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Howard Fritzson
4Jul11
She was the most magnificent real person in American film history, almost a Mangani, except she was not cast in heroic roles. Watch her magic in something as innocuous as "The Mating Season." She breathes so much life into that role. If only she had been cast in the movie version of "The Catered Affair," a role she played on TV.
your fiend mr. jones
28Sep10
She is almost always the sum of her voice. Brooklyn-born, with an accent she never lost, her tiny form showing the difference between inner character and outer appearance. The voice could nag (“Rear Window”), show whimsy (“Pickup On South Street”), offer consolation (“The Misfits”) and, of course, have the last laugh (“All About Eve” as well as all of them). I don’t think its coincidence that Eve Arden immediately comes to mind after Ritter. They could be related, with Ritter being the older, shorter sister, the one who worked to put the younger one through college. Probably took on some maid work, or being a nurse or personal seamstress. When you see her, you expect the voice to offer something worldly, but tidy (all she needs is one line), as tidy as the wash she just did or the little plot she has picked out for herself in the cemetery. The version of “Mam’selle” that moves me the most is the one she dies to in “Pickup…”, as well as the one she sings to herself in the same film, a private joke between herself and the audience.
