The Great Depression, Bogdanovich Style

The Film: Paper Moon (The Director's Company, 1973). Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Written by Alvin Sargent. Starring Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, P.J. Johnson. Running time: 102 minutes.

My first viewing: Whoah Lord, I don't know. Back in the 1970s sometime. I've seen the film so many times, I've lost track. Seems like the first time I saw it, I must've been seven or eight. It came on television often in Southern California. Hell, for all I know, I might've seen it in the theaters.

The 4-1-1: Paper Moon is one of those films that's like an old friend. I watched it over and over again, much like The Wizard of Oz (1939). Firing it up in the DVD player today, I feel the same sense of comfort I experienced when I viewed it decades ago. For some reason, during the 1970s, filmmakers made magnificent movies set in the Great Depression (recall Chinatown, Bound for Glory, Boxcar Bertha, Sounder, the list goes on and on). Paper Moon is yet another wonderful Great Depression movie from the seventies. It's a movie about a con man and a little girl who may - or may not - be father and daughter. The sparks between the O'Neals (papa Ryan and sweetly Tomboyish little Tatum) is nothing short of awe inspiring. What a delight it is to watch the two of them engaged in verbal boxing matches. It still works beautifully today, 37 years later. Madeline Kahn is a damn hoot as the floozie Trixie Delight, who spends her time trying to get her hooks deeper and deeper into Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal). Young Addie Pray (Tatum) conspires along with Trixie's African American servant Imogene (P. J. Johnson) to drive a wedge between Trixie and Moses. Watch out for scene stealer Burton Gilliam as the foolish desk clerk Floyd, who is one of Addie's many pawns in the film. Gilliam is one of those character actors who is everywhere. You'll recognize him when you see him. He has a smile that can stop a train dead in its tracks. And John Hillerman, who played snooty Higgins in Magnum P.I. during the 1980s, turns up as twin brothers. Like Gilliam, Hillerman is one of those character actors who found an awful lot of work in the 1970s. Although he's from Texas, he has one of those great Orson Welles-esque deep baritone voices. He's in top form here, especially in his role as the sheriff. This was, of course, right before he landed the part as the deliciously slimy Russ Yelburton in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974).

The Real Star of the Film: Without question, the main reason to see this film is the astonishing cinematography by László Kovács. His stark, high-contrast black-and-white shots of Kansas and Missouri absolutely boggle the mind and recreate the grandeur of Dorothea Lange's Great Depression photographs. Thanks to him, Paper Moon bears a much closer resemblance to America in the 1930s than any films actually made at the time.

Bottom Line: Peter Bogdanovich was on fire when he directed Paper Moon. Look at his filmography: Targets (1968), The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). All superb films. Alas, after Paper Moon, he began making films like Daisy Miller and Nickelodeon. Nothing that Bogdanovich has made since Paper Moon comes close to touching the film. Thankfully, in recent years, he has been writing some wonderful film criticism and he remains one of the finest film historians in the United States today. Nobody understands the language of cinema more than Peter Bogdanovich. Without question, Paper Moon was - along with The Last Picture Show - his finest moment. Grade: A-.