Nine-year-old Addie Loggins is the centerpiece of Peter Bogdanovich's affectionate 1973 comedy set during the depths of the Great Depression. The filmmaker was on a roll at the time as he made the coming-of-age saga, 1971's "The Last Picture Show", and the screwball throwback, 1972's "What's Up, Doc?", in quick succession. Cineaste that he is, Bogdanovich filmed this episodic, character-driven comedy deliberately in black and white, inspired by classics as diverse as Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid", Vittorio de Sica's "Bicycle Thieves" and even John Ford's "The Searchers". The result is charming if a bit overlong for the simple story being told. As the film opens in Kansas, Addie just lost her mother, and she is to be taken to live with relatives in Missouri. Enter traveling Bible salesman Moses Pray, a small-time grifter who bilks recent widows out of cash under the pretense that their late husbands had ordered personalized Bibles before their deaths. As a chronic womanizer, he knew Addie's free-living mother and promises to take her to her relatives after he extorts $200 from a local business owner.
The rest of the story is an entertaining road movie centered on the evolving relationship between Moses and Addie as she shows to have a greater gift for scams than he does. A tough-talking smoker who loves radio, Addie is a tomboy frequently mistaken for a boy, while Moses constantly resists his paternal feelings toward her even though they are kindred spirits. Complications occur first with the appearance of a tawdry carnival stripper named Trixie Delight, who threatens to come between Moses and Addie, and then with a bootlegger and his look-alike sheriff brother, who are in hot pursuit over a scam around crates of illegal whiskey. As Addie, Tatum O'Neal still has the distinction of being the youngest actor to win a competitive Oscar, and in her film debut, her unprecocious performance reflects refreshingly confident work from a child. Perhaps fearful that his daughter was stealing the movie, a well-founded fear it turns out, her father Ryan does some of his best screen work as Moses, better cast here than as bumbling musicologist Howard Bannister in "What's Up, Doc?".
As she proved with her hilarious portrayal of Howard's persnickety fiancée Eunice in "What's Up, Doc?", Madeline Kahn is an unparalleled scene-stealer as Trixie, especially as she tries to coax a belligerent Addie off a grassy hilltop. Just before peaking in Mel Brooks' farces and reunited with the elder O'Neal, Kahn shows what she can do to maximize less than half-hour of screen time. Almost as funny is the eye-rolling cynicism of P.J. Johnson as Trixie's indentured servant Imogene. The 2003 DVD has two substantial extras. First, Bogdanovich offers a full-length commentary full of his personal remembrances and sharing a deep well of cinematic knowledge. The second is Laurent Bouzereau's "The Making of Paper Moon", an exhaustive making-of featurette divided into three parts, which covers all aspects of the film's development and production and includes comments from Bogdanovich, his then-wife Polly Platt who did the production design, cinematographer László Kovács, and producer Frank Marshall.
