Madeline Kahn Acts Up A Storm In "Paper Moon"

In what is nearly my favourite scene in what is nearly my favourite movie - Paper Moon - birthday gal Madeline Kahn acts up a storm as she tries to talk her boyfriend's ward (who may or may not be his daughter) out of one of her many charmingly pouty tantrums. I can't think of a single emotion that doesn't flicker across Trixie Delight's face before she finally figures out that the best way to get a kid to trust you is to stop talking down to them and tell them the truth.

Director Peter Bogdanovich's bittersweet 1973 film was based on the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown; it also starred real-life father and daughter Ryan O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal, whose relationship in the film, while often vituperative, seems almost halcyon compared to the Hell they were experiencing behind the camera...
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Now Showing: "Sing After Me" by Madeline Kahn and Grover

As this charming piece of footage so ably demonstrates, the late Madeline Kahn - born on this day in 1942 - must have been something akin to an angel in life, so there's no doubt in my mind as to what she is these days. Here she performs an utterly charming duet with my favourite monster, Grover, on Sesame Street.

Certainly Kahn's early death in December 1999 (of ovarian cancer) was met with an outpouring of grief from former colleagues, such as Mel Brooks, who declared her 'one of the most talented people who ever lived'. Deepening the shock her death engendered, Kahn had kept her illness a secret, working right up until the end.
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