Paper Moon (1973)

Actors: Frank Marshall (producer), Peter Bogdanovich (director), William Friedkin (producer), Don Wilson (actor), Randy Quaid (actor), Francis Ford Coppola (producer), Noble Willingham (actor), Madeline Kahn (actress), John Hillerman (actor), John Hillerman (actor), Jack Benny (actor), Ryan O'Neal (actor), Burton Gilliam (actor), Peter Bogdanovich (producer), Karen Hale Wookey (miscellaneous crew),

Plot: Adapted from the novel, "Addie Pray" (1971) by Joe David Brown, PAPER MOON is the story of Moses Pray and Addie Loggins. With scenery reminiscent of "The Grapes of Wrath," the film is set in the depression-era Midwestern region of the United States. As the movie opens, we see a small group of mourners clustered at a graveside. Among the mourners is Addie, the dead woman's small daughter. Moses Pray -- ostensibly of the "Kansas Bible Company" -- approaches the group, as the service concludes, and two of the elderly women remark that the child bears some resemblance to him and asks if he might be related. "If ever a child needed kin, it's now," one lady says. With no knowledge of who her father is, Addie's only haven is her Aunt's home in St. Joseph, Missouri. Having identified himself as a "traveling man spreading the Lord's gospel in these troubled times," "Mose" is prevailed upon to deliver the helpless child to her Aunt since he's going that way, anyway. Addie, wise beyond her years, soon discovers that Mose is little more than a scam artist traveling from town to town delivering unordered Bibles and charging exorbitant prices to recently widowed women whom he identifies through the obituary columns of local papers. Soon, Addie and Mose become a team, traveling from town to town, making money in every dishonest way imaginable, and looking for the ultimate score. The colorful characters they meet along the way make the film all the more interesting. Paramount among these is "Miss Trixie Delight," an exotic dancer who Mose rescues from a traveling carnival and her minion, Imogene. The film is peppered with "regional" dialog. Perhaps one of the most memorable lines of the movie is uttered when Mose is forced to wrestle a backwoodsman in order to trade his new car for the hillbilly's battered old truck. "Make him say calf-rope, Leroy!" one of the observers calls out.

Keywords: 1930s, across-state-lines, adult-child-bonding, adult-child-friendship, affection, african-american, alleged-daughter, anti-hero, antihero, based-on-novel
Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama,
Taglines: As P.T. Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Quotes:

Addie Loggins: I want my two hundred dollars.::Moses Pray: I don't have your two hundred dollars no more and you know it.::Addie Loggins: If you don't give me my two hundred dollars I'm gonna tell a policeman how you got it and he'll make you give it to me because it's mine.::Moses Pray: But I don't have it!::Addie Loggins: Then get it!::Cafe Waitress: [walks over after Moses slams his fist on the table] How we doin', Angel Pie? We gonna have a little dessert when we finish up our hot dog?::Addie Loggins: I don't know.::Cafe Waitress: What do you say, Daddy? Why don't we give Precious a little dessert if she eats her dog?::Moses Pray: Her name ain't Precious.

Moses Pray: [calling up to Addie on the hill] Let's go!::Trixie Delight: Hurry up, Doctor. This baby gots to go winky tinky!::Moses Pray: [patting Trixie's shoulder] Don't worry. [calling up to Addie again] Hey! [Moses starts walking up the hill]::Moses Pray: Come on, we're ready! Come on, now!::Addie Loggins: I ain't comin'!::Moses Pray: You listen here, child...::Addie Loggins: No, I won't listen here.::Moses Pray: What the heck's up with you then?::Addie Loggins: I wanna sit in front! And how come we ain't workin' no more?::Moses Pray: 'Cause we're on vacation, that's why, and Miss Delight and me are sittin' in front because we are two grown-ups and that's where grown-ups do the sittin'! And little children do not tell grown-ups what to do with their lives, you understand that?::Addie Loggins: Well, she ain't my grown-up and I ain't plannin' no more to sit in the back. Not for no cow!::Moses Pray: Will you keep your voice down? And Miss Delight ain't no cow. She's a proper woman. She has a high school diploma. And right now she's got to go to the bathroom, so you get on down to the car!::Addie Loggins: She always has to go to the bathroom! She must have a bladder the size of a peanut! Well, I ain't gettin' back in that car... not until she gets out of it! [disgusted, Moses goes back to the car and talks to Trixie]::Trixie Delight: [making her way up the hill] Hey, what's up, kiddo? Daddy says you're wearin' a sad face. Ain't good to have a sad face. Hey! Hey! How'd you like a coloring book? Would you like that? You like Mickey the Mouse? [Trixie trips and falls] Oh, son of a bitch!

Addie Loggins: [about the Harem Slave show at carnival] How many times you gonna see it?::Moses Pray: As many times as I like, that's how many times!::Addie Loggins: You've seen it half a dozen already.::Moses Pray: And I might see it half a dozen more! Now why don't you go play bingo or somethin'?::Addie Loggins: I don't wanna play bingo!::Moses Pray: Then why don't you go write another love note to Saint Roosevelt?::Addie Loggins: Maybe I will!::Moses Pray: And stop standing around here checking on me! You don't have to worry. I ain't about to leave some poor little child stranded in the middle of nowhere. I've got scruples too, ya know. You know what that is... scruples?::Addie Loggins: No, I don't know what it is but if you've got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!::[Addie stalks off]::Moses Pray: [calling after Addie about President Roosevelt] And his name ain't Frank, it's Franklin!

Trixie Delight: I just don't understand it, Daddy, but this little baby has got to go winky tinky all the time.::Moses Pray: Well, don't you worry none. We'll just plan on stoppin' here for dinner.::Addie Loggins: [furious] But we just stopped for her to winky tink at lunch!::Moses Pray: That's right and now we're stoppin' for dinner. Come on!::Addie Loggins: I ain't hungry!

Moses Pray: I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples?::Addie Loggins: No, I don't know what it is, but if you got 'em, it's a sure bet they belong to somebody else!

Addie Loggins: I need to go to the shithouse.

Addie Loggins: [about Trixie Delight] She always has to go to the bathroom. She must have a bladder the size of a peanut.

Moses Pray: I want one child's price ticket.::Station Master: That will be $11.45.::Moses Pray: I want you to send this here telegram to Miss Billie Roy Griggs of Cosmo Road, St. Joseph: "Train arriving 9:52 AM and bringing love, affection, and $20 cash." Oh, make that "$25 cash", and sign it just "Addie Loggins".::Station Master: 10 words, that will be eighty-five cents more, that will be $12 and 30.::Moses Pray: $12 and 30, huh? You better say in that message there "Love, affection, and $20 cash."

[about Trixie Delight]::Addie Loggins: How come she had to leave that job back there?::Imogene: Cause the boss-man tried to make her put out for his friends, and she don't believe in puttin' out for free!::Addie Loggins: She put out much?::Imogene: Just like a gum machine. You drop some in and she'll put some out.

Addie Loggins: Imogene, what do you suppose Miss Trixie'd do if somebody offered her $25 to put out.::Imogene: Ooo Wee! You crazy? For that much money, that woman'd drop her pants down in the middle of the road!

Behind Your Radio Dial (1948)

Actors: Franklin D. Roosevelt (actor), Bob Hope (actor), Edward Montagne (director), Ben Grauer (actor), Fred Allen (actor), Graham McNamee (actor), Arturo Toscanini (actor), Parker Fennelly (actor), Jim Jordan (actor), H.V. Kaltenborn (actor), Fred Waring (actor), Marian Jordan (actress), Alan Shulman (composer), Wiley Post (actor), Herbert Morrison (actor),

Genres: Documentary, Short,

Is Everybody Listening? (1947)

Actors: Bill Stern (actor), Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Phil Harris (actor), Bob Hope (actor), Edward R. Murrow (actor), Jackson Beck (actor), Jack Benny (actor), Walter Winchell (actor), Fred Allen (actor), Richard De Rochemont (producer), Arturo Toscanini (actor), Morrie Roizman (editor), Phil Baker (actor), Jim Jordan (actor),

Plot: To answer the title question, eighty-two of every 100 Americans were in 1947, according to the C.E.Hooper survey (the forerunner of the Neilsens)...listening to network radio, that is. Performers, and their radio programs, such as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Fred Allen, 'Fibber McGee and Molly'(Jim and Marian Jordan)are shown while on the air, plus network news commentators, quiz programs, soap operas and the musical programs of the day are shown and discussed. When the narrator closed this one with his usual "Time Marches On" pronouncement, most involved here were not looking at television as any threat to Radio just a few short years down the road time was marching on.

Keywords: punctuation-in-title, question-in-title
Genres: Documentary, Short,

Popular Science (1946)

Actors: Gayne Whitman (actor), Jerry Fairbanks (producer), George Brandt (writer), Jim Jordan (actor), Marian Jordan (actress),

Plot: In this Popular Science entry (No. 1 of the 1946-47 production season, with J6-1 as the production number), Fibber McGee (Jim Jordan) and Molly (Marian Jordan) get a look at "Sleepy Joe", a breathing robot which was used during the war to test high altitude oxygen masks. That is followed by a look at new types of barbecue equipment, such as revolving grills and hot-dog cookers.

Genres: Short,

The All-Star Bond Rally (1945)

Actors: Betty Grable (actress), Bob Hope (actor), Jeanne Crain (actress), Linda Darnell (actress), Bing Crosby (actor), Cyril J. Mockridge (composer), Harpo Marx (actor), Almira Sessions (actress), Frank Sinatra (actor), Glenn Langan (actor), Harry James (actor), Carmen Miranda (actress), June Haver (actress), Vivian Blaine (actress), Jane Nigh (actress),

Genres: Comedy, Music, Short,

Heavenly Days (1944)

Actors: Donald Douglas (actor), Jim Farley (actor), Joseph W. Girard (actor), J.C. Fowler (actor), Herbert Evans (actor), Sammy Blum (actor), John Elliott (actor), Johnny Duncan (actor), Erville Alderson (actor), James Carlisle (actor), Irving Bacon (actor), Wheaton Chambers (actor), Lane Chandler (actor), Henry Hall (actor), Edward Clark (actor),

Plot: In this joke-filled spinoff of the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, the couple leave Wistful Vista for Washington D.C. to visit cousin Alvin; neighborhood gossip magnifies the trip into a mission to advise the government. Once there, Fibber innocently starts things, including a big ruckus in the Senate. Will he be famous or infamous?

Keywords: based-on-radio-show, closet, overstuffed-closet
Genres: Comedy,

Quotes:

Fibber McGee: That guy tosses eight cent stamps around like they were made of paper.

[The contents of Fibber McGee's closet cascade onto the floor again]::Fibber McGee: Gotta straighten out that closet one of these days.

Fibber McGee: I don't wish to be disturbed...unless the phone rings, or somebody wants to see me.

Here We Go Again (1942)

Actors: Oscar Smith (actor), Edmund Mortimer (actor), George Chandler (actor), André Charlot (actor), Bert Moorhouse (actor), Iron Eyes Cody (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Dell Henderson (actor), Sterling Holloway (actor), George Cleveland (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Harold Miller (actor), Monte Montague (actor), Charles Stevens (actor),

Plot: It's Fibber and Molly's 20th anniversary and they want to throw a big party. But when everyone declines their invitation, they decide to go on a second honeymoon instead. After one night at the broken down Ramble Inn, where they spent their first honeymoon, they decide to go across the lake to a swanky (and expensive) lodge, where they bump into their old friends Edgar Bergan, Charlie McCarthy, Gildersleeve, and Mrs. Uppington, so the party is on again. The only problem is, how will Fibber pay for all of this?

Keywords: based-on-radio-show, bear, bellhop, brother, brother-sister-relationship, butterfly, ceremony, chase, dancer, dancing
Genres: Comedy, Music,
Taglines: Both of Radio's Favorite Comedy Couples -- Together -- in Their 2nd Big Screen Hit!

Look Who's Laughing (1941)

Actors: Reed Hadley (actor), Edgar Bergen (actor), Walter Baldwin (actor), Irving Bacon (actor), Harlan Briggs (actor), Arthur Q. Bryan (actor), George Chandler (actor), Spencer Charters (actor), George Cleveland (actor), Chester Clute (actor), Jimmy Conlin (actor), Tom Fadden (actor), Jim Farley (actor), Jack George (actor), Charles Halton (actor),

Plot: Fibber McGee enlists the help of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in enticing an aircraft manufacturer to build a factory in the small town of Wistful Vista. Based on the "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio series.

Keywords: aircraft-industry, airplane, apostrophe-in-title, based-on-radio-show, blackmail, business-manager, deception, duplicity, engagement, foreclosure
Genres: Comedy,

Quotes:

Rusty: What fools we morons be.

Julie Patterson: Marriage is a strong institution, Charlie.::Charlie McCarthy: So is Alcatraz, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Fibber McGee: I'll knock his face so far down into his Oxfords that they'll call him puss in boots.

Fibber McGee: Just like eating lettuce nothing to it

This Way Please (1937)

Actors: Garry Owen (actor), David Newell (actor), Billy Engle (actor), Matt McHugh (actor), Billy Daniel (actor), Paul Kruger (actor), Lee Bowman (actor), James Finlayson (actor), James Craig (actor), Jack Gardner (actor), Porter Hall (actor), Chuck Hamilton (actor), Dell Henderson (actor), Don Brodie (actor), Bert Roach (actor),

Plot: A famous singer and matinée idol helps a pretty young theater usher in her dreams of becoming a singer, but when her career begins to take off and she becomes engaged to a wealthy young man, he realizes he's fallen for her and plots to break up her impending marriage.

Keywords: 1930s, audition, bandleader, blonde, box-office, chorus-girl, cigar-smoking, cigarette-smoking, dance-teacher, deceit
Genres: Comedy, Musical, Romance,