Paper Moon

Paper Moon is a 1973 movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. Filmed in black and white it is a well done story about a Midwest Bible Salesman and con man saddled with the job of taking a young child ( who might be his daughter) after her mother dies.

Ryan O'Neal plays Moze Pray the aforementioned bible salesman. As he takes Addie to her Aunt's house she becomes an asset in his different scams that he consistently runs. He sells bibles to widows and widowers, and runs cash register change scams that consistently make me head hurt trying to figure them out. Tatum O'Neal is perfect as his daughter. She is cute, precocious, and incredibly gifted in body language acting. I believe she was nominated for an Oscar for her perfromance and it was well deserved.

This is not a great movie, but it certainly is a good one and the performance of both O'Neal's and the subsequent drama in thier own personal lives gives one pause as to what success can sometime lead to. Still this movie was well done, Bogdanovich made a great choice in using black and white, it was very effective.