From the opening credits of this documentary on the legendary award-laden actress Rita Moreno who are immediately hit by her infectious exuberance and good humor. She was a mere 87 years old when this was filmed two years but was still working in the profession in which she loves (and that loves her). It is also her frankness and honesty that sets this doc apart from the usual actor profile.
Moreno is one of the last of the actors from the old Hollywood Studio contract system, and like so many she recounts how in those early days she could only get roles in embarrassing B Movies. Stunningly beautiful so was always cast as the pretty girl ….. usually Asian or some exotic dark beauty which meant being coated with very heavy make up.
It may not have been what she really wanted to do but it nevertheless it did eventually get her noticed. First by the producers of West Story Story who gave her a major breakthrough, and then a few years later by Marlon Brando with whom she embarked on a seven year very torrid on-off romance . When the film was over Moreno won an Oscar, but she confessed when she split with Brando she ended up having an abortion.
Morenos frankness is none more apparent here and especially when she adds her disappointment that the Oscar was not followed with the expected new roles. True she was offered work but they were all watered down versions of Anita from West Side. It wasn’t until 7 years later she made her next film The Night of the Following Day with Mr Brando.
If the movies were not lining up for Moreno then Television and Broadway were. Her TV career took off with the PBS children’s series The Electric Company and then she got her first Emmy for The Muppets Show, and the year later her second one for playing a call girl on the Rockford Files.
On Broadway she won a Tony as the campy cabaret performer Googie Gomez in Terrence McNally’s comedy The Ritz. It was a role she would reprise in the movie adaptation that won her a Golden Globes Nomination and confirmed her status as an Iconic Diva for gay men everywhere.
Her straight-forward openness about her marriage to cardiologist Leonard Gordon, who would later become her manager, is part confessional. Legally it lasted some 45 years and they remained together until his death in 2010, but as she speaks over how badly suited they were Moreno claims she didn;t want to split the family up However what strikes you most about her recollections of this , although it is tinged with some sadness, there is not even a mere hint of any bitterness at all.
What Moreno loves most about her marriage is her daughter and her two grandson which are a great source of her happiness.
Moreno was the third person to join the EGOT Club by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar. During her career she was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom , National Medal of Arts , Kennedy Center Honor, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and of course a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What she seems proud of most however is being an example of how much a poor immigrant girl from Puerto Rico can really achieve in this country if she really is determined.
True there were lows and lulls which director director Mariem Pérez Riera’ doesn’t dwell on too much, and what we saw on film was this grand old dame giving a performance that she would want to be remembered for. But then again Moreno is far too fabulous to be forgotten
N.B. This movie was made as part of PBS American Masters Series so we can expect to it see it streamed on TV soon.
