Just because a film is set in a vintage. Doesn't mean that it's going to be good. It has to have a story that people will enjoy, where they will relate and understand the characters add characters that are basically decent or at least fun to watch. That is not the case with this 20th Century Fox big budget. Piece set in the 1920s that has a character whom I designate as one of the worst fathers in movie history. To think that Cliff Robertson didn't see that when he read the script is truly surprising. Eric Shea plays his young son who witnessed the death of his mother in a plane crash caused by Robertson, a near do well stunt pilot whose bitterness towards life takes him on a journey around the country, dragging his son with him and basically trying to fleece anybody that he can con.
A slew of other familiar faces pop up in this film, switch on paper may have looked better than it turned out to be. It rips off other. Pieces already made and of course the "Paper Moon" similarities are obvious. The character that Shea plays is crude thanks to his even kruder father, and when to tell wealthy Pamela Franklin that his father is at home having an intimate encounter, she doesn't even flinch.
There's Bernadette Peters as a prostitute who tries to sell Shea a kiss for $10 and Alice Ghostley as an Aimee Semple McPherson like evangelist curses at Robertson when he steals from her. (ironically, Ghostley's "Bewitched" co-star Agnes Moorehead had played another Aimee Semple McPherson type character a few years before in "What's the Matter with Helen?") the film does have a. Flavor but that doesn't make it a good film, and after 45 minutes, I realized that this was one of the biggest misfires of the 1970's. To think that Steven Spielberg was responsible for the story makes you ask in puzzlement, What was HE thinking?"
A slew of other familiar faces pop up in this film, switch on paper may have looked better than it turned out to be. It rips off other. Pieces already made and of course the "Paper Moon" similarities are obvious. The character that Shea plays is crude thanks to his even kruder father, and when to tell wealthy Pamela Franklin that his father is at home having an intimate encounter, she doesn't even flinch.
There's Bernadette Peters as a prostitute who tries to sell Shea a kiss for $10 and Alice Ghostley as an Aimee Semple McPherson like evangelist curses at Robertson when he steals from her. (ironically, Ghostley's "Bewitched" co-star Agnes Moorehead had played another Aimee Semple McPherson type character a few years before in "What's the Matter with Helen?") the film does have a. Flavor but that doesn't make it a good film, and after 45 minutes, I realized that this was one of the biggest misfires of the 1970's. To think that Steven Spielberg was responsible for the story makes you ask in puzzlement, What was HE thinking?"