The Bad News Bears (1976)

Directed by Michael Ritchie. Starring Walter Matthau, Vic Morrow, Tatum O’Neal, Jackie Earle Haley, Chris Barnes, Gary Lee Cavagnaro, Ben Piazza, Erin Blunt, Alfred W. Lutter, Joyce Van Patten, David Stambaugh, Quinn Smith. [PG]

Trend-setting underdog sports comedy with Matthau as a pool-cleaning, frequently-sauced slob who’s paid to coach a ragtag Little League baseball time made up of losers, rejects and outsiders (I won’t repeat the list provided by the foul-mouthed, belligerent tyke played by Barnes). Time and imitators have dampened some of its zip—the sordid appeal of seeing kids let loose with four-letter words had lost its novelty value even before the debut of “South Park”—but it contains one of Matthau’s more engaging movie performances, and coasts on abundantly rude, crude, shaggy charms. Makes inspired use out of classical music themes (from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen), much like Looney Tunes shorts did twenty and thirty years earlier. Both a model and a pinnacle for its type…but it’s not exactly a reputable type. Written by Bill Lancaster of The Thing fame. Followed by a pair of sequels, a short-lived TV sitcom, and a 2005 remake.

77/100