Box Set Monday #6: Thelma Ritter

Thelma Ritter is the featured star of this week's "Box Set Monday" post. She was one of the great character actresses and received 6 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominations (interesting fact: she is tied with Deborah for being nominated the most times in one particular category without a win.).

Contains:

All About Eve, 1950

The Mating Season, 1951

Pickup on South Street, 1953

Rear Window, 1954

Pillow Talk, 1959

The Misfits, 1961

All About Eve is the first film I remember seeing Thelma Ritter in and in every film I've seen her in since then she has never failed to impress. She plays Margo Channing's (Bette Davis, as if you didn't know!) gritty, outspoken maid - the only member of Margo's close circle who dislikes Anne Baxter's conniving Eve Harrington. Thelma gained her first Academy Award nomination for her absolutely stellar performance. 

In The Mating Season, Thelma plays gives such a sweet, funny performance as the mother-in-law of socialite Maggie McNulty (Gene Tierney) who arrives at Maggie and her son's house and is mistaken by her daughter-in-law for the maid. It's such a delightful film, I can't recommend it enough. Also, Thelma plays a bigger part in the film than she does in many others so that is always wonderful!

I think Thelma's performance in Pickup on South Street is probably her finest ever. She plays Moe, a weary peddler of neck ties and seller of information. She is great in the entire film, but her final few minutes are what make her really stand out. If I could award Thelma the Academy Award she never won, this would be the performance I would give it too.

Rear Window is one of my favourite Hitchcock films, not least because of Thelma's fantastic performance as James Stewart's nurse, Stella (STELLAAAAAAA! or maybe not...). It wasn't one of her biggest roles, but her dry wit and perfect timing gives the film a little extra something that makes it all the more exhilarating.

Thelma's comedic, slightly over the top performance as Doris Day's nosy, drunken maid in Pillow Talk may not be one her strongest performances but she is so entertaining and engaging that you can't help but love her. The scenes in the lift make me chuckle every time!

The Misfits and Rear Window are the only films in this box set that didn't gain Thelma an Academy Award nomination; it seems so strange to me that she was overlooked for her performance in The Misfits. She plays Isabelle, a tired, sad, and slightly wistful character who befriends Marilyn Monroe's beautiful and vulnerable Roslyn. This was Thelma's second film with Marilyn Monroe with the first being All About Eve in which MM had a very small part as a young, aspiring actress. I can't recommend The Misfits enough, it's a film I think everyone should see at least once.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this week's instalment of "Box Set Monday" and, as always, if you would like to write a guest post for this series please leave a comment (please leave me some way to contact you if you do this!), send me an email, tweet me etc. and we will figure something out! 

Loving Lucy | Thank you, Lucille!

(This is part of the Loving Lucy blogathon which is being hosted over at True Classics. Go and check out all the other brilliant posts!)

Today marks the 100th birthday of one of the world's most loved actresses and comediennes, Lucille Ball. It's 60 years since I Love Lucy started airing and, as a testament to it's greatness, it is still one of the most loved tv shows of all time. Even if someone has never seen ILL, show them a picture of a certain ditzy red head with a flaming putty nose and they will know it's Lucille Ball. She becomes part of your life whether you realise it or not.

I didn't grow up watching I Love Lucy because it is rarely, if ever, aired over here in UK, but when I discovered Lucille Ball, and subsequently ILL, it was at a time when I needed to laugh and needed to be taken out of myself, even if just for half an hour. I didn't need just anyone though, I needed someone I could understand and relate to, someone who I could feel was my friend. Lucille Ball was just who I needed. Even in the darkest moments, she could make me smile and feel as though everything wasn't so bad after all. She was one of us, not some aloof movie star that very few could feel close to, but someone who shared with us (as Bob Hope said) one of the greatest gifts to mankind, laughter. Lucy knew how wonderful the gift of laughter is, and she shared it in the most real and tangible way possible through a (then) new medium which assured it reached and touched the lives of thousands of people. 

The world has changed a tremendous lot in the past 60 years but one thing is certain, we need Lucy now just as much as we did in the post-WWII years. I firmly believe that in another 100 years the world will still love her as much as it does now. Thank you, Lucille Ball, for brightening so many people's lives ♥

Happy birthday, Lucille!

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I wish I could have written something with a bit more depth to it; I had so many things I wanted to say about Lucille but I've been trying to write them down all week and it just hasn't happened. I haven't been feeling too good so perhaps that's why, but at least I managed to write something as at one point I was so frustrated I didn't think I'd be able to post anything! 

New Poll: Who's the Screwball Queen? (+previous poll results)

Whenever I think of screwball comedy, I immediately think of a handful of highly talented ladies who made some of the greatest films of the genre. So for this poll I'm asking you to pick between 8 equally fabulous ladies and vote for whom you think is the Queen of Screwball Comedy.

Irene Dunne

Carole Lombard

Rosalind Russell

Claudette Colbert

Myrna Loy

Jean Arthur

Barbara Stanwyck

Katharine Hepburn

Happy voting! :D

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According to the previous poll (which ended over a month ago... oops!) Liesl is the most popular von Trapp kid, with Brigitta coming in second (YAY!), cute little Gretl third, and Louisa, Marta and the two boys all tying for last place with 1 vote. Thanks for voting everyone!

Please check out yesterday's Box Set Monday post featuring on the ladies in the poll.

Box Set Monday #5: Carole Lombard

The star of today's "Box Set Monday" post is Carole Lombard, the gorgeous, tremendously talented Queen of Screwball Comedy.

Contains:

Twentieth Century, 1934

My Man Godfrey, 1936

Nothing Sacred, 1937

True Confession, 1937

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 1941

To Be or Not To Be, 1942

I saw Twentieth Century for the first time today and just had to put it in the box set (it knocked out No Man of Her Own). Carole plays a lingerie model who is turned into a huge theatrical star by Oscar Jaffe (incredibly played by John Barrymore), a Broadway impresario. It encompasses everything a screwball comedy should and does so with such ease that you become entirely engrossed in the crazy and hilarious goings-on.

My Man Godfrey is the quintessential Lombard film, I think. If you don't end up loving dizzy, scatter-brained heiress Irene Bullock, then there's something wrong with you. William Powell also gives a smashing performance as the butler and only sane member of the Bullock household. MMG one of the most perfect examples of screwball comedy you will ever see, and I would not hesitate in using this film to lure people into the Old Hollywood downward spiral of obsession. ;D

The third film in the box set is Nothing Sacred, the first screwball comedy to be filmed in colour and Carole's only technicolour film (and yes, she is just as flawless in colour as in black and white!). Carole plays Hazel Flagg, a woman dying of radium poisoning. As such, she is invited to New York and becomes the talk of the town. Everything is smooth sailing until it's discovered that Hazel isn't actually dying...

True Confession is a wonderful comedy about husband and wife Helen and Ken Bartlett (Fred MacMurray). Helen is a writer and pathological liar, and Ken is a very honest lawyer. Going against against her husband's wishes and behind his back, Helen gets a job as a secretary. However, she soon finds herself in a bit of a pickle. I can't recommend this highly entertaining little film enough.  On a side note, Carole and Fred are one of my favourite '30s on-screen couples.  

One of Hitchcock's few comedy films, Mrs. and Mrs. Smith is a lively little film about a happily married couple who one day find out that they aren't actually married. Will they remarry or... ? The combination of Carole's perfect comedic timing, Robert Montgomery's pure brilliance, and Hitch's peerless skills as a director, makes this one of my all time favourite films.

To Be or Not To Be is a comedy drama (with an emphasis on drama) of the highest caliber. Most of the films in  this box set see Carole in slightly crazy comedic roles, but for the character of Maria Tura in this you have a chance to see her exercise her dramatic chops whilst still maintaining that glorious touch of Lombard comedic genius that we all know and love. TBONTB was the last film Carole made before her tragic death in a plane crash on January 16, 1942.

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Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back for next installment of "Box Set Monday". 

As always, if you would like to contribute to this series please drop me a line either here, on twitter, by email or wherever else you may be able to find me online, and we'll hopefully be able to work something out. :)

My Year in Film: July

212. The Mating Season (1951)

213. To Be or Not To Be (1942)

214. Heaven Can Wait (1943)

215. Holiday (1938)

216. Laura (1944)

217. Gunga Din (1939)

218. The Left Hand of God (1955)

219. Harold and Maude (1971)

220. Tobacco Road (1941)

221. Sullivan's Travels (1941)

222. Good Will Hunting (1997)

223. M (1931)

224. Pickup on South Street (1953)

225. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

226. Out of the Past (1947)

227. Ladri di biciclette (1948)

228. The Heiress (1949)

229. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)

230. The Great Dictator (1941)

231. The Dark Corner (1946)

232. The Immigrant (1917)

233. The Killers (1946)

234. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

235. Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)

236. White Heat (1949)

237. The Lost Weekend (1945)

238. The Little Foxes (1941) 

239. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)

240. Johnny Belinda (1948)

241. The Woman in Red (1932)

242. The Great Train Robbery (1903)

243. Red-Headed Woman (1932)

244. The Divorcee (1930)

245. Tootsie (1981)

245. La vita é bella (1997)

246. The Public Enemy (1931)

247. The Damned Don't Cry (1950)

248. Sadie Thompson (1928)

249. The Best Years of Our Lives (1948)

250. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

1900s - 1
1910s - 1
1920s - 1
1930s - 7
1940s - 22
1950s - 4
1960s - 0
1970s - 1
1980s - 1
1990s - 2
2000s - 0
2010s - 0

Most Watched Actresses

Gene Tierney - 5
Agnes Moorehead - 2
Carole Lombard - 2
Jane Wyman - 2
Jean Harlow - 2
Joan Blondell - 2
Miriam Hopkins - 2
Teresa Wright - 2
Thelma Ritter - 2
Virginia Mayo - 2

Most Watched Actors

Dana Andrews - 3
Cary Grant - 2
Charley Grapewin - 2
Charlie Chaplin - 2
Chester Morris - 2
Clifton Webb - 2
Edmond O'Brien - 2
Gene Raymond - 2
Henry Fonda - 2
Humphrey Bogart - 2
James Cagney - 2
Lew Ayres - 2
Robert Montgomery - 2

From now on, instead of writing about my favourite films this month here, I will link the reviews I've written about certain films to the film list at the beginning.