It is probably the weirdest movie experince I or anyone else at Paramount ever worked on. Its a lovely film, ranking up there with the best....beautifully directed, terrific performances (one especially outstanding), wonderfully scripted, with music to die for. The problem is that the creators of this movie are so unlikeable that in your heart of hearts you are hoping that the film will fail.
PAPER MOON was released in May, 1973. At the publicity screening we all fell in love with it. The film had been directed by the current fair-haired boy of film making Peter Bogdanovich and starred the father and daughter team Ryan and Tatum O Neal. It would turn out to be one of the big hits of the summer.
I had 1st met Peter Bogdanovich years earlier when he was brought into New York for his movie TARGETS. A shy, clumsy man he seemed to be in awe over all the attention he was receiving. Paramount had high hopes on TARGETS, a tense little thriller that starred Boris Karloff. Among those schedued to inteview Peter was a young, upstart reporter from the Chicago Sun Times, Roger Ebert. Ebert did not like the film very much, but the interview went well. The film opened and bombed.
Flashfoward several years. It is April, 1973 and Mr. Bogdanovich has consented to come to NYC for interviews on PAPER MOON. Coming off a string of big hits, he is highly sought after by the press. In tow he will be bring young Tatum and his current girlfriend - model turned actress Cybil Shepherd. To everyones relief Ryan O will not be participating in the interviews. I am sure that they are out there somewhere, but I never personally met anyone who liked Ryan. A big, tense man with a hair trigger temper, he is known for his abuse. Paramount staff writer Peter Bankers was on the set of MOON one day and reported that Tatum flubbed one of her lines and that Ryan picked her up by the neck and literally flung her across the room.
Bogdanovich is holding court at the Plaza Hotel. As I enter with a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, he is lounging on a sofa with Tatum clinging to his neck. Tatum is the first to speak: I dont do interviews, she informs the reporter. Peter chuckles and pats her hand: Smart girl, he praises her. Tatum clings to him during the entire interview - it is evident that the child is in desparate need of a father figure and that Peter is very kind to her.
Peter seems to annoyed by every question the reporter asks. He talks about his genus....he is so full of himself that at one point even Tatum has had enough and excuses herself to go off and play. Every now and then the beautiful Cybill enters the room to complain about something. Toward the end of the inteview Peter announces an upcoming project: a musical starring Ms. Shepherd and Burt Reynolds called AT LONG LAST LOVE. Little does anyone realize that his life is about to take a nosedive.
The interview ends and we all say our goodbyes. The reporter and I quitely wait for the elevator - it arrives and we enter. The door closes and we look at each other and suddenly burst into laughter.
