So good at playing really bad people

FLORES. Should be cited for her unmatched record as a screen vixen.

News that top movie villainess, Bella Flores, is dealing with medical problems has reminded film buffs of the highlights of her exceedingly long performing career.

If memory serves, Bella was already a young-adult movie actress in 1950, when she played the really nasty kontrabida who made life a living hell for little Tessie Agana’s heartrendingly woebegone character in “Roberta.”

Incidentally, that 10-handkerchief melodrama is “historically” significant, because its success at the tills saved Sampaguita Pictures from financial ruin, after a big fire ravaged the movie studio’s film vaults and some of its other productions’ negatives went up in smoke.

Adulation

Sixty years as a movie villain and vixen? Bella’s record must be unmatched in the world, and she should be honored for it while she’s still with us and can bask in the retroactive adulation.

Screen villains are hated and reviled because they’re so good at playing really baaaad people—but, they are often essential to a film’s success, because they provide the conflict or negative force that movie heroes and heroines need to endure, fight against—and finally triumph over!

Portrayals

As Bella herself once said, “If there’s no villain, there’s no movie.” Think about it.

Other standout screen vixens on the local scene have included Patria Plata, Carol Varga and Mona Lisa. Many film buffs have forgotten them, but when they were doing their “nasty” stuff in front of the camera, they sometimes came up with memorable portrayals.

Indeed, some of them played lead roles as well—like Mona Lisa, who was a favorite senior actress of Lino Brocka.

We got to know Patria Plata personally way back when, and found her a really kind and caring person—the exact opposite of her really hateful screen portrayals!

Very creative

She was also a very creative cook of vegetarian dishes and once treated us to a home-cooked meal of “vegetarian lechon”—in which the “pork,” “fat” and “crackling” were all created by her from different preparations of tofu!

As for Carol Varga, she was really sexy and sultry, and provided the silver screen’s leading ladies with stiff competition when it came to holding onto their men!

We have admired Mona Lisa’s screen portrayals through the decades, having caught a retrospective screening of her ’30s starrer “Giliw Ko” (with Fernando Poe Sr. and Mila del Sol). But we have gotten to know her well only recently, thanks to her granddaughter, Celine Fabie, who’s one of the standout musical-theater artists we direct.

Mona Lisa may be all of 90 years old now, but her stellar verve and glow are still evident. Since we love bringing back “old” talents, we’ve urged her to think about making a comeback, even if only in a staged reading, to “remind” today’s viewers of her great gift. —We trust that she’s thinking about it!