Paper Moon (1973)

Environment is Frankenstein for situations gone bad, and, actions which become instigated for the wrong reason... Everyone in the movie is basically alright, just a little twisted, despite what side of the law they are masquerading under!!...The film, "Paper Moon", based on the book "Adie Pray", so succinctly accommodates the definition of a comedy by correlating to all of the diverse characteristics of human error!!Isn't it funny!! isn't it cute!! isn't it slightly sordid, and pretty illegal!! Most of all!! Isn't "Paper Moon" a film which initiates a compendium of some of the most creative types of humor you have ever seen in virtually any movie made whatsoever!!! To quote another movie ("A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To The Forum") "Nothing with kings, nothing with crowns, bring on the LOVERS!! liars and clowns"..."Old situations, new complications, something for everyone it's Comedy" (Ryan O'Neal) "Comedy" (Tatum O'Neal) "Comedy" (Madeline Kahn) "Comedy" (John Hilerman) "Comedy" (Randy Quaid) TONIGHT!!!".. How devoutly we the movie audience will root for the underdog...Fathers and daughters are suppose to go to chocolate cake socials in the public school gymnasium together, they are not suppose to be swindling bootleggers, merchants, and well to do widows!!!!! ..The precarious camaraderie between Ryan and Tatum O'Neal resonates itself to whereby con games are a dangerous form of nefarious fun!! Their overall philosophy being: "Please understand that we are only human!" "Let us hasten to add" "Please understand that we are only human, and the country is in the middle of the Depression!!!" This movie is hilarious! If you are not laughing outwardly throughout the entire film, your eyes are smiling every minute of this incredibly funny film.. guaranteed!! The plot is very well developed in this movie, and, the acting, cinematography, and director, are all first rate with this comedy classic!! In my opinion, Ryan O'Neal has never been better, of course, I'm not a woman!! The role of the charming finagler by default, suits Ryan O'Neal perfectly!!! Tatum O'Neal has never been better!! Her role is such that even as young as Adie is, she realizes that situational survival necessitates pecuniary chicanery!!! The whole thirties genre with this movie is sensational!! "Paper Moon" is one of my favorite movies of all time, I even love the song!!...The title was conjured up as a result of Tatum giving Ryan a picture of herself sitting on a paper moon at a carnival...It is sort of a love by way of a kindred spirit..There is love through marriage! There is love through family and friendship bonds!! There is love through sexual encounters! This love, however, is predicated on the parlayed premise of "Hey! Don't we make a great team of cons, no one swindles people with more finesse than the two of us...Don't you think?".. In 1973, when this movie was released, it manufactured a tailor made invitation for the moviegoer to be empathetic with the thought patterns of a con man!! "Sting" came out that year too, and "Sting" won for best picture in 1973. The mercurial charm of a swindler, and, his wickedly clever wiles of debauchery, became a train of thought which garnered a fascinating charisma with the movie audience that year!! The director of the film, "Paper Moon" Peter Bogdanovich, sets his own standards

Fmovies: A sunny charmer with clouds enough to darken the edges of the screen, "Paper Moon" presents us with an entertainment of equal parts wit and sentiment, an underdog story that delivered a real underdog outcome in the form of a historic Oscar win for nine-year- old Tatum O'Neal.

In the time of the Great Depression, a little girl named Addie (Tatum) is left abandoned by the death of her mother, a woman who hung around in bars and left Addie with a big mystery as far as the identity of her father is concerned. At her gravesite, a dodgy stranger named Moses (Ryan O'Neal) happens by to pay his respects, and is immediately recruited by the other mourners, who don't want to be burdened with the girl, with the assignment of delivering Addie to her next-of-kin.

"God works in mysterious ways," one of the mourners says, after Moses reluctantly accepts.

"Don't He now?" Moses replies.

God indeed may have some unfinished business with Moses Pray, a conman who uses the Good Book as his device for fleecing newly-made widows of a few bucks. Watching the O'Neals work their family chemistry for sparks and laughs while Moses, with unexpected help from Addie, works his scams, is great fun. A lingering question is whether Moses and Addie are in fact related; many in the movie point out their similar jawlines, but Moses refuses to accept the idea. Addie is more open to it. Clearly Moses for all his faults fills a hole in her life.

There was a time when Peter Bogdanovich could do no wrong as a director; here he presents us with an assured callback to 1930s- period sensibilities by employing a flat Kansas landscape and scenic design that suggests a combination of Norman Rockwell and Grant Wood, at once homey and vaguely grotesque. The story moves fast, the dialogue is crisp and believable, and the O'Neals' performances of such strong quality as to make you wonder why they so seldom impressed in other roles. The talent is there on the screen.

Tatum was the real surprise here; decades later, long after the flash of her career faded, it's hard not to be as bowled over by what she gives you as all those critics and movie-goers were so long ago. Avoiding the cutesiness of child actors, she plays her character as sharp-tongued and vinegary, with a hint of real beauty beneath the smudges. "Ain't she got a sweet little face, somehow," is the best anyone can manage in the way of compliments, but Addie don't need them. She just wants her 200 dollars, or "two hundra DOLLA" as she keeps putting it to Moses.

The two of them make such a pair I get annoyed when Madeline Kahn joins them for a time as a conniving, cheapjack vixen named Trixie. Unlike the O'Neals, Kahn is an actress I usually enjoy in anything, so why is she so duff to me here? Trixie is a one-note performance that grates on me; I can't wait for the Prays to leave her in their dust.

I did enjoy P. J. Johnson as Trixie's put-upon maid, Imogene. She adds some heart and gives Addie some company for some of the movie's best scenes. So too does a raft of supporting players, most of whom like Kahn must have been waiting for Mel Brooks' call-backs for "Blazing Saddles" at the time of this production.

Mostly, though, this is Tatum's film; it rises or falls with her and, as a result of her spry performance, rises quite impressively. Bogdanovich clearly gambled putting his promising career on her little shoulders; unlike

Paper Moon (1973)

Utterly charmed and charming. The story of a father and daughter--the actor and actress O'Neal--echoes the story in the story of a man and a little girl on the road. Yes, they scam and cheat, but they do it with relative innocence. And they are perfectly adorable. The magic between the two is partly good writing, and partly the ease that the two actors already have (or pretend to have) together.

And it's filmed with nostalgic black and white clarity, perfect in a way for the Depression era it portrays, but much more alive and clean than the deep brooding intensity of a real Depression story such as the 1940 Grapes of Wrath. But Peter Bogdanovich is no John Ford, and this is a different kind of tale, with the 1930s as backdrop to a more modern kind of relationship. It has enough subtlety and laughs to make it a classic and a joy. Nothing obviously deep, but yet it sinks in farther than you think.

Paper Moon fmovies. I saw Paper Moon many years ago as a young girl and had just recently watched this again for the first time since. I found this film to be absolutely engaging and a pleasure to watch. Tatum O'Neal was absolutely wonderful as was Madeline Kahn. Her performance was priceless as "Trixie Delight". The scene with her "Trixie" as she's trying to cojole Tatum O'Neal's "Addie" to come back to the car and sit in the back, had me laughing so hard that I could hardly breathe! It was one of the most memorable scenes ever. Not just for the humor but how Madeline Kahn's Trixie was able to draw a certain compassion for her character and somewhat seedy lifestyle. I loved the whole film! A "must-see"!

True, TATUM O'NEIL won an Oscar for her role as Addie Pray in PAPER MOON and fully deserved it. Her dad, RYAN O'NEIL must have been proud of her but his only reward was a Golden Globe nomination.

The con artist and little girl theme had been used before in Damon Runyon's famous comedy "Little Miss Marker" with Shirley Temple and Adolphe Menjou. But here the twist is that the girl is just as much a con artist as the man--and that's the key that makes the film so much more palatable for 1970s audiences without getting too sentimental about it.

There's a real Depression-era feeling to the whole story, with some richly detailed panoramas of rural America and its citizens at that time in history. Peter Bogdanovich has done a commendable job in making sure that his authentic backgrounds illuminate an enchanting tale about two drifters who share an unusual partnership when it becomes clear to the man that the girl would be a valuable aid in his con work.

There's a bright supporting role by MADELINE KAHN as Trixie Delight, a stripper who tosses off some good one-liners, but it's the chemistry between Tatum and Ryan that turns this into the most satisfying "buddy" movie of the '70s.

Summing up: A treat not to be missed.

As cute and sharp as it's 9-year-old star Tatum O'Neal, Paper Moon is a bona-fide gem that says that, one way or another, we're all con artists. The acting is wonderful (Ryan O'Neal was never better), the cinematography is exceptional and it's to the eternal credit of director Bogdanovich and his writer Alvin Sargeant that the caper never sinks into mushiness. By avoiding the earnestness that pervades so many Depression Era tales and perfectly balancing character with situation, it rolls along so merrily that you don't realise how touching it is until the very end.

Having (criminally) never seen Paper Moon before, I suspect that it must have had more than a passing influence on a great many other movies, including my all-time favourite Midnight Run. Watching it is an experience to be savoured and treasured, and one that I'm looking forward to repeating time and again.