I recall Hockey announcer Tim Ryan's review of Slap Shot complaining about the off-color language before an NHL contest. Too many foul references, alcohol, infidelity, and violence. My response was curious. Off to the theater, I went and I wasn't disappointed. The scene in this picture shows the daily problems of running a drowning minor league franchise. Head player/ coach and pushing his late 40s of the Charleston Chiefs Reggie Dunlap (Paul Newman) struggles to find a way to keep the franchise going. Reggie is the consummate player's coach. Not separating his personal life from his players. They drink together, play poker together, watch daytime soap opera's in bars together and hang out in Reggie's motel room on road trips watching Bowling for Dollars. The team is basically floundering but Reggie and the boys enjoy the lifestyle of a minor league life. The reality is that the ruffled uncombed-aged general manager of the team Mr. McGrath (Strother Martin) basically appeases Reggie about the team being sold to new owners while he secretly is looking for other employment. McGrath always makes references to those early days working for Hall of Famer Eddie Shore. McGrath likes to name-drop former hockey greats to bail certain players out of jail. The team is on the verge of extinction Reggie concocts a story about a fictitious owner relocating the team to Florida to keep up morale amongst the troops. Unless Reggie turns the club around into a winning team and convinces the owner of the Chiefs, (whoever that is?) to keep the team afloat in town where the mill is closing the Chiefs will be no more. Other notable characters are the players, Jerry Houser as Killer Carlson, Yvon Barrette as the French-speaking goaltender, and the funny but fouled-mouthed Brad Sullivan as Walchuck. There is a serious side to this story that I would have edited from the film. A married couple of underachievers and clean hockey purist Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) and his unfulfilled alcoholic wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse) are kind of a downcast to this film at times. Other notables are the lovely ex-wife of Reggie, hairdresser Francine played by Jennifer Warren. A familiar face in a candid unfamiliar setting is Melinda Dillan as the full-breasted Suzanne Hanrahan. The toupee-laden pretentious hockey announcer Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan) never gets a normal response from his interviews/guests. The movie takes a comical turn when a trio of bespectacled hockey men-children shows up punching a coke machine. I'm referring to the Hansen Brothers along with their toys. The scripts were loaded with sexual innuendos and language that would make any sailor feel right at home. You could see that the actors really enjoyed making this picture. Life on the road in the minors can be lonely and frustrating but playing for the Chiefs could cure the homesickness. Paul Newman who had a vast resume of movies said of this film was the most enjoyable movie he was ever involved with.
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