THE BAD NEWS BEARS GO TO JAPAN

US, 1978, 91 minutes, Colour.
Tony Curtis, Jackie Earle Haley.
Directed by John Berry.

The Bad News Bears Go To Japan was the third and the final in the series. The sequel and this film are more like telemovies, spin offs from a very successful and well-made original. This time there is very little plot. Tony Curtis is very good as a conman go-getter who hears of the bears wanting to play for America in Japan. He raises the money (perhaps) and takes the team. There are various ups and downs - success, sponsoring of television specials, a wrestling match in which Curtis has to participate and the final encounter with the Japanese (equivalent Bears) team. Needless to say, there is a Japanese parallel manager to Curtis (who has to sing on a TV show out of key) and a reformation at the end with a contented ending.

The film is particularly episodic and characterisation being done by Curtis rather than by the members of the oddball team. Jackie Earl Haley reappears but spends most of the film, almost anonymously wandering around Japan making eyes at an attractive teenage Japanese girl. The film is quite an excellent exercise in Japanese - American relation ships. The first sequel relied on Tchaikovsky’s music. This film also uses the 1812, but is quite enjoyable in its wide-ranging use of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. Producer-director of the original film, Michael Ritchie, produced this film and the screenplay was written by the original screenwriter Bill Lancaster. It was easy to see that, apart from a television series, this was the end of the cinema adventures of The Bad News Bears.