Every Which Way But Loose 40 Year Anniversary

[Jed Cooper]

Comedy is not the first movie genre that comes to mind when Clint Eastwood is mentioned.  He’s become a successful and prolific director, but even after all these years his most popular achievements lie in his western and police movie roles.  Most notably, The Man With No Name and Dirty Harry.

Pairing Eastwood with an orangutan worked like a charm.  The entire cast is amusing and there are a lot of funny sight gags.  Clint’s judgment paid off enormously at the box office and produced an even better sequel. 

I first saw this on cable at my friend Mike Sormanti’s.  He introduced me to other entertaining comedies like Smokey & The Bandit, Up In Smoke and Stir Crazy.  We had fun watching them repeatedly when we could.  I have Mike to thank not only for introducing me to Eastwood films, but comedies as well.






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[Perry]

        Hard to believe this was on TCM last week. I can remember sinking in my seat at the movie theatre in 1978 cause I could not believe Eastwood could do a worse movie than 1977's The Gauntlet. At least The Gauntlet had some redeeming points, but even after all these years and the fact it made 100 mill at the box office which is even harder to believe its still a low point for me as far as Eastwood's movie's. The sequel was actually better which isn't saying much.....

[Gant]

I didnt see this film till it came out on vhs a couple of years later.. but I enjoyed it.. I thought Clint slipped into comedy with ease and he still got to beat loads of people up..which at the time I enjoyed..

I did prefer the first film over the second however. somehow the inocense of the whole thing had gone..
(tho it did have the presence of the awesome William Smith)

[Perry]

       I agree on the William Smith impact.

[Hocine]

Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can are two funny movies.
Making movies with an ape is unusual.
Clint Eastwood showed that he was able to do not take himself too seriously.
Alright, these movies are not among the best Clint Eastwood pictures.
I prefer the first one even if its screenplay was less structured.
The second film brings nothing new to the first one, in my opinion.
No jazz music here but country music like in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man and Pink Cadillac.
There’s some nostalgia in these movies.
Clint Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe who seems pretty close to the real Clint: like Clint, Philo Beddoe doesn’t smoke but likes drinking beer, is in good shape physically, likes animals and sometimes, has complicated relationships with women. Any Which Way You Can’s final fight is the most spectacular but Every Which Way but Loose’s final fight is more ambiguous, with Philo letting Tank Murdock win.
Philo Beddoe is a winner and a loser at the same time.

[AKA23]

I've only seen the Which Way movies once all the way through, and I don't really have much of a desire to see them again. I get why the movies appealed to Clint (he's an animal lover, and it was a risky project to do at the time), but I don't much like the character of Philo Beddoe. To me, he's not a very Eastwoodian character. He seems quite naive and not very bright, and he allows himself to be manipulated by Sondra Locke's character far too easily.

[Hocine]

I have read somewhere that Every Which Way but Loose’s script was sent to Clint in order that he would give it to Burt Reynolds, who had a box office hit with a similar film, Smokey and the Bandit.
But Clint liked the script and wanted to shoot it himself.
Many people among his professional and private surrounding prevented him from making this picture.
Clint wanted to make a family picture and a non violent one.

Is Philo Beddoe an Eastwoodian character ?

I think that he’s laid back. He likes country music. He announced Bronco Billy and Red Stovall, who are deeper.
He announced Tommy Nowak from Pink Cadillac too.
John Doherty from Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and Ben Shockley from The Gauntlet are close to Philo Beddoe in many ways: they are laid back too and wanted to live their American dream in their own way.
They are not necessarily smart and they are naive too.
But they want to be left alone and have some individualistic values like many characters played by Clint and perhaps like Clint Eastwood himself. They are physically strong and sometimes they can overcome some obstacles thanks to their fists.
Philo Beddoe is far from the Man with No Name and Harry Callahan.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can, Honkytonk Man and Pink Cadillac are his redneck movies.

[Gant]

I think the naive and none too bright aspects of Beddoe is part of what makes the character a little different for Eastwood and quite appealing...

[Gant]

I can't believe I only just realised that William Smiths character in AWWYC  is named Jack Wilson, the same name given to Jack Palance in Shane.... Palance  and Smith are two of the greatest baddies in cinema history....

I wonder what else will occur to me neatly 40 years later...

[Christopher]

I can't believe I only just realised that William Smiths character in AWWYC  is named Jack Wilson, the same name given to Jack Palance in Shane.... Palance  and Smith are two of the greatest baddies in cinema history....

I wonder if that was intentional.

[Gant]

I reckon so...

[Perry]

          Was watching part of it yesterday and the thing that really stands out are the stock actors Eastwood employed over the years. William O'Connell really was a hidden gem. Even a guy like Dan Vadis who Eastwood must had known beforehand while both were in Europe in the 60's and guys like Jphn Quade, Roy Jenson, Bill Mckinney and Greg Walcott were very underrated. I had forgotten James McEeachin was in the movie. I guess you have to laugh at the fact that Ruth Gordon who was a great stage and film actress as well as a playwright was in this movie and the sequel..

[Hocine]

          Was watching part of it yesterday and the thing that really stands out are the stock actors Eastwood employed over the years. William O'Connell really was a hidden gem. Even a guy like Dan Vadis who Eastwood must had known beforehand while both were in Europe in the 60's and guys like Jphn Quade, Roy Jenson, Bill Mckinney and Greg Walcott were very underrated. I had forgotten James McEeachin was in the movie. I guess you have to laugh at the fact that Ruth Gordon who was a great stage and film actress as well as a playwright was in this movie and the sequel..

Yes, Clint Eastwood, through the Malpaso Company, hired the same actors many times in the 70’s.
We can add Geoffrey Lewis who played Orville in Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can.
Even Hank Worden who played Moses in John Ford’s The Searchers appeared in Every Which Way But Loose and later, in Bronco Billy.