Defining Favourites: Paper Moon (1973)

Peter Bogdanovich turns the art of conning into a battle of wits in this comedy classic.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Welcome to my Defining Favourites, a section dedicated to essays about films that I feel confident in calling favourites in some way or another - akin to Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” reviews. These essays are for paid subscribers, so if you would like to read more beyond the free preview, please consider subscribing.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Screenplay by Alvin Sargent, based on Addie Pray by Joe David Brown
Produced by Peter Bogdanovich
Starring Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman
Premiere Date: April 9, 1973
Running Time: 102 minutes

There aren’t many filmmakers who live and breathe film history in the same manner that Peter Bogdanovich does. Whether it be in Targets or The Last Picture Show, Bogdanovich’s deep understanding of the history of American cinema has always remained an essential part of his own directorial approach, and ultimately how he chooses to tell a story built around American history. But with Paper Moon, it feels like this might be the most evident case in which Peter Bogdanovich had wanted to make a film with the feeling that it could have been something that was made during the 1930’s. In doing so, he has also brought to the screen what is undoubtedly one of the greatest American comedy films.

Shot in black-and-white much like his preceding The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon is a film set in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. It has the perfect setup for any great comedy, in which a conman pretending to be a Bible salesman is joined by a young girl who may or may not be his daughter – and both roles are played by actual father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal. Because the two of them have a very distinct chemistry owing to them being a father and daughter acting off one another on the screen, Paper Moon always feels like it’s teasing you, but it might be all one needs to create something so deeply endearing from beginning to end.