Ryan O’Neal plays Moses “Moze” Pray, a bible-selling conman in depression-era Kansas, who falls in with Addie, a sassy, cigarette-smoking nine-year-old girl (O’Neal’s real-life daughter, Tatum) who proves to be as sharp, if not sharper, than he is.
Moze’s game is to find recent bereavements in local newspapers and then present the widow with a bible embossed with her name, which “the dear departed ordered for you before passing on”. At one home, the local sheriff happens to be there and stops him in the middle of his routine.
Things look bad until Addie pipes up, “Daddy, can we go to mummy’s grave now?”. The suddenly embarrassed Sheriff winds up paying from his own pocket – not Moze’s usual $7 fee, but the $12 suggested by Addie (she later ups this to $24 when she notices the expensive furniture in another widow’s home).
Inevitably, Tatum O’Neal steals the show as the self-possessed Addie, who succumbs to childish jealousy when grown-up girl Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn) comes along for the ride, fresh from the ‘exotic’ dancing tent at a travelling dustbowl carnival.
Tatum O’Neal became the youngest Oscar winner ever, claiming the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award at just ten years old.
Moses Pray
Ryan O’Neal Addie Loggins
Tatum O’Neal Trixie Delight
Madeline Kahn Deputy Hardin
John Hillerman Imogene
P.J. Johnson Miss Ollie
Jessie Lee Fulton
Director
Peter Bogdanovich
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