ritter gives them the ease of everyday conversation. Her comic timing is exact, but the woman speaking seems to have other things to do. She leaves room for the people around her.
Her film work began with an uncredited bit in Miracle on 34th Street (1947), but the early advance came through Joseph L. Mankiewicz. After A Letter to Three Wives (1949), he wrote Birdie Coonan for her in All About Eve (1950). As the maid to Bette Davis's Margo Channing, Ritter has a place in a company where vanity and cruel wit get plenty of exercise. The flashback structure can be stiff, but Ritter's plain delivery belongs in a company whose performances make the film worth staying with.
The danger of such a recognisable manner is that casting can do the thinking for everyone. Maids, nurses, housekeepers and mothers recur, often with the strong Brooklyn accent and a blunt assessment of the people around them. Familiarity can narrow what a part asks of her; there is only so much surprise in the arrival of another sensible woman. In Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock makes her usefulness to the ensemble clear. Stewart and Grace Kelly supply the romantic warmth; Ritter's drier humour lets the film be funny without depending entirely on the couple.
Pickup on South Street (1953), with Ritter as the informant Moe Williams, offers a useful correction to the idea that she was simply there to supply jokes. Her dramatic work in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) makes clearer how much hurt she can convey beneath the tough manner. Start with Rear Window for the timing, then All About Eve for the pleasure of hearing plain speech among people who take such care over theirs.
Biography
Thelma Ritter was an American character actress. She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began her career on stage and in radio before making her film debut in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
She appeared in supporting roles in films including All About Eve (1950), Pickup on South Street (1953), Rear Window (1954), Pillow Talk (1959), The Misfits (1961), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and How the West Was Won (1962). Ritter received six Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress and shared the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in New Girl in Town (1957). She also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
