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Updated 21 August 2005
CELEBRATING JOHN RITTER'S CAREER IN MOVIES: PAGE 2
MARTIN BREGMAN, producer of so many movies including "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon", "The Four Seasons", "Scarface" etc. etc. also served as producer on "Real Men": Of his star he says: "Ritter is one of the most gifted people with whom I've ever worked. He's a fine actor and a brilliant comedian."
John's youthful appearance served him well in the 1989 film "My Brother's Wife" as the story was told in flashback over a period of 25 years. Barney Rusher is the rebellious, unconventional son of a wealthy, straight-laced and undemonstrative man who has never been able to communicate with his elder son. The movie is as much about the difficult relationship between the two men as it is about that between Barney and Eleanor. In the 5th photo we see Barney arriving at the airport for his father's funeral. He is met by his sister-in-law, played by Mel Harris, who Barney met first when they were about twenty, and with whom he has been in love ever since, despite her subsequent marriage to his boring and unpleasant brother Billy.
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The couple are reunited at various times through the years...Barney appears unexpectedly at the wedding in an attempt to disrupt it, and by request as godfather at the christening of Eleanor and Billy's third baby...but the meetings are usually strained and end in a row because of Barney's resentment of the situation and the fact his love for her remains unchanged. To everyone in the family's surprise, Barney eventually makes a success of his life and ultimately holds the power over their comfortable lifestyle in the family home and private country club.
In Real
Men, John is the mild-mannered family man
(who just happens to look like a murdered C.I.A. Agent) taken
advantage of by most people, while James Belushi is the cocky,
streetwise C.I.A. man sent to recruit Bob
Wilson in this 1987 comedy. Their mission is
somewhat whacky, involving aliens, a glass of water and a magic
pen, but the actors are perfect in their roles, bouncing the
dialogue and action off each other in hilarious fashion. John has
the best line in the film - when the pair are trapped in an alley
planning their next course of action, Bob
spots trouble. "Who are those clowns?" he asks. I won't
spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but it amused me,
because what happened was unexpected. As the film progresses, the
characters begin to change. As Bob's
self-confidence grows, so does his partner's respect and the two
learn different things from each other. Belushi's character, Nick
is foiled by a woman and might have jeopardised the whole mission
but for Bob's sense of
duty and integrity. The two end up friends and Bob
returns home a wiser, braver man whom his
family respect a whole lot more than when he left.
The
prospect of leaving a dangerous city to live in a luxurious,
protected community proved seductive for Rick
Knowlton and his wife in "The
Colony" , but the magic rapidly began to wear off when it
became clear that it could be even more dangerous within the
gilded cage than outside it. In this 1995 thriller John played an
architect who needed to call upon all his resources, including
his teenage computer 'hacker' daughter in order to save the lives
of his family.
Perhaps
in order not to permanently identify himself as "Jack
Tripper", John chose to play a very different character from
his popular TV alter-ego in "Three's Company" despite
the fact that in 1978 when "Leave Yesterday Behind" was
made, the TV series was only in its second year. Paul Stallings
was an athlete who career was cut tragically short by an accident
that thereafter confined him to a wheelchair. The film explores
the plethora of emotions experienced by Paul when he falls in
love with a girl (played by Carrie Fisher) who is engaged to a
man who appears to have everything (Robert Urich). This is a
tender, poignant love story and your heart breaks for 'Paul' as
he battles with his feelings of inadequacy in every area of his
life. It's a powerful, emotive performance by John which should
have banished all connection with "Jack Tripper" and
established him firmly in the Hollywood mindset as a serious
dramatic actor.
Writer, Tom
Maguire and his editor, Irene
(Katey Sagal) have worked together for 7 years and are close
friends, so when her car gets stuck in mud one evening, Maguire
naturally offers to help by pushing. Unfortunately this injures
his back, and since he's barely able to move, and lives in a
fourth floor apartment with no elevator, Irene
takes him home with her. She's feeling bad for him because he
lost his job that morning so can't afford hospital treatment and
doesn't even have health insurance. At first both assume Maguire
will only be staying overnight, and Irene
leaves the next morning to spend the day with her family. Her
mother is a loving but overbearing woman, frustrated that her
elder daughter hasn't yet married, firmly believing this is
because she's not wafer thin and wears glasses. Dismayed as
always after a visit with her mother, Irene
returns home to find Maguire
has been stuck in the bath all day, unable to get out. It's clear
his back is much worse than they thought, and since neither have
any savings, Irene comes
up with a plan. Soft-hearted and wanting to help, she marries
Maguire in what is probably the screen's
most unromantic wedding ever, in order that he can have back
surgery and claim on her own insurance. The movie is a charming
romantic comedy, and if I tell you that the couple fall in love
for real by the end, I'm sure it won't come as too much of a
shock.
"Dr
David Farris" was a poisoner in the 1999 "Lethal
Vows", and John portrayed him beautifully. He was charming,
silkily evil and (naturally!)...sexy. Based on a true story, his
first wife began to fear for the life of her successor when she
began to show the same symptons of illness from which she'd
suffered for many years. When wife No. 2 dies in suspicious
circumstances, David's ex sets out to prove that he's a killer -
something wife No. 3 really should bear in mind in case there's a
sequel!
An
violent action movie is perhaps not the genre of film generally
associated with John Ritter, but in 1997 he again chose to
demonstrate his versatility in "Mercenary". He played
Jonas Ambler, the influential and wealthy head of a major
organization whose beloved wife is murdered and is bent on
revenge. Recovering from his own injuries sustained in the
gruesome attack, he recruits Hawk (Olivier Gruner), a
semi-retired professional mercenary who is unimpressed by
Ambler's money and even less by his insistence on accompanying
Hawk and his men on the mission. Battling vertigo, ridicule and
an unspoken accusation that he was responsible for the arrest of
Hawk's old (dying) friend and mentor, played by Robert Culp,
Jonas Ambler emerges, at the end of the film if not exactly a
hero, then at least earning the grudging respect of both men. The
film portrays violence, torture and betrayal, and may not please
all John's fans, but it serves again to remind anyone who still
doesn't know...duh...that he can expertly handle any role
required of him and should never, ever be typecast as a
"light romantic leading man".
The 1998
TV movie "Dead Husbands" starred John as a doctor
turned celebrity/TV personality and author, opposite Nicollette
Sheridan as his screen wife, and Amy Yasbeck (his real wife) as
his editor (who was also secretly in love with him). It's a black
comedy about a bored, rich wife whose comfortable social life is
under threat when her husband decides to return to practising
medicine in her home town. Other women might consider divorce if
they were desperate, but 'Alex Elston' has something far more
sinister in mind. The final scene in the movie implies there may
just be a sequel! I don't know the genre allocated to this film
in the USA, but in the UK it is incorrectly dubbed a 'thriller'
when it is quite obviously a black comedy. For trivia buffs: Amy
was pregnant with their daughter Stella during the making of this
film.
Peter
Bogdanovich's 1976 movie, "Nickelodeon", was a highly
entertaining romp through early film-making and boasting an
all-star cast. Ryan O'Neal (pictured left with John and Stella
Stevens) is a script-writer who travels across country for a job
only to find, on arrival, that the Director has disappeared on a
drinking binge, abandoning his cast and crew. Burt Reynolds
undertakes a similar trip, during which both men meet an aspiring
actress. Burt arrives on set as the star of the movie, and an
understandable rivalry begins between them when they discover
their leading lady is the girl they each met and were attracted
to en-route. John, in a major supporting role, plays the rather
odly named Franklin (Frank) Frank,
the affable camerman, who persuades Ryan O'Neal to direct the
picture because "all you have to do is
tell me where to put the camera and call 'cut'".
Brian Keith, George Gaines and Tatum O'Neal (pictured right with
John) also have roles in the movie.
"It
Came From The Sky" is, in my opinion, a hugely enjoyable
movie. Made in 1999 during John's slew of 'indie' films, its true
depth and quality may not even be fully realised on the first
viewing, but with each time I see it, I appreciate it more and
more. John looks fantastic and puts in a brilliant performance as
the dispirited, unhappy and somewhat embittered father of a 13
year old son whose tragic accident at home eight years previously
has left him physically and mentally disabled. The tragedy has
driven a wedge between Donald Bridges and
his wife, Alice (Jo-Beth
Williams) who devotes all her time and energy to caring for her
son and has none left for her husband. The two basically blame
each other for what happened and each has grown so accustomed to
the lack of emotional support or physical affection between them
that they have forgotten how much they used to 
love each
other. With the arrival of a middle aged man and his beautiful
young fiancee (played by Christopher Lloyd and Yasmine Bleeth)
who quite literally drop in on the family from out of the sky,
Donald and Alice are
forced to confront their relationship as painful memories are
reawakened. Not only do they learn a lot from the quirky couple,
but eventually discover their feelings for each other are not so
very different after all, if they can just learn to forgive each
other and work together. It's an unusual film, bittersweet and
poignant, with good performances from all four actors.
"Tripfall"
(left) stars John opposite Eric Roberts and the ex Mrs Rod
Stewart and model, Rachel Hunter. It's a good thriller, very
violent, and shows just how difficult it is for a middle-aged
corporate executive family man to protect his family against
people bent on destroying their comfortable lifestyle, and who
kill just to get their kicks. Tom Williams has to call on all his
physical and mental resources to try and outwit the vicious trio.
"Terror Tract" (horror),
I would presume to say, is not one of John's best films and I
understand the 'newbie' film producers were (understandably)
ecstatic when he agreed to star in it for them. I suspect John
was being kind and trying to give them a hand by getting them a
start in their career. It's the story of a real estate agent who
takes a couple around 3 houses on his books in a last desperate
attempt to sell them. 'Desperate' because he is under huge
pressure from his bosses and these houses had all witnessed
gruesome deaths in the past. One of the stories is actually quite
original and the ending of the film is quite unexpected.
A
ruthless and powerful head of a criminal organization, John finds
himself on both ends of a gun in "Montana", an
extremely violent 1997 thriller starring Kyra Sedgwick, Stanley
Tucci and Robbie Coltrane.
In the
1988 "Tricks Of The Trade" John's character was -
strangely - uncredited.
It's true 'Donald Todsen' only lasted about 15 minutes before
being murdered quite shockingly (although his character continues
to be pivotal to the whole movie), but those 15 minutes include
what is probably the 'hottest' scene I have ever scene in a John
Ritter movie. There was no pretence of actually having sex; the
heat came from the fact that John was paired with the perenially
beautiful Markie Post (his co-star in "Hearts Afire")
the lady with whom I personally believe he has the greatest
screen chemistry of all his leading ladies. She stars as 'Marla'
a hooker to whom 'Donald' goes for his extra 'goodies' (I think
he got them for free!) and Cindy Williams stars as his sweet,
naive wife. It's not until 'Donald' is murdered that she
discovers her husband's infidelity. The irony of the rest of the
movie - and the comedy element - is that the two women eventually
decide team up in order to find the murderer.
"I Woke Up Early The Day I
Died (2000?) is a very strange film. It is the last to be
directed by the often maligned film director Ed Wood. There is
virtually no dialogue and a host of familiar names and faces. The
storyline (and that's being generous) is basically about a young
man who engineers his escape from prison and follows his
subsequent adventures. I had a problem with the lead character
killing people in cold blood in a bid for laughs and to be honest
I'd love to know why John and other talented actors wanted to be
part of this movie. It was fun to see John in a sexy suede,
fringed western jacket, but for me, that was the highlight of a
very odd movie.
The
'little' low-budget movie that John made with Sigourney Weaver in
9 days in January 2002 while he was in New York, was
"Tadpole" and turned out to be quite a surprise to
everyone involved. Not only did Gary Winick's charming film win a
prize at The Sundance Film Festival, but it was bought by Miramax
for US$5 million for limited distribution in movie theatres! The
story is quite a simple one; student son falls in love with
stepmother (Weaver) and doesn't know how to tell her...or, indeed
his father, played by John. The boy's dilemma is hampered by the
nymphomaniac friend of his stepmother, played by Bebe Neuwirth.
One of
John's last movies, this
is a real oddball. It was filmed over a single 24 hour period
with 20 digital cameras located in different rooms of a luxury
property. There was no formal script, and the actors - who were
handpicked for their improvisational skills - were given a
detailed roadmap of their characters and the storyline and then
just allowed to get on with it. John is Bill,
an engineering mogul whose success in business has resulted in
him being named 'Man of the Year'. On his arrival at the party
thrown in his honor, he appears to be charming and fun, but over
the course of the evening he is revealed to be a much less
attractive personality, although to be frank, probably no worse
than hundreds of other successful businessmen in the world today.
He has impregnated his married PA, run up debts with a man
threatening reprisals if he's not repaid immediately and behaved
appallingly with the daughter of a potential foreign customer.
While it's an entertaining film, it would have been much better,
and far less distracting if the director (obviously a fan of the
excellent 60's 'The Boston Strangler') hadn't overused the split
screen technique, which I found not quirky as he obviously
intended, but irritating and confusing. I felt he was saying to
the audience, 'aren't I clever?' Well, actually...no. The party
guests are as unusual as the film itself, and we are given
glimpses into their lives. Because of the nature of filming, the
dialogue sometimes overlaps, but the actors did a good job with
what must have been a difficult shoot. Whether you like the movie
or not, it's obviously vital to add it to your collection of
John's work, since everything is more precious than ever
now...and he's great...as always.
