Shoot first, ask questions later. If this saying were a person, it would most likely be Clint Eastwood: In 66 years of acting, his filmography offers little tenderness. This eventually got on Eastwood’s nerves, as our colleagues at Allociné discovered. At the end of the 1970s, he decided to star in the comedy The Man from San Fernando. His circle of friends clapped his hands over his head.
Clint Eastwood’s unusual action comedy became a mega hit
The Man from San Fernando revolves around Philo Beddoe (Eastwood), a Californian truck driver and prize fighter who travels around with his orangutan Clyde. One day, Beddoe falls in love with the aspiring country singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke). When she disappears without a trace, he sets out to find her, which is soon accompanied by a Motorcycle gang and a vengeful policeman Of his unusual role, Eastwood told the Guardian:
My agent and everyone else begged me not to make the film. After Dirty Harry and all those other action adventures, he said, ‘That’s not you,’ and I said, ‘Well, who am I? I don’t know.’ […] In a strange way, the film was hip, everything was a bit weird. A strange guy tells an orangutan his troubles and loses the girl. Everything was a bit strange.
Watch the trailer for The Man from San Fernando here:
Every Which Way But Loose – Trailer (English)
The fear of Eastwood’s entourage was unfounded, at least in financial terms. The action comedy grossed 104 million US dollars (via The Numbers ), one of the most successful films in the actor’s 25-year career to date. According to Metacritic, the critical reaction to the film was particularly below average.
Podcast for Eastwood fans: 8 brilliant westerns that are really worth watching
Whether thanks to series hits like Yellowstone and 1883 or Tarantino masterpieces like Django Unchained: the Western genre is experiencing a popularity like never before. For all fans, we have selected the best Westerns that you can stream right now.
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The 8 Western highlights presented on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and MUBI include both absolute classics and lesser-known insider tips. There is something for every genre fan: Our recommendations cover a full 55 years of Western history between 1964 and 2019.