The Bad News Bears (1976)

My Review

“The Bad News Bears” is a sports comedy film about an alcoholic ex-professional baseball pitcher hired to coach a youth baseball team called the Bears. Director Michael Ritchie (“The Candidate” 1972) put together a fun family film with good production values; Bill Lancaster penned the smoothly-written screenplay. They included a generous amount of baseball action.

Walter Matthau is perfect in the lead role as the coach who is a bit rough around the edges. The supporting cast includes Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten, and Ben Piazza, with child actors Tatum O’Neil, Jackie Earle Haley, Brandon Cruz, and Brett Marx, grandson of Milton “Gummo” Marx of the world famous Marx Brothers.This was an early film for Jackie Earle Haley and Tatum O’Neal, both proceeding to further show business success down the road. Tatum won the Oscar in her only other film before “Bears,” which was “Paper Moon” in 1973. Brandon Cruz, by comparison, is an old show biz veteran, having previously been famous for the television series with Bill Bixby called “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1969-1972).

The watchable “The Bad News Bears” was a box office sensation for producer Stanley R. Jaffe and Paramount Pictures, and was filmed primarily around the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. It spawned two sequels that came out in 1977 and 1978, with different casts.