Directed by:
Mitchell LeisenCinematography:
Charles LangComposer:
Joseph J. LilleyCast:
Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling, Larry Keating, Cora Witherspoon, Malcolm Keen, Ellen Corby, Kasey Rogers, Jimmy Hunt (more)Plots(1)
The main reason to see this film is to marvel at the superior comedic timing of Thelma Ritter in a role that earned her the second of an unprecedented six Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress. Lund is a wage slave at a factory when he meets Tierney, a wealthy young woman who knows everyone and who feels equally at home dancing with an ambassador or with Lund, the man she falls for and marries. Ritter is Lunds mother, a no-nonsense woman who runs a hamburger stand until the bank forecloses on her. She hitchhikes to see her son and his new wife and arrives the night that the young couple are having their first party. Mistaken as domestic help, she quickly sizes up the situation and pretends to be a maid, despite Lunds protests. He is somewhat embarrassed by his humble beginnings and Hopkins, as Tierneys mother, is shown up as a snob through Ritters relentless good sense. Theres a gaggle of giggles as Ritter shows her son and daughter-in-law that the lower classes have just as much wit as the upper classes, plus 50 percent. Ritter succeeds in winning over Tierney, getting her son to acknowledge his origins, and meriting the attention of Lunds superiors as he goes up the ladder to success. Ritter had a way with a line that socked it over without ever seeming to underline anything. Her underplaying is what makes the comedy work and when she is on screen, it lights up. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Gene Tierney
USA
Best movies:
Laura (1944)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Night and the City (1950)
John Lund
USA
Best movies:
To Each His Own (1946)
White Feather (1955)
A Foreign Affair (1948)
Miriam Hopkins
USA
Best movies:
The Heiress (1949)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Thelma Ritter
USA
Best movies:
Rear Window (1954)
All About Eve (1950)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Jan Sterling
USA
Best movies:
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Caged (1950)
Johnny Belinda (1948)
Larry Keating
USA
Best movies:
Daddy Long Legs (1955)
Monkey Business (1952)
Whirlpool (1949)
Cora Witherspoon
USA
Best movies:
Dodge City (1939)
Dark Victory (1939)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Malcolm Keen
UK
Best movies:
The Lodger (1927)
The Manxman (1929)
Francis of Assisi (1961)
Ellen Corby
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Vertigo (1958)
Sabrina (1954)
Kasey Rogers
USA
Best movies:
Strangers on a Train (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Jimmy Hunt
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Pitfall (1948)
Bess Flowers
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rear Window (1954)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Sam Ash
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Citizen Kane (1941)
William Fawcett
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Franklyn Farnum
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
James Conaty
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Billie Bird
USA
Best movies:
Home Alone (1990)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
The Odd Couple (1968)
Florence Wix
UK
Best movies:
Limelight (1952)
Fury (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Art Gilmore (narrator)
USA
Best movies:
Rear Window (1954)
The Killing (1956) - narrator
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Bob Kortman
USA
Best movies:
Sunrise (1927)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Union Pacific (1939)