Any Which Way You Can (1980)

This sequel to Every Which Way But Loose (1979) typifies the kind of lightweight, disposable comic vehicles that paid Clint Eastwood’s rent in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Short on plot but tall on slapstick humour – and once more featuring real-life girlfriend Sondra Locke as his love interest, Lynn, and the always likeable Geoffrey Lewis as his best buddy Orville – it has a lightweight charm that makes up for the general insignificance of the story.

Eastwood plays Phil Beddoe once again, a sawdust-brained mechanic pushed back into bare-knuckle boxing by the Mafia for one last fight.

Destructive but highly intelligent orangutan Clyde (played by three different apes) steals scenes like an old pro, and there’s an enjoyably overblown climax as Clint and intimidating bruiser Jack Wilson (William Smith) stage a bare-knuckle showdown in the rousing spirit of The Quiet Man (1952).

Where else, in the space of 115 minutes, can you find a country & western road picture with two fights, a bald motorcycle gang, the Mafia, a love story, a pickup truck, a tow truck, Fats Domino, Glen Campbell, a foul-mouthed octogenarian, an oversexed orangutan and a contest for the bare-knuckle championship of the world?

Philo Beddoe
Clint Eastwood
Lynn Halsey-Taylor
Sondra Locke
Orville Boggs
Geoffrey Lewis
Jack Wilson
William Smith
James Beekman
Harry Guardino
Ma 
Ruth Gordon
Patrick Scarfe
Michael Cavanaugh
Fat Zack
Barry Corbin
Moody
Roy Jenson
Dallas
Bill McKinney
Elmo
William O’Connell
Cholla
John Quade
Tony Paoli Sr
Al Ruscio
Frank
Dan Vadis
Hattie
Camila Ashlend
Candy
Julie Brown
Glen Campbell
Himself
Fats Domino
Himself
Buxom Bess
Rebecca Clemons

Director
Buddy Van Horn

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