“ADDIE AND MOZE’S ROAD TRIP”

By Raymond Benson

This absolute gem of a film has finally received the Criterion treatment in high definition. Paper Moon was already a delight, but now it’s even more so.

Based on the decently-selling 1971 novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, Paramount Pictures had scooped up the rights and had secured John Huston to direct it with Paul Newman starring with one of his daughters. The project fell apart and it was offered to Peter Bogdanovich, who was flying high after the huge successes of The Last Picture Show (1971) and What’s Up, Doc? (1972).

Bogdanovich read the script written by Alvin Sargent and wasn’t particularly thrilled about it. His former wife, Polly Platt, with whom he was still friendly and worked with on previous pictures (she was production designer for three of his recent movies) read it and convinced him to do it. She even suggested Tatum O’Neal as the star. After visiting Ryan O’Neal and Tatum at their Malibu home, Bogdanovich was convinced Tatum could do it, and then went the whole way and asked Ryan to star as well, making it a true father-daughter one-two punch. After rewrites with Sargent on the script, the director then knew the movie had to be made.

Set during the Great Depression of 1930s Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, the story is the tale of an orphaned girl, Addie (Tatum, who was eight and nine when the picture was made), who meets a dubious con man, Moze (Ryan) at her mother’s funeral. She suspects that he’s really her “daddy.” One thing leads to another, and some locals convince Moze to give Addie a ride to her aunt’s house in St. Joseph. Along the way, Addie witnesses Moze’s attempts at conning strangers out of their money. Moze even convinces the brother of the man who accidentally killed Addie’s mother to give her $200. The mistake he then makes is spending it on a new car. Addie is wise beyond her years, so she extorts him to pay back the money that is legally hers. Thus begins a road trip movie across the Midwest, where the reluctant “father and daughter” participate in more con games, meet a ditzy stripper, Trixie (the fabulous Madeline Kahn) and her teenage black maid, Imogene (P. J. Johnson), get in trouble with the law, and other sometimes hilarious, other times touching, vignettes. One of the overriding questions in the film—Is Moze really Addie’s father?—hangs over the proceedings, and it’s up to the audience to decide the answer.

Paper Moon is easily one of Bogdanovich’s better pictures, the crowning touch of a master trilogy of titles that began with The Last Picture Show. Upon its release, the movie was an immediate box office hit. Tatum O’Neal became the youngest performer ever to win an Oscar—Best Supporting Actress—for her remarkable work. Madeline Kahn was also nominated for Supporting Actress, the script was up for Adapted Screenplay, and the movie’s Sound got the nod. Why it didn’t receive a Best Picture nomination is a mystery, and it’s especially surprising that Ryan O’Neal did not get a nomination. This reviewer believes Paper Moon is the actor’s crowning achievement. But, indeed, the movie belongs to Tatum O’Neal. There are not many child performances in the history of cinema that can touch hers.

The Criterion Collection’s new 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, looks beautiful in László Kovács’s glorious black and white cinematography. Criterion has released the film in a 2-disk 4K UHD edition (that also includes the Blu-ray and supplements) as well as the single disk Blu-ray. The film comes with the 2003 audio commentary by Bogdanovich, ported over from the Paramount DVD. The director is always an entertaining spokesman with wonderful stories about the making of the movie.

Supplements include a new video essay on the film by Peter Tonguette (Bogdanovich’s biographer), the 2003 Introduction to the film by Bogdanovich, an archival interview with Polly Platt, Platt’s home movies of location scouting, a port-over from 2003 of a three-part “making of” documentary featuring Bogdanovich, Platt, producer Frank Marshall, and Kovács; and an absolutely terrific excerpt from The Johnny Carson Show when Bogdanovich and both O’Neals appeared as guests. The theatrical trailer rounds up the package. An essay by critic Mark Harris appears in the enclosed booklet.

Paper Moon is for fans of director Bogdanovich, Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, 1970s “New Hollywood,” Depression-era tales, and poignant comedy. Highly recommended.

Click here to order from Amazon