Reinaldo Ferreira | Rita ou Rito? / 1927

nest of ninnies

by Douglas Messerli

 

Reinaldo Ferreira (screenwriter and director) Rita ou Rito? / 1927 [Intertitles in Portuguese only]

 

Portuguese director Reinaldo Ferreira’s short comedy Rita ou Rito? is a kind of throwback to the teens of the 20th century in its combination of crossdressing, black face, and, in this case, the occult, all of which make for a great deal of hectic rushing around the grounds of the Palace Hotel in Aveiro.

      Evidently based on a true story, so one source claims, the film begins with an evening dinner at the hotel dining room attended by retired Army Colonel, Peixe-de-Espada (meaning literally “Swordfish,” played by Alberto Miranda), his wife (Leticia de Miranda), his young daughter Gabriela (Fernanda Alves da Costa), Doctor Pilulas (literally Dr. Pills, performed by Antónia de Sousa), a doctor who attempts to solve all ills by handing out pills which she herself has created, and a male guest Conde Pastel-de-nata (Manuel Silva), who attempts throughout the dinner to accost Gabriela to whom he has evidently taken a liking.

     Throughout the meal the “Swordfish” lectures the others about his numerous wartime adventures, at one point exiting to retrieve a prosthetic arm relating to one of his stories.                                            

     Meanwhile, in the kitchen the black cook Papusse prepares a fish covered with a wax paper coating that has evidently attracted flies. When he goes to serve it, the Colonel dishes up only the paper and the flies, falling into a rage over what he discovers on his plate and simultaneously throwing over all the other platters.

     Soon after dinner, another woman arrives and is introduced to those remaining at the table—Dr Pills, Gabriela, Conde—as Rita, and who has evidently taken over the operation of the nearby post office.

      Actually, Rita is Gabriela’s boyfriend Rio, who has dressed up in drag simply to find a way to spend the holiday with his lover, hidden from the ferocious eyes of her father. Dr. Pills, apparently a lesbian, seems attracted to the new Hotel guest, even showing interest in her the next day at the post office.

      But Conde is suspicious about the costume and determined that no one will interfere with his designs on Gabriela. Throughout he acts as a kind of watchful spy whose presence in the hotel hallway forces Rio, who has spent the night in Rita’s bed, to remain hidden away while Gabriela dresses as a male to take over in his post office duties.

     Meanwhile, all the guests run in and out of the bedrooms as if they were are interconnected, racing hither and from in response to Conde and his hallway behavior, the insistence of Dr. Pills that there is an intruder in Gabriel’s room, and Rio’s own decision to suddenly dress in black face which results, rather inexplicably, with Conde chasing him into the  kitchen where he faces off with the cook Papusse, who is made even more terrified by the sudden movements of the goat head which Rio dons as yet another disguise. At another point the black arm is used by Rio to scare off Dr. Pills who seems convinced that it has something to do with the occult, particularly since it seems impervious to the heat of candles she put beneath its outstretched fingers.

      As in a purposeless farce, everyone runs endlessly in circles until finally Gabriela pulls away Rio and runs off to a nearby chapel where the couple are suddenly married, forcing the angry parents, Conde, and Dr. Pilulas to stop in their tracks and accept them as they truly are.

      Ferreira made four films apparently in 1927, but if this work is typical of them, it’s no wonder that he isn’t better known today. A racist and occult sex farce does not make for great entertainment.

 

Los Angeles, July 11, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July 2022).