Charley Varrick
Matthau starred in three crime dramas in the mid-1970s, as a detective investigating a mass murder on a bus in "The Laughing Policeman" (1973), as a bank robber on the run from the Mafia and the law in "Charley Varrick" (also 1973) and as a New York transit official in the action-adventure "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974). A change of pace about misfits on a Little League baseball team turned out to be a solid hit when Matthau starred as coach Morris Buttermaker in the comedy "The Bad News Bears" (1976).