…the story of how a Great Depression era adventure tale, a wildly popular bonafide 70’s movie star, and his preciously precocious eight year old daughter came together to craft one of the most charming films I’ve ever had the pleasure of viewing.
It’s 1973’s Paper Moon, directed by ascot clad Peter Bogdonavich, based on the 1971 novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, and starring drop dead handsome Ryan O’Neal and his young daughter, Tatum, in her first ever onscreen performance. It’s hilarious, endearing, and concise, since its black and white cinematography allows viewers to focus more on the story itself, versus the O’Neals’ impressive suntans and striking blue eyes.
I watched this movie for the first time a few months ago, and it has quickly and astonishingly leapt into my Top 5 favorite films list (which has stayed untouched for decades.) I had been aware it for over a decade, since I was well aware of the tumultuous and heavily media-covered relationship of its co-stars/father-daughter duo. This film is almost always mentioned in any talk show interview/National Enquirer article/tiktok post chronicling the drama of these two, so it’s really impossible to absorb any of that material without hearing about the film they shared.
Tatum and Ryan had a complicated relationship to say the least. I’ve read both of Tatum’s books, watched countless interviews from them both, and even binged their 2011 OWN reality series Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neal’s, which followed their quest for reconciliation following the death of Ryan’s longtime partner, Farrah Fawcett, in 2009.
So I felt like I knew something about these two. But I had never watched Paper Moon, the project they both refer to so fondly, and the film that won Tatum the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1974. Incidentally, this was the same year of the infamous Oscars streaker. It’s all on YouTube, as almost all previous Oscar telecasts are. Go down a rabbit hole, you won’t be disappointed.
But I digress. At just 10 years old, Tatum became the youngest person in history to win a competitive Oscar, and that record stands to this day. And, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say…she really deserved it. Controversial, I know, but I’m feeling frisky.
The amount of wit, sarcasm, intelligence, and vulnerability she was able to bring to this role is truly mind blowing when you consider the fact that she was a completely untrained and somewhat unruly kid going into this film.
The daughter of Love Story and Peyton Place megastar Ryan O’Neal and Andy Griffith actress Joanna Moore (she played his girlfriend), Tatum had endured a less than charmed Hollywood existence in her early years. Following her parent’s divorce, she lived with her mother and her mother’s (15 year old) boyfriend on a rundown horse ranch in California. There, Tatum and her younger brother Griffin suffered horrific abuse and neglect, the result of which eventually lead to their father obtaining full custody and transitioning them into a decidedly more comfortable, yet no less stormy lifestyle.
This complicated beginning, not what one would normally expect of a Tinseltown nepo baby, gave Tatum a unique insight into the role of Addie Loggins, a young girl completely alone in the world following the death of her mother, a woman of questionable morality who never quite got around to letting little Addie in on exactly who her father was. With her Mama gone, funeral goers decide the best option for custodian of the newly orphaned child would be a crooked Bible salesman by the name of Moses Pray, who had just happened to stop by Mama’s burial, and who could potentially be a fatherly candidate, considering he and the child do after all share the “same jaw.”
The little winks throughout the movie about the resemblance between Moses and Addie (they are real life father and daughter, after all) are just one of the incredibly charming and winsome aspects to this film. Moses never admits to himself or Addie that he could be her biological father, but the two assume a fake identity as father and daughter as they embark on a cross country journey to con folks out of their scant, depression era money, while also venturing toward Missouri, where Addie is supposed to be dropped off to live with her Aunt Billie, which is the actual long term plan for the care of the child.
As the film progresses, the viewer starts to see the initial icy relationship between the two melt as they begin to appreciate and rely on each other. Their relationship in the film never becomes overtly tender, but one starts to sense a true attachment form, resulting in Mose’s original plan to drop Addie off at her Aunt’s start to dissolve into one of building a life for himself and his young cohort. A hybrid of a father/daughter/business partner relationship that offers the connection they are both seeking in their once less than fulfilling lives. Even the temporary interruption of Miss Trixie Delight (played expertly by Madeline Kahn) doesn’t throw their relationship off course, after some cunning machinations from Addie eliminate the threat, of course.
The parallels between Ryan and Tatum’s relationship and that of Moses and Addie add a layer to the film that an unrelated pair of actors never could, or even a different father/daughter duo would have a hard time creating. Originally, Paul Newman and one of his daughters were considered for the roles, which I’m sure would’ve produced a wonderful film in its own right.
But the subtext, the underlying tension and stakes that exist with these roles being played by these two particular actors is unmatched. Their offscreen life at the time of Ryan being a single (yet with always some gorgeous starlet on his arm) Dad trying to raise a rebellious and troubled little girl on his own, and the insanely close bond they shared as a result, creates such a feeling of realness in this movie that would be impossible to replicate with anyone else.
While I won’t spoil the end of the movie, the end of Tatum and Ryan’s earthly relationship came last December when Ryan passed away at the age of 82. He and his only daughter had spent decades veering wildly from loving and close, to hateful and distant, unfortunately spending more time in the latter. Tatum shared after her father’s death that the two were on good terms at the time of his passing, which I’m sure offers her comfort. She, after all, has struggled recently herself, suffering a stroke in 2020 as a result of a prescription drug overdose, following a lifetime of substance use disorder and mental health issues she has fought her way back from several times.
Veering. There’s a scene in the film in which Moses and Addie are traveling in their beat up jalopy, deciding what their next move should be, and whether or not they should just cut it off right here and deliver Addie to her Aunt as originally planned. Addie pulls out a map to find a depot where Moses can drop her off and the two can part ways, and the pair start angrily listing off towns where this can take place. Gradually, as the scene continues, they go from looking for depots to noticing towns where they could “do some business,” as they call their con jobs. They start discussing veering to this town, and veering to that town. And eventually the decision is made to just “keep on veering,” as Addie tucks the map away, and the two unspokenly decide not to part ways.
“Keep on veering” isn’t bad advice. It’s really the lesson behind the film, that even if life doesn’t amount to the perfect fantasy version of what one thinks it should be, as long as we are able to roll with the punches, appreciate the precious things we do have, and “keep on veering” through life’s many obstacles, we will probably end up with a life we’ll be pretty happy with.
The film, to me, can be categorized as something of a love story, though obviously not of the sort that Ryan O’Neal was known for. But the love story between two misfits, two unique souls who haven’t quite found their place in the world anywhere else, or with anyone else. You’re rooting for them to “stay together,” which isn’t an uncommon movie going experience, but somewhat uncommon for a story about a grifter and an orphan.
“Say it’s only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea, but it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me.”
-Billy Rose
Moses and Addie believe in each other. And isn’t that all any of us are looking for anyway?
Sources:
A Paper Life, by Tatum O’Neal. 2004
Paper Moon, a Peter Bogdonavich film. 1973
Paper Moon Soundtrack:
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