In The Bad News Bears, Walter Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic who keeps himself one step above the gutter by working as a swimming pool-maintenance man. In short, twerps. Their bungling is set to a jaunty score.
Balls ricochet around the infield as they glance off mitts and dribble from one player to another.
When challenged by Buttermaker as to whether she still has her stuff, she shows that she has not yet traded her glove for a tutu. Matthau is amusing, but the kids, with their routine wisecracks, whoops and jeers, are disappointing. Their shenanigans are not up to the standard of the Little Rascals. The required dose of schmaltz comes in the dugout when Amanda tries to rekindle the relationship between Buttermaker and her mother. Because there is no explicit sex, bloodletting or exploding metal, the film is revolutionary by today's standards.