Paper Moon: A Masterpiece Road Movie Starring 9-Year-Old Tatum O'Neal and Her Father

Paper Moon (1973)

Following the success of The Last Picture Show (1971) and What's Up, Doc? (1972), director Peter Bogdanovich was flooded with offers from Hollywood.

His next project was supposed to be a large-scale Western starring the legendary John Wayne. Around that time, he was approached to adapt Joe David Brown's novel Addie Pray, which featured a young girl as the protagonist. Bogdanovich, who was extremely busy, decided to turn it down.

However, the Wayne film fell through, and the project resurfaced. His associates recommended a 9-year-old girl named Tatum O'Neal.

Bogdanovich decided to cast Ryan O'Neal, with whom he had great chemistry on his previous film, as the girl's counterpart. After all, he was Tatum's father. Ryan had become a star with Love Story (1970) and had excellent name recognition.

Still, Bogdanovich was worried about whether 9-year-old Tatum had real acting ability, so he decided to visit Ryan's home as a director. When Ryan told Bogdanovich, "There's an ocean nearby, why don't you go for a swim?", Tatum smiled at him.

Bogdanovich was completely taken aback. This child had instantly realized that he, a city dweller, was far removed from the ocean.

Impressed by this insight, he decided to officially cast Tatum. It is said that Ryan did not intend to make his daughter an actress until she was old enough to understand, but he made an exception and agreed.

The film is set in 1935. Bogdanovich, who had been listening to hit songs from that era, fell in love with the 1933 song "It's Only a Paper Moon" by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. It was written by Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics), who also wrote "Over the Rainbow," the theme song for The Wizard of Oz.

Bogdanovich then tried to change the film's title from Addie Pray to Paper Moon, but he faced fierce opposition from the studio executives. This was understandable, as the book had already sold 100,000 copies.

Unconvinced, Bogdanovich called his mentor, Orson Welles, to ask for advice and told him the title.

After a silence... "It's excellent. The title alone will sell it."

With this incident and the addition of the "paper moon" scene, the title became Paper Moon (1973). When the film became a huge hit, the book was also retitled when it was reprinted.

Furthermore, Bogdanovich, who understood the psychology of how audiences immerse themselves in a film's world, insisted on shooting scenes in long, continuous, single takes.

This meant the dialogue exchanges were also long, which was a difficult task for 9-year-old Tatum. In the driving scene in the first half, they had to reshoot 36 times. However, instead of complaining, Tatum enjoyed the process and overcame the challenge. She went on to become the youngest person in history to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The story follows 9-year-old Addie (Tatum O'Neal), who has lost her mother, as she is taken by Moses (Ryan O'Neal), a phony Bible salesman who claims to have been close to her mother, on a journey to her aunt's house.

Eager to be free of this troublesome task, Moses tries to scrape together enough money to put Addie on a train. He intends to use the rest for car repairs and his own pleasures.

However, when Moses swindles $200 out of people by using her mother's death as a pretext, the level-headed Addie shouts, "Give me back my money!" Furthermore, his jawline looks somewhat similar to hers. Could this man be my father?

Moses has no choice but to travel around selling Bibles while pretending to be Addie's father until he pays back the money he spent. It is a scam-like sales tactic where they find widows in the newspaper obituary section and visit them, but thanks to Addie's analytical skills, Moses begins to make money. She suggests they shouldn't take money from the poor and grieving, but rather target the wealthy who are smiling.

While getting caught up in Moses's romantic entanglements and police trouble, the two gradually develop a relationship like that of a real father and daughter...

The final scene where they arrive at the aunt's house is quite moving. The car driving down an endless road. As an ending to a road movie, there is nothing better.

By the way, Wim Wenders was astonished when he saw a preview of "Paper Moon." It was so similar to "Alice in the Cities", which he was about to start filming.

Text/Mitsuhiro Nakano

Reference/ "Paper Moon" DVD Bonus Features

● Click here to sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited
● Click here to sign up for Amazon Prime Video Channels

Did you enjoy this article?

If you would like, please support me (tip) below! Your support leads to new writing.