Review
The PBS American Masters biographical documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, doesn’t just focus on the successes and struggles of Moreno’s monumental 70-plus year journey as an entertainer. Filmmaker Mariem Pérez Riera practically turns this story into a “selfie.” As the camera relentlessly follows the performer, who calmly flows into a self-narrated, unexpurgated journey of the five-year-old girl who traveled with her mother to New York from Puerto Rico during the depth of the Depression. By age thirteen she was the family’s principal breadwinner.
Rita Moreno in West Side Story (Photo: Sundance Institute)
As it turns out, those were Moreno’s happy years. During the first day of filming the documentary, Riera was surprised to hear about the adversity Moreno faced during her career and was impressed by her openness in discussing how she sought help through therapy. As a Puerto Rican woman working in the film industry, Riera clearly empathizes with many of Moreno’s struggles.
The result is a fascinating journey into the exploits of a young performer who battled through the demeaning ethnic inequities of Hollywood’s “studio system” in the 1950s; a disastrously failed romance with a superstar; and an attempted suicide.
After committing to therapy, she then went on to become one of only sixteen artists to become an EGOT (winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards), signifying the ultimate success in every field of performing, referred to as the “grand slam” of show business. Director Riera punctuates Moreno’s narration with a Greek chorus of celebrity commentators, including Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Justina Machado, Eva Longoria, Mitzi Gaynor, Gloria Estefan, Lin-Manuel Meranda, and George Chakiris, as well as playwright Terrence McNally, and television writer/producer Norman Lear (One Day At A Time). Along the way, the documentary also includes a plethora of film clips that impressively underscore Moreno’s narration.
Moreno recalls her preteen years in New York City and her intense desire to perform. She took dance lessons and landed her first Broadway role at 13. This led to Hollywood talent scouts setting up an appointment for her and her mother to meet studio head Louis B. Mayer in the penthouse at the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Moreno recalled that she didn’t know how to dress for the meeting since she had no Latina role models to guide her. So, she decided to emulate Elizabeth Taylor, who was a teenage star in Hollywood at the time. Mayer took one look at her and uttered, “You look like a Latin Elizabeth Taylor.” She got her Hollywood contract.
Although Hollywood had been her dream, the reality of the parts she was cast in were less than satisfying. She found herself portraying ignorant dark-skinned native girls in such films as The Toast of New Orleans, Pagan Love Song, The Fabulous Senorita, and Cattle Town. Actress Eva Longoria described “the universal accent” that Moreno developed to cover any part she was given, no matter what the nationality was. She received a break from the stereotypical roles, playing film star Zelda Zanders in MGM’s Singin’ n the Rain (1952), but the rest of the 1950s found her in the usual casting box. Not even her role as Tuptim in The King and I (1956) changed her career trajectory. “That was a boring role,” she admitted.
Moreno also candidly recounts the humiliation she faced being a starlet in Hollywood at this time, including countless meaningless “dates” set up by the studios for her to be seen with other young actors. There was also the horrific time she was invited to a party where she was vulgarly propositioned by movie mogul Harry Cohn and later groped on the dance floor by another guest. She describes running out into the garden where she was rescued by Mexican workers who helped her with her getaway.
Rita Moreno and Marlon Brando in The Night of the Following Day (Photo: Universal Pictures)
The actress matter-of-factly delves into her tempestuous eight-year relationship with Marlon Brando, whom she met in 1954 when she was 22. “He loved me, and I was obsessed by him,” she admits, despite enduring abuse at his hands, as well as enduring two of his marriages during their relationship. The Brando impregnated her, and then paid to have aborted, which was dangerously botched. It ended with her suicide attempt.
Moreno went into therapy. Six years later, Brando and Moreno were in a film together, The Night of the Following Day (1968). “In the film, we had a fight scene. All my emotions came to the surface, and we went at it. The director loved it. He kept rolling the film.” However, Moreno does credit Brando for introducing her to social activism, and she became quite involved in what is now known as the “Me Too movement”.
The documentary highlights her Oscar-winning role as Anita in the film West Side Story (1961) as the turning point in her career. In rehearsing for this role she came to identify with the type of strong, self-determined woman that Anita represented. But she was so unprepared for winning the Best Supporting Oscar award. All she could say was, “I can’t believe it.” It was one of the shortest acceptance speeches on record.
Moreno expanded her work on stage to include her Tony award-winning turn in The Ritz and concerts. She recorded and worked on television, working on the PBS children’s series, The Electric Company (1971-77). She won two personal Emmys one for The Muppet Show in 1977 and the other for her performance as a guest actress on The Rockford Files in 1978. She also won a Best Actress ALMA Award for performance on HBO’s Oz (1977-2003).
Many critics were disappointed when Moreno was overlooked for a 2020 Emmy nomination for her most recent TV role in Norman Lear’s reboot of One Day at a Time which aired four season, first on Netflix, then POP TV, and finally on CBS.
The documentary offers a poignant look at her marriage to cardiologist Leonard Gordon, whom she married in 1965. They had one daughter, Fernanda Gordon Fisher, and two grandsons. Moreno reflects that he was a wonderful, loving man, but he was not the passion of her life. “We were really not a good couple,” she says. Moreno once considered leaving her husband but could not because she did not want to break up the family. He died in 2010, and Moreno concurred she was relieved at his passing.
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It concludes as we follow Moreno onto the set of Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, where Moreno, at age 89, happily worked in the supporting role of Valentina in the film. The film is scheduled to release in December 2021.
Moreno is now looking forward to her next role.
American Masters “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for it” airs in February is a production of AmericanMasters Pictures and Act III, in association with Marmara. Michael Kantor Norman Lear and Lin-Manuel Miranda are executive producers, with Michael Kanto executive producing for American Masters. Producers include Brent Miller and Mariem Pérez Riera in addition to directing. Ilia Velez is co-producing.
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