The pair of drive-in B movies playing at the Marbro are interesting, but since I can't find trailers for them I'll skip them. Mama's Dirty Girls boasts Gloria Grahame as Mama Love in a movie about Mama getting her teenage daughters to marry and then murder men for their money until they meet a guy named Harold. Slumber Party '57 is Debra Winger's film debut, but the plot about girls having a slumber party where they talk about their first sex experiences doesn't really appeal to me.
The Walt Disney production Treasure of Matecumbe is one of the films playing at the Martin Theatre. It is on a double bill with Song of the South and good luck to you if you want to watch that movie these days. The Treasure of Matecumbe is about a treasure hunt in the Florida Everglades taking place just a few years after the end of the Civil War. I don't remember this movie, but it seems like something I would have watched if it aired on television. I don't know if I've ever seen all of Song of the South as I don't know if it ever aired completely on television, but I've seen parts of it.
I did not see The Bad News Bears in the theatre when it ran. I saw the clip where Buttermaker recruits Amanda to play for the Bears on some television show, but that was it then. I did read the Richard Woodley penned novelization of the film when I was in 6th grade before I did see the movie on cable television. I loved both as I also loved baseball. The cast is excellent. Walter Matthau should have least got an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Morris Buttermaker. Tatum O'Neal shines as pitching ace Amanda Wurlitzer and Jackie Earle Haley is super cool as Kelly Leak. Some differences from the novelization (which I assume was based on perhaps an early screenplay) are Buttermaker was dating Amanda's sister Brenda instead of her mother and Kelly Leak has an abusive father who forbids him to play baseball. Other minor things in the novelization: shortstop Tanner Boyle's insults aren't as derogatory and it's said that Kelly Leak was busted for marijuana. Kelly is also Amanda's boyfriend.
A quick summary for you: A city councilman makes a highly competitive youth baseball league add another team made up of kids not good enough to normally play in the league. The city councilman hires ex minor league player Morris Buttermaker to coach the team. Buttermaker is a pool cleaner who spends most of his time drinking beer topped off with whiskey. He transforms the team with the help of Amanda and Kelly into a team that goes from being just plain bad news into a team that is bad news for the other ones. There's so much to love about this movie. The jump cut from Kelly hitting a ball in practice that becomes a home run in his first game with the team. Buttermaker's obvious love of Amanda shows under his gruff exterior, but his fear of commitment/failure won't let him admit it while underneath Amanda's tough girl act she desperately wants him to step in for the father she doesn't have (divorced....dead.....we never find out). The kids come across as real kids. And yes....kids back in the Seventies, and probably still today, do swear at times. They argue and fight and the world doesn't end. I love the Seventies game room and styles.
The movie inspired 2 sequels, a terrible remake, and an underrated television series which aired 23 of the 26 episodes filmed. I picked up the television boxset for $5 and was pleasantly surprised to see it was much better than I remembered.
trailer
I got my curve breaking 2 and a half feet
Kelly Leak joins the team
I don't want your company
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