Movie Review: Every Which Way But Loose

Every Which Way But Loose

Warner Bros., The Malpaso Company, USA, 1978.

Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) is a truck driver with hard fists. Philo has pet orangutan Clyde (Manis). In the house next door lives his best pal Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis, he was Juliette Lewis' father) and tough as nails Ma (Ruth Gordon). Philo makes some extra bucks in backyard fistfights while Orville takes care of the business side of his fights.

Clyde and Philo

Orville

Ma

In local bar new talent night Philo meets pretty singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke). She needs money to start a bar and a band. Later Philo gets in argument with motor cycle gang The Black Widows. He beats them up and takes their bikes. Philo uses the money to fund Lynn's career. However Lynn leaves without warning, so Philo, Clyde and Orville decide to go after her. Orville picks up a girl named Echo (Beverly D'Angelo) with them. Echo becomes integral part of the team.

Lynn Halsey-Taylor

Just cruisin'

Echo and her cantaloupes

The Black Widows and cops Putnam (Gregory Walcott) and Herb (James McEachin) have a bone to pick with Clyde. Clyde must also have a match with fighting legend Tank Murdock (Walter Barnes). Also Lynn isn't what Philo thinks she is.

The Black Widows

Herb and Putnam

Kreegah bundolo!

Story goes on leisurely with Country & Western music, beer drinking and fistfights carrying the tradition of 1970s redneck comedies. Clint Eastwood is fun in one of his relatively rare comedic roles. In some scenes Clint makes fun of his Western movies. He is still tough guy but in parodical way and in some way more vulnerable than his other hero characters. Considering Clint's filmography this is one of his lightest movies and has a feeling of Burt Reynolds comedies. IMDB trivia knows to tell that Burt was first considered in the role of Philo. However the story has a lot of slack and feels plotless at times. Little shortening could have made the story more fluid. Manis the Orangutan should have won an Oscar.

Part of The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge (#25. Movie that was published in your birth year)

Rating: Good

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D'Angelo, Walter Barnes, George Chandler, Roy Jenson, James McEachin, Bill McKinney, William O'Connell, John Quade, Dan Vadis, Gregory Walcott, Hank Worden, Ruth Gordon, Jerry Brutsche, Cary Michael Cheifer, Janet Cole Notey, Sam Gilman, Chuck Hicks, Timothy P. Irvin, Tim Irwin, Billy Jackson, Joyce Jameson, Richard Jamison, Jackson D. Kane, Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, Fritz Manes, Michael Mann, Lloyd Nelson, George Orrison, Thelma Pelish, William J. Quinn, Tom Runyon, Bruce Scott, Al Silvani, Hartley Silver, Al Stellone, Jan Stratton, Mike Wagner, Guy Way, George P. Wilbur, Gary Davis, Scott Dockstader, Orwin C. Harvey, Gene LeBell, Chuck Waters, Jerry Wills, Manis the Orangutan, Phil Everly, Bob Golden, Harry Guardino, Clay Hodges, Harry Middlebrooks, Frank Noel, Charlie Rich, Thomas Rosales Jr., Judson Scott, Mel Tillis, Roxanne Tunis

Director: James Fargo