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RittBorn March 2, 1914 in New York, N.Y., Martin Ritt attended Elon College in North Carolina and St. John’s University in New York. He became an actor in the mid-1930s, making his Broadway debut in Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy in 1937. The play, which starred Frances Farmer, Luther Adler, Morris Carnovsky and Roman Bohnen in the roles immortalized on screen by Barbra Stanwyck, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb and Adolphe Menjou, also featured John Garfield, Elia Kazan and Cobb (in a different role) in the supporting cast. Ritt was also the assistant stage manager. In the Air Force during World War II, he repeated his stage role in the Air Force play Winged Victory in the 1944 film version. He made his directorial debut with Broadway’s Yellow Jack, also in 1944.

Ritt made his TV directing debut with the Somerset Maugham TV Theatre in 1950 but by 1953 found himself blacklisted as a Communist sympathizer. He kept himself busy teaching at the Actor’s Studio until 1957 when the blacklisting eased making his big screen directing debut with the acclaimed Edge of the City starring John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier. That was followed by the same year’s No Down Payment with a cast of bright young stars including Joanne Woodward and Jeffrey Hunter. The following year he was nominated for the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Long, Hot Summer which featured Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Lee Remick, Tony Francisosa, Orson Welles and Angela Lansbury. Later that year he was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Black Orchid top-lining Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn. The Long, Hot Summer also brought him a Best Director nod from the Directors Guild of America.

1962’s Adventures of a Young Man AKA Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man featuring an all-star cast topped by Richard Beymer, Paul Newman, Arthur Kennedy and Jessica Tandy, earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director. 1963’s Hud, again starring Newman, brought him numerous awards including his only Oscar nomination. It also earned a nomination for Newman and Oscars for Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas.

Further acclaim awaited the director for 1965’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold which brought an Oscar nomination to Richard Burton; 1967’s Hombre with Newman and Fredric March; 1970’s The Great White Hope which earned Oscar nods for James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander; 1972’s Sounder which did the same for Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson; 1972’s Pete ‘n’ Tillie for which Geraldine Page was Oscar nominated; 1974’s Conrack starring Jon Voight; 1976’s The Front starring Woody Allen; 1978’s Casey’s Shadow starring Walter Matthau; 1979’s Norma Rae starring Sally Field in an Oscar winning performance; 1983’s Cross Creek featuring Oscar nominated work from Rip Torn and Alfre Woodard and 1987’s Murphy’s Romance featuring a surprise Oscar nominated performance from James Garner.

Ritt’s last film was 1990’s Stanley & Iris featuring the only pairing of Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro.

Martin Ritt died on December 8, 1990 at 76.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

HUD (1963)

Ritt’s longtime collaborators, Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. supplied the screenplay based on Larry McMurtry’s novel about the callous son of a Texas rancher who tarnishes everything in his wake. Ritt directed with his by now acclaimed sensitive approach, earning what would be his only Oscar nomination in a career filled with Oscar worthy directorial efforts. Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas and Patricia Neal would become the first of thirteen actors Ritt directed to Oscar nominations for their portrayals of the amoral title character; his principled father and their seen-it-all housekeeper. Neal and Douglas became the first two of three who would win. Brandon De Wilde, also outstanding as Newman’s impressionable nephew, was not nominated but did have the honor of accepting Douglas’ Oscar for him.

Ravitch and Frank also earned the first of their two screenplay nominations for a Ritt film.

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965)

Paul Dehn wrote the screenplay from John Le Carre’s acclaimed novel which provided Ritt with another exceptional directorial achievement and Richard Burton with what was arguably his best screen performance as a burned out British spy.

Claire Bloom is also at her career peak as Burton’s tragic girlfriend and Oskar Werner, Oscar nominated for the same year’s Ship of Fools turns in an equally compelling performance as a dedicated East German spy.

Burton’s performance and the film’s stark black-and-white art direction earned Oscar nominations.

SOUNDER (1972)

Lonnie Elder III received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay adapted from William H. Armstrong’s novel. Ritt was nominated for the third time by the Directors Guild of America, but failed to receive an Oscar nomination despite once again directing two actors (Paul Winfield; Cicely Tyson) to Oscar nods. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

The film revolves around the coming of age of 11 year-old Kevin Hooks whose father (Winfield) is imprisoned for stealing food in the Depression era South. The reunion between Winfield and Tyson as his wife is one of the most moving scenes in film history.

Young Hooks and Carmen Mathews as a kindly neighbor also provide excellent performances.

THE FRONT (1976)

Blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein (Fail-Safe) and blacklisted director Ritt teamed for this comedy-drama about a delicatessen cashier who poses as the writer for several blacklisted writers during the early 1950s. Woody Allen is the cashier. Michael Murphy is the long-time friend he first fronts for, blacklisted actor Zero Mostel plays a tragic victim of the black list and blacklisted actor Herschel Bernardi plays a Hollywood producer. Andrea Marcovicci is Allen’s love interest.

The film, while mostly absorbing, ends on a satiric note that seems more like a writer’s concoction than something that might have actually happened during the Communist witch hunts.

NORMA RAE (1979)

Ravetch and Frank received their second Oscar nomination for a Ritt film while Ritt himself was once again left out of the nominations which also included Best Picture and Best Actress, winning the latter for Sally Field.

Field’s performance as a single mother and textile worker who agrees to help organize a union at her mill so moved the director that he wept when viewing the rushes for some of her scenes. Audiences were also moved, as were most of the extant awards bodies. Field’s competition for the Oscar included three actresses who turned down the role: Jane Fonda, nominated for The China Sydrome; Marsha Mason, nominated for Chapter Two and Jill Clayburgh, nominated for Starting Over.

Ritt’s strong hand as a director is evident in the compelling performances he obtains from Ron Leigman; Beau Bridges and the Rest of the cast, but it is most evident in the direction of Field whose career entered a whole new phase because of the film.

MARTIN RITT AND OSCAR

  • Hud (1963) – Nominated Best Director

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