A blond actor with a slight overbite and clear, vacant eyes. Ambition that was never quite matched by talent. Overtaken, in the eyes of the paparazzi and the tastemakers, by a blonde bombshell wife. Despite being in some first-rate movies, always more closely aligned with the B film and the B tabloid. A life rumoured to be anxious, dissolute, and maybe not compatible with the family responsibilities presented.
The parallels of Ryan Phillippe and Ryan O'Neal. Those aside, though, two of the movies that I have seen again in the last year that I have really really enjoyed have both starred Ryan O'Neal. So, while the clock is ticking, there is still hope for Ryan the younger too. (And we will always have Gosford Park.)
Paper Moon and What's Up, Doc? are both very good movies that are not as popular as they were when they were released or as lesser films from the era (early 70's) now are. They were both directed by Peter Bogdanovich, although this doesn't necessarily guarantee quality. Shortly after seeing them both again, I happened upon Mask, another of his films, playing on TVO. It is so dated and phony you get the feeling that Kristy McNichol is going to show up as a love interest at any second. (You may remember Mask as being a movie of quality because it helped make Cher a movie star. Not true: Mask starts off corny and just gets more corny from there...once Laura Dern shows up as the blind debutante with the heart of gold, it is truly time to pull the plug. Apparently, some directors start large and end up with cameos on the Sopranos. No explaining it.)
Paper Moon and What's Up, Doc? are very different. Paper Moon is best known for getting Tatum O'Neal an Oscar and probably not much else. She really is precocious (and smokes with as much bravado as John Wayne), but what stays with you is the look of the movie and how all the elements work so well together. The movie is funny and quirky, but the over-riding feeling is sadness and hopelessness. And Ryan O'Neal is really good as the lovable grifter who would rather not have to raise a young girl. I don't know if he is essentially playing himself opposite his own daughter, but he is natural and honest. The movie has a lot of energy, but it has the same muffled, desolate feeling that I remember "The Last Picture Show" having.
In What's Up, Doc? he is the straight man to Barbra Streisand's kooky comedic role. The idea of Ryan O'Neal as an uptight professor of geology is a stretch, but it doesn't really matter because they seem to work well together onscreen and you can feel they like each other. Barbra is even unpretentious and funny. The zingers and star-turns pass lightly and without too much ado, in that way that they often do in movies made in that era. The movie is a screwball comedy, or tries to be a throwback to screwball comedies, and I think about 90% of the lines are actually funny. (It may be one of the last movies to be funny without being sarcastic.) Ryan seems comfortable playing the male equivalent of the bimbo-as-nerd role that is popular in teen sex comedies and Carry On films (count how many minutes in before he is half-naked). He looks like a quarterback but because he is wearing a bow tie, we know he is really a dork. Fortunately, Barbra sees through the bow tie and hijinks ensue.
Finally, both movies include the incomparable Madeline Kahn. More on our Madeline later.
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