Thelma Ritter

Thelma Ritter's acting is recognised by her voice: Imogen Sara Smith, writing for Criterion, describes it as a grating voice coming out in a Brooklyn accent as thick and as sharp as a pastrami sandwich. By Smith's account, Samuel Fuller wrote the part of Moe in Pickup on South Street directly for her and took the risk of making an informer a heroine; in the AFI's summary, Moe sells ties alongside the information she sells about the underworld. In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window she was Stella, the nurse who calls by to rub Jeff's back and get his meals ready. In Michael Gordon's Pillow Talk she played Alma, Jan's drunken maid, who listens in on the telephone line and shares the view that Jan needs a livelier life. In Huston's The Misfits she was Isabelle Steers, who runs a boarding house in Reno.