Watched They Were Expendable on TCM this weekend

[KS Toronado]

In one scene Donna Reed was walking with two other nurses and one of them gave John Wayne a dirty look,
a dirty look like only Thelma Ritter could do. I looked her up on IMDB and her first movie credit was a year
after They Were Expendable. She was not listed in T.W.E. as she never said a word, just that dirty look she
gave John Wayne for being somewhere he shouldn't have been.

Has anyone else ever thought they seen Thelma Ritter in T.W.E.? I'll record it the next time it's on to get a
better look.

[BigmanPigman]

1. No, not in that film but I did in her first uncredited role.....

Last edited Thu Jun 1, 2023, 05:22 AM - Edit history (1)

"Ritter's first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). She made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised her son. Her third role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), left a mark, although Ritter was again uncredited."

She was so good with the wisecracks in Rear Window and All About Eve. A true gem.

[KS Toronado]

2. She was a great actress

I first remembered seeing her in How the West Was Won and have paid attention to everything she's done
since then. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards for best supporting actress and never won. She could steal
a scene. Shame she died so young.