I don’t know why but up until yesterday, when I saw Rita Moreno’s Instagram post inviting everyone to watch her films on TCM the following day, I was convinced that today’s star is Natalie Wood – and that’s what I prepared for. I had to improvise today and as a result I didn’t even watch an Old Hollywood film. Oops.
Let’s start in a really odd place:
Golden Girls S2E26, „Empty Nests”
I’ve never seen Golden Girls before and I can’t imagine a worse place to start than the episode starring Rita Moreno. I do know that the show is iconic, though, so I will give it another chance in the future, don’t worry.
Empty Nests is a backdoor pilot (ugh) about a couple (Rita is the wife) whose children grew up and left the house. Rita is feeling lonely and as if her husband is not paying enough attention to her.
It is extremely boring and pointless (it’s the lowest rated episode of the show on IMDb with a score of 3.6) and I am not going to talk about it any further out of respect for the Golden Girls legacy and Rita Moreno.
I Like It Like That (1994)
Today’s film is from 1994. Yup. 1994. Probably at least thirty years too late for an actual TCM. I was born in 1994 so clearly it was not long ago at all.
What we have here is a story of a young mother of three (Luna Velez) who becomes the breadwinner of the family after her husband goes to jail for looting. Then she finds a job in music production and meets a new man, the husband makes a deal with another woman he has a baby with and they all try to work out their lives.
Rita plays the mother of Luna’s husband Chino (Jon Seda) and her character was a bit confusing to me, she seems to encourage him to abandon one of his families in favor of the other one, but also she calls him useless? She does not get a lot of depth, which is kind of fine since it isn’t her story but also frustrating to me as a person who was watching the film for her. But she looked amazing.
I can’t say I loved I Like It Like That but if there is one reason why I’m glad I watched it is that it may be my only film this month that was directed by a woman (Darnell Martin). Lt’s be honest, there are only so many films made by Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino and so far we did not get to see them during Summer Under the Stars.
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit S6E20, „Night”
And another TV appearance by Rita. This episode of SVU is very upsetting, like most of them are to me. It deals with the rape of an immigrant woman. Rita gets a role of an activist fighting for the victims so that’s great.
Honestly, I feel like if you’ve seen one episode of Law & Order you’ve seen them all but this one not only has Rita Moreno but also [SPOILER] Alfred Molina plays the rapist and ANGELA LANSBURY plays his mom. Yup.
Swingin' at the Seance 