Wikiquote

Paper Moon (film)

1973 film by Peter Bogdanovich

Paper Moon is a 1973 film, set during the Great Depression, in which a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.

Directed by Peter Bogdnaovich. Written by Alvin Sargent, based on Joe David Brown's novel Addie Pray.
As P. T. Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Moses Pray

edit
  • I know a woman who looks like a bullfrog but that don't mean she's the damn thing's mother.

Addie Loggins

edit
  • Daddy, I need to go to the shithouse.

Dialogue

edit
Addie Loggins: You meet my Mama in a barroom?
Moses Pray: Where would you get a question like that?
Addie Loggins: I hear Miss Polly talkin' neighborly and she says one of you is my Pa.
Moses Pray: Well, don't the world have a wild imagination.
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.
Addie Loggins: Frank D. Roosevelt said we're all feelin' a lot better.
Moses Pray: He did, did he?
Addie Loggins: It made me feel good when he said that. Better than I felt in a long time.
Moses Pray: Bet ole Frank sure does wish you was twenty-one.
Addie Loggins: You don't like me, do ya?
Moses Pray: No, I don't like ya!
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!
Moses Pray: Okay, I want you to remember one thing. I decide on the price. Maybe you don't know French but there's something in this world called "finesse." Twelve dollars. I never sold no bible for twelve dollars. That man was a law officer. He could have had me put in jail.
Addie Loggins: We got it, didn't we!
Moses Pray: I don't care if we got it. Don't you go makin' the decisions. I make the decisions! All you got to do is look like a pretty little girl. You ain't got somethin' like a ribbon in that cigar box, do ya?
Addie Loggins: I got my Mom's kimono in my suitcase. Chinamen with umbrellas.
Moses Pray: That ain't quite what I had in mind.
Addie Loggins: [about Trixie] 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: How much she charge?
Imogene: Most she can get. But, she always asks for five dollars.
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!
Addie Loggins: Why don't you quit?
Imogene: Quit! Now, how am I gonna quit? And what if I do quit, I ain't got no money to get home to Mama. And what if I do get home, they got hard times as it is. My Mama say, "You go work for that white lady, she'll take good care of you." [Rolls her eyes] You wanna know what I think?
Addie Loggins: Yeah.
Imogene: You know the little white speck on top of chicken doo-doo?
Addie Loggins: Yeah.
Imogene: Well, that's the kind of white I think miss Trixie is. She's just like that little white speck on top of old chicken shit.
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: Come on, we're ready. Come on, now.
Addie Loggins: I ain't ready.
Moses Pray: Well, you don't look real busy with nothing, so you just come on down.
Addie Loggins: I ain't coming.
Moses Pray: Now 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 working no more?
Moses Pray: 'Cause we're on vacation, that's why. And Miss Delight and me are sitting in front because we are two grown-ups, and that's where grown-ups do the sitting. 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 planning 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 just 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 getting back in the car. Not 'til she gets out of it.
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!
...
Trixie Delight: Kiddo, I understand how you feel. But you don't have to worry. One of these days you're gonna be just as pretty as Mademoiselle. Maybe prettier. You already got bone structure. When I was your age I didn't have no bone structure. Took me years to get bone structure. And don't think bone structure's not important. Nobody started to call me "Mademoiselle" 'til I was seventeen and getting a little bone structure. When I was your age, I was skinnier than a pole. I never thought I'd have nothin' up here. [Pointing to her chest] You're gonna have 'em up there too. Look, I'll tell you what. Want me to show you how to use cosmetics? [Pulls off earrings and holds them in palm] Look, I'll let you put on my earrings. You're gonna see how pretty you're gonna be. And I'll show you how to make up your eyes. And your lips. And I'll see to it you get a little bra or somethin'. But right now, you're gonna pick your little ass up, you're gonna drop it in the back seat, and you're gonna cut out the crap! You understand? [Turns around, starts to walk away, then turns back around] You're going to ruin it, ain't ya? Look, I don't wanna wipe you out. And I don't want you wipin' me out, you know? So, I'm gonna level with you, okay? Now, you see with me it's just a matter of time. I don't know why, but somehow I just don't manage to hold on real long. So, if you wait it out a little it'll be over, you know? I mean, even if I want a fella, somehow or other I manage to get it screwed up. Maybe I'll get a new pair of shoes, a nice dress, a few laughs. Times are hard. Now, if you fool around on the hill up here, then you don't get nothin', I don't get nothin', he don't get nothin'. So, how 'bout it, honey? Just for a little while, let ol' Trixie sit up front with her big tits.

Taglines

edit
  • As P. T. Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Cast

edit
edit
 
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Paper_Moon_(film)&oldid=3629413"