Movies
Paper Moon (Paramount 1973, Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal)
Ryan O’Neal and his daughter Tatum, aged nine, starred in Peter Bogdanovich’s film for which the youngster won an Oscar, still the youngest recipient. She plays Addie Loggins, first seen at her mother’s funeral; an orphan, all she has left is $200 to get to an aunt in Missouri. Moses Pray (Ryan O’Neal) is an old flame of the departed (and, although never stated, probably Addie’s father). He agrees to take her to her aunt but relieves her of the money. A rebellious Addie threatens him with the law and so he must turn to the only trade he knows to get the money back: selling worthless bibles to widows on the pretence their late husbands ordered them. But Addie has plans on how to improve the business…
Anyone expecting a Shirley Temple turn from Ms O’Neal was in for a shock: cigarette smoking, foul-mouthed and more cunning than her supposedly worldly elder, she was the sort of child even W C Fields would have taken a shine to. Nor is the film ever sentimental; set during the Depression, Bogdanovich shows the misery of the mid-West, and while the obvious rapport between father and daughter helps, Madeline Kahn – as a woman with a certain reputation who tries to elbow Addie out to get to Moses – and John Hillerman as a vengeful sheriff after his brother’s stolen bootleg liquor both contribute stunning support performances (Kahn received an Oscar nomination).
production details
USA | Paramount | 102 minutes | 1973
Writer: Alvin Sargent
Novel: Addie Pray by Joe David Brown
Producer and Director: Peter Bogdanovich
cast
Burton Gilliam as Floyd (Desk Clerk)
Madeline Kahn as Trixie Delight
John Hillerman as Deputy Hardin / Jess Hardin
Ryan O’Neal as Moses Pray
Tatum O’Neal as Addie Loggins
P.J. Johnson as Imogene
Jessie Lee Fulton as Miss Ollie
James N. Harrell as The Minister
Noble Willingham as Mr. Robertson
Randy Quaid as Leroy
Desmond Dhooge as Cotton Candy Man
Hugh Gillin as 2nd Deputy
Art Ellison as Silver Mine Gentleman
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