Thelma's Best...
I have to say that this is Thelma Ritter at her best. Anyone else?
sharei agree. i don't think she ever gave a crappy performance, but i was touched and incredibly impressed by this one.
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MovieChat Forums > Pickup on South Street (1953) Discussion > Thelma's Best...
I love Thelma Ritter's performance in this film. She's absolutely heartbreaking and her Oscar nomination was well-deserved.
"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."
Absolutely! She should have won the oscar over Donna Reed.
shareI suspect Donna Reed won because it was a change of pace role for her, plus just being swept in with the From Here To Eternity tide that year. Don't get me wrong - she was good in the film. But Thelma Ritter is the reason I remember this film the most (plus the graphic, yet effective violence).
Of all her work, I'd place this performance with The Mating Season (totally different film!!!) as her best. What a great, unique presence she had!
For a typically 'Ritter-esque' performance, my favorite is Rear Window. But Pickup on South Street contains perhaps her most three-dimensional, emotional performance. The scene when she is talking with Richard Widmark at the counter of the coffee shop is poignant and heartbreaking.
shareGreat comedic performance in the Mating Season....So believable in her final scene in Pickup....did anyone notice how her lips trembled in fear? Remarkable....also loved her as the harried shopper in Macy's in Miracle on 34Th Street too!!!!!
shareYeah, that trembling lip impressed the hell out of me. That's some great acting, never looked forced or fake, looked like she was really scared sh*tless. She was robbed at the Oscars.
shareI love Thelma Ritter and I agree this is her best performance. Her big scene with Richard Kiley is just great. I wish she'd won the Oscar.
"Push the button, Max!"
I just watched the scene with Thelma Ritter and Richard Kiley. Wow, that's classic.
I agree that Donna Reed won because she played against type. She was supposed to be a prostitute but people were so naive in the Fifties that they may have thought she was just a good friend to lonely soldiers. Oscar loves actors with straight-arrow screen personas who play against type.
But Reed did not deserve the Oscar against Thelma Ritter. When actors play against type, it's usually a "revelation" (e.g., Michael Douglas in Wall Street; Denzel Washington in Training Day, among others). Thelma's performance was the revelation, especially in her final scene--even more so when she knew she would "get that fancy funeral." It was so real it makes you ache for her.
Reed's win was also a popularity thing. Young and pretty versus a veteran character actress. Unfair but typical. A performance that is currently popular but "of the moment" beats out a performance that is one for the ages.
Way to go, Thelma.
"people were so naive in the 50's" Grow up
shareDonna Reed winning over Ritter reminds me of Shirley Jones winning over Janet Leigh in 1960. Like Reed, Jones in Elmer Gantry was an actress with a good-girl persona playing a tramp for a change. I guess that always impresses naive Oscar voters. Janet Leigh in Psycho, however, gave the performance for the ages. Janet wanted that Oscar, but she once said, "Well, they don't teach college courses about Elmer Gantry, so I guess winning isn't everything."
shareI wholeheartedly agree that Pickup on South Street (1953) gives us Thelma Ritter's best performance... but she was marvelous in just about everything she did.
This is a lady who amassed SIX (6!) Oscar nominations in her career, yet never won the award.
Ritter was not only perfect in Pickup, she was also letter-perfect in All About Eve (1950), With a Song in My Heart (1952), and in a non-nominated role in Daddy Long Legs (1955). In all her films, when she's on screen, the focus is on her character.
Cheers,
Dan
English subtitles are a MUST on all DVD releases!
Better than ALL ABOUT EVE? Better than REAR WINDOW? Yes, I agree, this is Thelma Ritter's best work as a screen actress, and that's saying something.
shareIt's better in the sense that it's certainly a more dramatic/poignant role, but I have to agree with Pietromas re favoring her in "All About Eve" and "Rear Window".
shareYes, but did Thelma Ritter, Janet Leigh, Donna Reed, or Shirley Jones ever appear in a theatrical feature film dressed in an ape suit?
shareI agree. I love Thelma Ritter, but most of her roles are practically interchangeable. This time she got to play someone other than "Thelma Ritter," and did an awesome job. I also love the way the camera dwells on her completely un-messed-with face.
"What I got don't need pearls." -- Linda Darnell (1923-65)
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For those who just know her as her (marvelous) wise-cracking maid/nurse/assistant etc. this film is a revelation. Consider this: she is the ONLY character in the whole movie who really knows what she wants: a decent burial and headstone. She seems to offer men neck-ties as though they were nooses to hang themselves with. Her final scene portrays a heartbreaking weariness so great it is even greater than fear...it just blew me away.
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