Want to know the best Thelma Ritter movies? How about the worst Thelma Ritter movies? Curious about Thelma Ritter box office grosses or which Thelma Ritter movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Thelma Ritter movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Thelma Ritter (1902-1969) was a 6-time Oscar® nominated American actress. Ritter was best best known for her comedic roles as working class characters and her strong New York accent. In the 1950s and early 1960s she was one of the most popular supporting actresses working. Thelma Ritter’s IMDb page shows 44 acting credits from 1947-1968 This page will rank 31 Thelma Ritter movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances were not included in the rankings. This page comes from a request by Dan and Flora.
Thelma Ritter Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Thelma Ritter movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Thelma Ritter movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Thelma Ritter movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Thelma Ritter movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Thelma Ritter movie received.
- Sort Thelma Ritter movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR)Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Thelma Ritter Table
- Fourteen Thelma Ritter movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 45.16% of her movies listed. Rear Window (1954) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Thelma Ritter movie grossed $126.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 28 of Thelma Ritter’s movies are rated as good movies…or 90.32% of her movies. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) is her highest rated movie while Perfect Strangers (1950) is her lowest rated movie.
- Sixteen Thelma Ritter movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 51.61% of her movies.
- Seven Thelma Ritter movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 22.58% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 22 Thelma Ritter movie scored higher that average….or 75.00% of her movies. All About Eve (1950) got the the highest UMR Score while Perfect Strangers (1950) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Thelma Ritter
1. Thelma Ritter was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1902.
2. Thelma Ritter got a late start to her movie career. She made her film debut in 1947 when she was already 45 years old.
3. Thelma Ritter was nominated for an Oscar® six times, giving her the distinction of being one of the three actresses (tied with Deborah Kerr and Glenn Close) most nominated for the award in an acting category without a win.
4. Thelma Ritter’s first Oscar® nomination for 1950’s All About Eve (1950) marked her first of 4 consecutive nominations, a feat she shares with Jennifer Jones (1943-1946), Marlon Brando (1951-1954), Elizabeth Taylor (1957-1960) and Al Pacino (1972-1975). Greer Garson and Bette Davis both have five consecutive nominations (1942-1946) and (1939-1943), respectively.
5. Thelma Ritter held a “Come Over and Watch Me Lose” Oscar party for her 5th Oscar® nomination.
6. Thelma Ritter was nominated for 3 Golden Globes®. Won Broadway’s 1958 Tony Award® as Best Actress (Musical) for “New Girl in Town” in a tie with her co-star, Gwen Verdon .
7. Thelma Ritter was married one time and had two children.
8. Thelma Ritter’ cumulative box office totals: Adjusted domestic box office: $3.92 billion. 60 Oscar® nominations all her movies in all categories. 17 Oscar® wins all her movies in all categories.
9. Two of Thelma Ritter’s movies are in the IMDb Top 250 movies of all-time: Rear Window is currently ranked 40th and All About Eve is currently ranked 106th.
10. Check out Thelma Ritter‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark.
Hi, Bruce.
Thanks for doing my requested page on Thelma Ritter.
I have seen 15 of her movies.
My favourites are:
Rear Window
How the West Was Won
Miracle on 34th Street
Call Northside 777
A Hole in the Head
Hey Flora….had to dig out some of the older tally counts….here are the updated totals
Dan …31 Ritter movies watched
Bern1960…..23 Ritter movies watched
Flora…..15 Ritter movies watched
Cogerson….15 Ritter movies watched
Steve……11 Ritter movies watched
Seen and enjoyed your Top 5….with the exception of A Hole In The Head….as I have not seen that one yet. Thanks for the Ritter thoughts…glad you were able to check out one of your requested pages.
1 George Gabby Hayes was often ‘sidekick’ to the Duke and Randolph Scott in their westerns and became popular for a time so that he was asked why he didn’t do lead roles. He said that if he strayed beyond the screen persona that audiences expected of him it could jeopardise his career; and I suspect that Thelma too wouldn’t have won stardom as her fans loved her in the kind of supporting parts that were her stock and trade.
2 For me Walter Brennan was closest to being her male counterpart and he made such an impact in supporting roles that historians have advised any actor wishing to undertake character parts to study Walter’s films. Probably the same advice about Thelma could be offered to aspiring supporting actresses and indeed maybe ALL acting students would benefit from watching the performances of these two great veterans.
3 My favourite Ritter roles were in Rear Window, Pillow Talk and Pickup on South Street. Anyway it’s nice to see someone who was not a big box office star being given a Cogerson page on acting merit so hats off to you Bruce or as Steve would say”voted up!”
Hey Bob.
1. Good point about Hayes and Ritter.
2. I agree that Brennan was the Ritter of supporting actors. They share a credit in one ,movie….How The West Was Won. Brennan won 3 of the first 5 Best Supporting Actor Oscars….pretty much due that he knew all the extras…and back then their votes were included.
3. Glad to see someone mention Pickup on South Street….that is one of my favorite Ritter roles. Widmark is equally good in that one.
The power of the request hotline got this Ritter page done. Speaking of Steve I am working on one of his requests…..science fiction movies….it is going to be huge…it might take a couple of weeks to research and write.
Look forward to it.
BOB
🙂
Hi
I absolutely loved Thelma Ritter. She must be the most unforgettable character actress of the 50’s. She graced so many superb movies and so memorable in all of them. Personally I think the secret to her success was that she came across so real. People knew a Thelma in a way they wouldn’t have known a Garbo or a Crawford. Thelma was the next door neighbor you borrowed milk or teabags from, she was the mother in law you could have a laugh with. She shot from the hip but she had a big heart. She was like your favourite aunt that you always loved to go stay with.
She was fantastic in All About Eve, brilliant dialogue with Davis. I recently seen her in rear window, again shone. In The Misfits, she is Monroe’s buddy but she doesn’t go out in the country like the rest of the characters, which always annoyed me because it would have been interesting to see. Considering her movie career started so late in life, she left an incredible legacy. And of course she was very funny in Pillow Talk. It’s a pity she never won an Oscar.
Hey Chris…great comment! Before doing this page I did not realize she had gotten an Oscar nomination for 4 straight years. Now that is the way to start your movie career. I think she is the Walter Brennan of supporting actresses. I agree with you 100% about her being the neighbor next door that everybody loved. She had the talent of instantly making what ever movie she was in better when ever she came on screen. I think she could have won the Oscar for All About Eve….maybe the fact George Sanders won for Eve….caused some backlash for her in the voting. People thought….. I can’t vote for Sanders and Ritter….so I will vote Sanders and vote for Hull for Harvey. I probably need to see The Misfits again…I have seen it once and did not enjoy it all. Thanks for stopping by.
I was watching Thelma Ritter recently in my umpteenth viewing of Rear Window. She was good support.
Looking at the charts I’ve only seen 11 of the 31 films listed. Favorites include Rear Window, How the West Was Won, Birdman of Alcatraz and All About Eve.
Noteworthy movies I’ve missed include A Letter to Three Wives, With a Song in my Heart and The Mating Season. I can’t remember if I’ve seen Call Northside 777.
Good to see Rear Window and All About Eve do well on the charts.
Top work Bruce. Voted Up!
STEVE
1 Call Northside 777 is a must see film that in its own way is as suspenseful as Rear Window.
2 And of course it was the pre-Rear Window joint appearance of Thelma and Jimmy Stewart.
3 Later they were both in How the West was Won but I can’t remember if they shared any scenes in that one.
Best wishes
BOB
Thanks for that bit of info Robert. I’ve checked my files and I don’t have that film. I will keep an eye out for it. I had uploaded 777’s movie poster to my Jimmy Stewart video a few days ago.
Steve’s James Stewart video…is worth checking out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWyg15WnqGU
Thanks for the link. I use your website for inspiration when doing these videos.
Hey Steve…hopefully it will get you some views.
Hey Bob
1. I agree Call Northside 777 is worth checking out.
3. Pretty sure How The West Was Won does not have any Ritter/Stewart scenes. Stewart is in the beginning…..while Ritter is in the middle of the movie….though they both share scenes with Debbie Reynolds. I just recently rewatched that one on Blu-Ray and it was stunning to watch. The colors and picture jump off the screen.
🙂
Hey Steve
1. When I finished the research…and was looking at the UMR score…and when I saw Rear Window 3rd….my first thought…”Oh…Steve will not like that at all”. So I debated using the Critic/Audience Rating as the default setting…but it is hard to argue that All About Eve is not her best movie…as she got her first Oscar nomination for that movie….and it won the Best Picture Oscar…two things that help out a UMR Score. But I am sure you sorted by critic/audience and saw Rear Window sitting on top of the rankings.
2. Tally count….11…..you will be finishing off the podium….to bad we do not give credit for repeat viewings…as it sounds like you have seen Rear Window…many many times.
Dan …31 Ritter movies watched
Bern1960…..23 Ritter movies watched
Cogerson….15 Ritter movies watched
Steve……11 Ritter movies watched
3. I like all of your favorites as well…..her Birdman character almost seems out of character compared to her comedy roles.
4. I have seen two of the ones you missed…A Letter To Three Wives is pretty entertaining…and you get a very young Kirk Douglas…..while With A Song In My Heart is a decent musical drama….with an even younger Robert Wagner in that one.
5. Call Northside 777 is pretty good….worth checking out.
As always thanks for the sharing your movie knowledge on Thelma Ritter.
Bruce, so when working out the UMR you take into account the importance of a film to the person in question? So that a films UMR score here might actually be different on another film persons page? Or am I reading you wrong?
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Rear Window, a lot more than Vertigo. But overall I’ve probably watched Psycho more than any other Hitchcock film. I remember renting Psycho for a week on 8mm film back in the late 70s and projecting it onto a large white screen. I sometimes miss those flickering lights and the whirring noise of my old Eumig projector. 🙂
Hey Steve…..sorry for the confusion….I was trying to say that when I get all the numbers researched….I run a report that puts them all together. At this point I decide which way the table will appear on the page….I call it my default setting….for Thelma’s page…I went with UMR Score as the rankings everybody sees the table when they get to the page. I sometimes use critic/audience rating as the default setting. Basically I can create the table anyway…I could do it by ABC order, Oscar nominations, UMR Score, Co-Stars, Critic Audience Rating. Usually UMR Score gets the default setting….sometimes UMR Score fails (I know you are shocked) and I pick Critic/Audience.
So I was saying that when I saw Rear Window 3rd in UMR Score….I thought about using the Critic/Audience Rating so Rear Window would be the top movie when you saw the page for the first time.
Hey Steve….but different actors can get a different UMR Score for the same movie. Judgement at Nuremberg is a great example.
Maximilan Schell won the Oscar and Golden Globe for the movie….his UMR Score is 78.43
Monty Clift got nominations for Oscar and Golden Globe……..his UMR score is 74.18
Spencer Tracy got a Oscar nom…but no Golden nom…his Nurenmberg score is 72.93
Burt Lancaster got no award love….so his Nuremberg UMR Score is 68.43
William Shatner for being in over his head lost points…so his Nuremberg score was 33.45
Actually I am kidding about Shatner losing points…lol.
That’s what I was thinking you meant, the UMR score for a film is slightly adjusted for each movie person. That’s pretty cool. I like it. And I take it the critics score is uniform? On my video ratings I have the option of adding my own score which give basically gives me the excuse to mess about with the final ratings if I choose. For instance if a popular film is just out of the top 30 in the final count, I’ll give it a little nudge and get it in there, booting out a more obscure movie. Hey my videos my rules! 🙂
Hey Steve….yep the critic/audience score is uniform…the only changes is when IMDb scores goes up or down. Your rules seem good to me….as a guy named Cornbread once told me….”You can’t beat a guy when you are playing by his rules”. I agree your videos rule.