Tatum O’Neal | 4 Star Films

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring the father, daughter pair of Ryan O’Neil and Tatum O’Neil, this film is set filmed in stark black and white and set during the Depression.

Addie Loggins is a little girl who has just lost her mother and her closest relation is the shifty Bible salesman Moses Pray. Reluctantly he agrees to take Addie along to some kin in St. Joseph’s Missouri where she can be cared for and he also pockets $200 which is rightfully hers. Sparks fly from the beginning between the perpetually grouchy Addie and the constantly annoyed Moze. However, with the tricks of Moze and the cuteness of Addie, this unlikely pair is able to sell numerous Bibles all over the state to hapless widows.

However, all that is put on hold when they stop at a carnival and Moze becomes infatuated with a high maintenance, exotic dancer named Trixie (Madeleine Kahn). Trixie and her young maid tag along and Addie becomes annoyed with all the attention Trixie now receives. Addies devises a plan with Imogene and it results in a disgusted Moze heading back on the road with Addie.

Their next job includes taking a store of whiskey from a bootlegger so they can sell it back. However, they run into trouble with the local sheriff, who just happens to be the bootleggers brother! They escape thanks to Addie, pawn the car, and get across to Missouri. There everything catches up with Moze and he gets beat up and all their money is stolen. Soon after, he and Addie finally part ways. But in the end this rag tag pair realizes they actually care for each other and they head out to pull more cons all across the country… so Moze can pay Addie her $200.

The strained relationship between the two leads unfortunately reflected the real relationship of father and daughter. In the film however, they were great together adding both humor and drama to this bleak story. As always Bogdanovich loves his nostalgia and there is plenty of it here to be enjoyed.

4/5 Stars

The Bad News Bears is the quintessential sports movies about a ragtag group of misfits and losers. If there was ever a worthy heir to Charlie Brown’s club it was these fellows, but that’s not the end of it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the Bears pick up the slack after numerous drubbings. They somehow acquire Morris Buttermaker’s reluctant pitching prodigy Amanda (Tatum O’Neal), and their new star is town delinquent Kelly Leak (a boy who smokes cigarettes and rides a Harley). They begin to climb the ranks, and Buttermaker realizes his squad has a fighting chance to make it to the championship game.

Things become more and more competitive culminating in the final showdown against the hated Yankees, coached by Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). Buttermaker has recently become a hard-nosed jerk solely focused on winning, but he has a mid-game change of heart. He lets his boys play, clears his bench, and the results are good if not great. However, The Bad News Bears can be proud that they left their heart out on the field, and the Yankees will be going down the next year for sure. The most important thing is that they played together as a team with a lot to be proud of.

Walter Matthau has enough of the lovable grouch in him to make it work, although he does have the foul mouth to go with it. Amanda is the perfect counter for Buttermaker because they both have spirit and fiery impudence. O’Neal perfected the pout after Paper Moon (1973) and it’s still going strong here. However, she is not the only one. On a team that is populated by a few nerds and weaklings, there also are a share of sharp tongues and real potty mouths.

Carmen is a nice touch during the rout scenes, and it makes me think they never heard of the mercy rule, but I guess it is the 1970s and we have to have drama after all. This is far from a kids movie, but it probably resonates with the many adults who played organized baseball as kids.

The film is a satire of American’s Pastime for this audience because even on the smaller stage of Little League the game often gets blown way out of proportion. It becomes a question of are we playing it for the love of the game or to win at all costs (even if it means family turmoil). Morrow’s character epitomizes just how far parents will go because they become so involved in the lives of their kids. Wanting to live vicariously through them, they push their children until they can no longer be kids, but must be perfect instead. The Bad News Bears choose to play the game for fun as it was meant to be played, and that is partly thanks to Buttermaker. They are not done yet though because there are still many more life lessons to be learned. I’m not sure if I said this yet, but this film actually made me laugh a lot since it began as a comedy of errors and only then did it turn into a satire. The comedy was certainly present, but not the most important.

4/5 Stars