Any Which Way You Can (1980)

★ 5.8 1h 55m IMDb
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Philo takes part in a bare knuckle fight – as he does – to make more money than he can earn from his car repair business. He decides to retire, but when the Mafia come along and arrange another fight, he's pushed into it. A motorcycle gang and an orangutan called Clyde all add to the 'fun'.

Any Which Way You Can

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Cast

Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood as Philo Beddoe Age 95 · San Francisco, California, USA Clinton "Clint" Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer, and former politician. Following his breakthrough role on the TV series "Rawhide" (1959–65), E...
Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke as Lynn Halsey-Taylor Died 2018 · Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA Sondra Locke (May 28, 1947 - November 3, 2018) was an American actress, singer and film director. She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), for which she was nominated for an Aca...
Geoffrey Lewis
Geoffrey Lewis as Orville Boggs Died 2015 · Plainfield, New Jersey, USA Geoffrey Bond Lewis (July 31, 1935 – April 7, 2015) was an American character actor. His filmography includes television shows such as Law & Order: Criminal Intent and My Name is Earl, as well as fil...
William Smith
William Smith as Jack Wilson Died 2021 · Columbia, Missouri, USA William Smith was an American film and television actor who appeared in more than 300 feature films and television productions, best known for playing Anthony Falconetti on the TV mini series "Rich Ma...
Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino as James Beekman Died 1995 · New York City, New York, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Harry Guardino (December 23, 1925—July 17, 1995) was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a sh...
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon as Ma Boggs Died 1985 · Quincy, Massachusetts, USA Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter and playwright. Gordon began her career performing on Broadway at age nineteen. Known for her nasal voice...

Audience Reviews

Ian Beale 8/10 Feb 16, 2017
**Eastwood apes his owm image again.**

This superior sequel to _Every Which Way But Loose_ is a lot of fun and has more laughs than its choppy predecessor.

Phil Beddoe and his monkey are targeted by the mafia who make him an offer he cannot refuse. Along the way he encounters his _arch enemies_ - the _cretinous_ Black Widow biker gang who have a score to settle.

Big laughs, big fun and a big ape who is not above _soiling_ in police cars make this a lot of fun.


- Ian Beale
John Chard 7/10 Nov 17, 2019
More of the same in pleasant sequel to Every Which Way But Loose.

Any Which Way You can is directed by Buddy Van Horn and written by Stanford Sherman and Jeremy Joe Kronsberg. It stars Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith and C.J. the Orangutan.

Philo decides to retire from bare knuckle fighting, but when the Mafia come along and arrange another fight, he is spurred on to take another big money fight. The Black Widows motorcycle gang are still after his blood, Clyde the orangutan is still creating mischief, and Lynn Halsey-Taylor is trying to make up for breaking Philo's heart.

Much like the first film this is all very silly but ultimately great fun. Crux of the narrative is Philo being dragged back into the bare knuckle fight game to fight the street fighting king Jack Wilson (Smith excellent). All this and matters of the heart are trying to be repaired. Clyde the orangutan is once again a ball of mischief fun making, while the crowning glory that is the big fight is superbly staged and prolonged for grand effect.

There's a wonderfully fruity section that sees parallel seductions going on - including Clyde and a lady orangutan - and there's actually some adult writing in how the fighters are shown to be compassionate men, as opposed to just being brainless thugs making a few bucks. It was another big hit at the box office, once again proving that sometimes theatre goers just want to leave the brain at the door and have a fun time of things. 7/10
r96sk 4/10 Jan 20, 2022
<em>'Any Which Way You Can'</em> is woeful.

It would be quicker to note what I liked about this - nothing - than to note the negatives. It's such a haphazardly created film, with every detail of it being either nonsensical, extremely forced or just dull. It's such a drag also, I checked the elapsed time at one point expecting to see at least 1hr 15mins... I had seen barely 40 minutes.

Clint Eastwood tries his best, I guess, and is one of the brighter parts, everyone else is very forgettable - including Sondra Locke's Lynn, who is all of a sudden the opposite to what they set up in the original. Then you also have the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Any_Which_Way_You_Can#:~:text=Manis%2C%20the%20orangutan,William%20Munns.%5B9%5D">dodginess</a> of stuff offscreen with the orangutans.

To think, this beat a Warner Bros. box office single day record set by <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/superman/">Superman</a>'</em>. 1980 - you poor, poor souls.

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