For love and money

When Sosyal Climbers premiered on Netflix recently, it stayed on the No. 1 spot for more than a week. As of this writing, it had slid down to No. 7, which is still okay because it’s still in the Top 10.

It is easy to understand why Sosyal Climbers is doing well on Netflix. For one, there is the Maris Racal-Anthony Jennings pairing.

During the rounds of Christmas parties last December, most revelers must have likely nibbled on jamon, queso de bola — plus a side dish of Maris Racal-Anthony Jennings gossip. That was the time their cheating scandal got exposed on social media. But that’s over and let’s not get into the nitty-gritty of it anymore.

Back then, everyone thought they were finished in showbiz. But, as it turned out, their Metro Manila Filmfest entry, And the Breadwinner Is, even became the top-grosser. Their joint participation in that movie also got a lot of thumbs up because of their magnetic screen presence. That contributed a lot to the success of And the Breadwinner Is.

It cannot be denied that Maris and Anthony have a huge following. Even Incognito where they are mainstays is also doing well on TV, the various platforms of ABS-CBN and on Netflix. Their tandem is clearly the reason why Sosyal Climbers is still in Netflix’s Top 10.

Another reason Sosyal Climbers is successful commercially is its catchy title. It makes the movie sound fun. For those after cerebral entertainment, the film could also be mistaken for a satire on the class divide. Sorry, it is not.

A satire requires intelligence and creativity to mount. But as it is, the plot of Sosyal Climbers even lacks basic logic.

So, what is Sosyal Climbers all about? In the story, Maris and Anthony are partners, not only in crime, but also in bed. Since they fall victim to a networking scam, they have to raise a tremendous amount to be able to pay back those who entrusted their money to them.

To be able to do this, they try to make money by preying on the rich. Complications set in when their scheme is discovered and they are threatened with blackmail.

The characters of Maris and Anthony are not really social climbers. They are plain scammers. Sure, they want the good life. Who doesn’t? Well, unless one is Mother Teresa. But social climbers, they are not.

They only pretend to be rich because that is part of their plan to be able to pay back their fellow scam victims. Of course, they are ambitious people who want to live in a nice house and have some comfort in life. Nothing wrong there.

The real social climbers are their wealthy neighbors who display their riches at every opportunity. Truly sickening. The film could have used this aspect of the story to make a satire on how some moneyed people in this world shamelessly behave in their attempt to prove to everyone that they are part of the upper crust of society.

But the creators behind Sosyal Climbers are clearly not capable of such depth. The issue of social climbing is quite complex because it involves psychology. This movie, sadly, is hopelessly shallow — with its range quite limited.

This is such a pity since the first five minutes of Sosyal Climbers is actually very innovative. Unfortunately, the movie goes downhill after that. Toward the end, the story couldn’t find a proper resolution — and so, Maris and Anthony just smooch and smooch and smooch on screen.

Sosyal Climbers, however, is not a totally useless film. It is through this movie that we discover how effective Maris and Anthony are as performers since they are able to rise above the material — no matter how dull. They both have a bright future ahead of them in show business.

Plus — their chemistry is so magical that they are able draw in hordes to watch their movie even if it is so utterly lacking in substance. There are sparks when they are together on screen.

Lucky for Sosyal Climbers, it has the team-up of Anthony and Maris. From its No. 7 spot in Netflix, don’t expect this film to go up in rank anymore. It may just tumble down, down, down — until it is swept into the dustbin of forgettable Filipino movies.

Not just a beautiful face

Given that Sosyal Climbers is lazy work, it is not surprising that it fails to establish the fact that there are several layers of wealth. It is not enough that one is rich. There’s the old rich and the despised new money.

Old wealth goes back several generations, while new money is recently acquired. New money tends to be the social climbing type. There’s a term for them: Nouveau riche.

In the 1950s entertainment scene, there was a trend for actors and actresses to marry into old money. Lita Gutierrez married into the Paternos, while Luis Gonzales wed Vina Concepcion, who came from the most prominent family in Pasig. (The Concepcion residence was so huge it is now the Pasig Museum — that’s how rich they were.)

Surely, those actors didn’t just marry for money. There was love. Luis and Vina, for instance, stayed together till the end. In the case of Lita, she was said to have been unable to adjust to the conservative ways of her husband’s family. She was forbidden to do movies — not even to see friends from show business. The union ended in separation.

Delia Razon also married into wealth. She wed Aurelio “Relly” Reyes, whose family used to own the Santa Ana racetrack. That property — all 26 hectares of it — is now Ayala Malls Circuit.

Today’s generation may only know her as the grandmother of Carla Abellana, but in her time, Delia was one of the top moneymakers of LVN Pictures. Her real name was Lucy May Grytz Reyes.

Born in Iloilo on 8 August 1930, her father was Karl Grytz, a German-American, while her mother was May Duling, a pure Ilongga. She went to school at the Colegio de Santo Angel in Iloilo City.

During the war, the Japanese were rounding up Caucasians. Since Delia and her sister looked like Americans, it was impossible for them to escape the attention of the enemies in a small city like Iloilo. Her mother decided it was best for them to relocate to Manila, where they could just blend in with the rest of the population. They stayed with relatives in Sta. Mesa, which was basically spared from Japanese atrocities — unlike the districts south of Manila.

Since malnutrition became a severe problem during the war, her mother loaded them up on calcium by feeding them “tulya” (clam) every day. By the end of World War II, a hill of clam shells had risen beside their house.

Delia was discovered by Sampaguita personnel during a studio visit. She was only given bit parts there. When LVN borrowed her, the matriarch Dona Sisang de Leon saw her potential and built her up as a star.

In one of her shoots in a bad neighborhood, a bystander asked for her autograph. Of course, she was going to oblige. But he wanted it on the sole of his shoe. A crew member intervened, but was stabbed to death in the process.

Due to that incident, Delia always saw to the welfare of the crew while at work.

She was also always ready to help. It was she who helped Nida Blanca get to LVN — even lending the showbiz aspirant her clothes and shoes for the go-see.

Delia was actually a fashion plate — one of the best-dressed actresses of all time. Hers was also one of the most beautiful faces to ever grace the big screen.

Although she was a movie queen and one of the biggest properties of LVN, she always felt underutilized in films. She was relegated mostly to costume pictures where she was perennially the lady in distress.

Her most significant movie was Luksang Tagumpay, which earned for her a FAMAS best actress nomination. In this film, she plays a bride who waits long for the return of her husband (Eddie Rodriguez) who is sent to fight in the Korean War. Having given up her husband for dead, she marries a doctor (Jaime de la Rosa). But the day comes when her first husband reappears.

When Delia married Relly Reyes, she slowed down on her showbiz career and became a content housewife living in a beautiful home in Horseshoe Drive -- at the back of what is now Robinson’s Magnolia. Some two decades back, the house was sold and Delia went to live with her son, Jojo (her two other children are Mia and Rea, Carla’s mom).

It was her daughter-in-law, Olet Reyes, who took care of her till she breathed her last — on 15 March 2025. It was a peaceful death. She just slept and crossed to the other life. Delia Razon was 94 years old.