Paper Moon ***** (1973, Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, Madeline Kahn) – Classic Movie Review 2283

‘I called up Orson Welles who was in Rome and said: Hey, what do you think of this title, Paper Moon. There was a long pause and he says: That title is so good you shouldn’t even make the picture. Just release the title.’

Director Peter Bogdanovich’s superlative 1973 Great Depression-era comedy drama Paper Moon was the perfect showcase for Ryan O’Neal and his daughter Tatum O’Neal as a conman Bible seller called Moses Pray and the precocious brat Addie he finds himself saddled with. She may or may not be his daughter, but in any case the odd couple forge an unlikely partnership.

Tatum won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in her film début. Aged 10, she was and still is the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award. At one hour, six minutes, and 58 seconds, her performance is the longest to win an Academy Award in a supporting acting category.

Alvin Sargent’s spot-on-target screenplay, a lovely 1930s feel, smashing Thirties period tunes (including of course the title song, It’s Only a Paper Moon, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E Y Harburg and Billy Rose), and Laszlo Kovacs’s startling black and white cinematography all add up to a stylish success.

The O’Neals make a stupendous team, sparring and bonding winningly, while the kookie Madeline Kahn is a delightful asset playing Trixie Delight.

Also in the cast are John Hillerman, P J Johnson, Randy Quaid, Noble Willingham, Jessie Lee Fulton, Jim Harrell, Lila Water, Bob Young, and Jack Saunders.

Just for a very short while, with this and The Last Picture Show (1971) and What’s Up, Doc ? (1972), Bogdanovich was on top of the world and really had it all back then. Writer Sargent makes a delicious and luxurious five-course banquet out of Joe David Brown’s novel, Addie Pray, a title Bogdanovich hated, though he was nervous about Paper Moon till Orson Welles told him: ‘That title is so good, you shouldn’t even make the picture, just release the title!’

Bogdanovich recalled: ‘I thought Addie Pray sounded like a snake or a lizard or something. I came up with the title Paper Moon, which nobody at Paramount liked. They all said, What’s it got to do with the picture? I said to the writer, We’ve got a problem. You know those paper moons that you sat in at carnivals and they took your picture? We’ve got to put a scene in so they’ll think there’s a reason for the title.’

The cigarettes used by Tatum O’Neal contained no nicotine and were made out of lettuce. The original plan to star Paul Newman and his daughter Nell Potts ended when original director John Huston bowed out and was replaced by Bogdanovich.

The 1933 song It’s Only a Paper Moon is played during the opening credits and sung by an unspecified female and then performed by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra often in the score.

Alvin Sargent, who died on 9 May 2019, aged 92, was Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, before going on to win for Julia (1977) and Ordinary People (1980). He said: ‘When I die, I’m going to have written on my tombstone, “Finally, a plot.”‘

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2283

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