The Mating Season

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)