Taglines: Faster, funnier and wilder. It’ll knock you out.
Any Which Way You Can movie storyline. Philo takes part in a bare knuckle fight – as he does – to make some more money than he can earn from his car repair business. He decides to retire from fighting, but when the Mafia come along and arrange another fight, he is pushed into it. A motorcycle gang and an orangutan called Clyde all add to the ‘fun’.
Any Which Way You Can is a 1980 American action comedy film, starring Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, and Ruth Gordon. It is directed by Buddy Van Horn. The film is the sequel to the 1978 hit comedy film Every Which Way but Loose.
About the Story
Two years after throwing his fight with Tank Murdock at the end of Every Which Way but Loose, Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) keeps fighting in underground bare-knuckle boxing matches to make money on the side. Philo decides to retire when he realizes that he has started to enjoy the pain. Philo and his manager Orville (Geoffrey Lewis) decide to end his career. The problem is Jack Wilson (William Smith), a new breed of East Coast brawler who mixes martial arts with boxing. He is so effective at maiming his opponents that his handlers cannot book fights for him.
The Black Widows, the biker gang with a long-running grudge against Philo, make their return. They still want revenge for the destruction of their bikes last time. However, Philo bests them in a chase that runs through an asphalt machine during a road-paving project. They lose their hair and must wear wigs and penciled-on eyebrows to camouflage their appearance.
After a fight between a mongoose and a rattlesnake, one of the handlers realizes that if Philo, king of the West Coast brawlers, agreed to fight Wilson it would be the biggest draw in the history of modern bareknuckle fighting. The Handlers, led by handicapper Jimmy Beekman (Harry Guardino), in conjunction with the mafia, kidnap Philo’s love interest, country-western singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke), in order to coerce Philo to agree to the fight. Wilson, however, is a prize fighter with a sense of right and wrong.
After learning of the plot, and helping Philo and Orville rescue Lynn, he decides they really don’t need to fight to prove who is best. On the other hand, both fighter’s personal pride makes them wonder who would have won. The long brawl between the two characters ends up taking place, but is punctuated by pauses and personal reflections on their mutual admiration. Near the end, Wilson breaks Philo’s arm and offers to end the fight, but the two men continue the brawl. In the end, Philo knocks Wilson out long enough to qualify for a win. Wilson helps Philo to the hospital to have his arm looked at, and the fighters and their friends have a beer at a bar.
Any Which Way You Can (1980)
Directed by: Buddy Van Horn
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, Harry Guardino, Ruth Gordon, Camila Ashland
Screenplay by: Jeremy Joe Kronsberg, Stanford Sherman
Production Design by: William J. Creber
Cinematography by: David Worth
Film Editing by: Ron Spang, Ferris Webster
Set Decoration by: Ernie Bishop
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 17, 1980
Visits: 45
