This was actually a decent sports film.
Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) is hired by his life-long friend to coach high school basketball. Norman has a troubled past. He used to coach college ball but was handed down a lifetime ban for assaulting one of his own players in a scene that he can barely remember or comprehend. And his methods are controversial to say the least. Hickory High School is incredibly small, with just 64 guys in the whole school and there are only six guys on the team after one doesn't listen when Coach speaks to them and is kicked out. The star of the school isn't playing as he misses the former coach and soon, the town wants Coach Dale gone with his insistence of having the players pass the ball four times before shooting and bad attitude when it comes to refs giving fouls to his team (some justified, others not so much) and getting kicked out of the games. He very nearly loses his job but is saved by the Hail Mary, almost literally when the star, Jimmy (Maris Valainis) joins the team only if Dale will still coach, so he stays and they do start winning. Coach also tries to sober up the town drunk, Shooter (Dennis Hopper, good but not Oscar-nomination worthy), who is also the father of one of the players. Not that that lasts and he ends up drying out in a hospital.
There is also the obligatory romance between Norman and the acting principal Myra (Barbara Hershey), which ends just as you'd expect.
I do have problems with the film, none of the players (with the exception of the pastor's son) really have personalities, a major problem and when one of the players throws a punch, no further discussion or punishment is handed down, which would never fly in this day's age. But to have a woman as acting principal in 1951, that is a good move and she is a fairly strong character so all is not lost. And the basketball game scenes are well choreographed so the film at least flew by quickly. Grade: B
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