Saturday Night at the Movies: Instant Antique

It's Only A Paper Moon

I guess I stumbled into childhood as a theme of the week here, so let’s keep it going for our movie pick. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the all-time greatest movie with a child star in it is Home Alone. Yet there are other great ones you may not know, here is my vote:

Peter Bogdanovich passed away last year. He may have been the last director who loved old Hollywood, he knew film history inside and out, and he made a conscious effort in his films to try to recapture the feel of the great movies of the 30s and 40s. What’s Up, Doc?, for instance, is his homage to the screwball masterpieces like Bringing Up Baby (my advice, with all due respect to Bogdanovich: stick with Cary Grant on this one). The Last Picture Show is his most famous and critically lauded effort, a black-and-white evocation of small town Texas in the 50s (which definitely earns its R rating, so beware). Yet the movie I’d like to bring your attention to today is by far his best, one of the sweetest old (new) movies you’ll see: Paper Moon.

The story is not exactly awash in morality, as the plot is about a con man using Bibles to cheat widows out of their money during the Great Depression … but I promise it’s a lot more charming than it sounds! The thieving and hustling (and, er, prostitution) are all played very light (the lady of questionable morals is portrayed by the legendary comedienne Madeline Kahn), the heart of the movie is about the man’s growing relationship with a little girl who may, or may not, be his biological daughter. In real life, Tatum O’Neal was Ryan O’Neal’s daughter, and she won a well deserved Oscar for this role.

The movie really is, as one reviewer called it, an “instant antique,” and a love letter of sorts from the 1970s to the black-and-white studio days. More than that, it’s about the love that any decent adult – even a very morally questionable, thieving scoundrel of an adult – has for children, and that children have for the adults in their lives, flaws and all. I hope you like it.