Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Philo Beddoe is your regular, easygoing, truck-driving guy. He's also the best bar-room brawler west of the Rockies. And he lives with a 165-pound orangutan named Clyde. Like other guys, Philo finally falls in love - with a flighty singer who leads him on a screwball chase across the American Southwest. Nothing's in the way except a motorcycle gang, some cops, and legendary brawler Tank Murdock.
Every Which Way but Loose is an amiable but loose Clint Eastwood vehicle that coasts on his charisma and the novelty of the Clyde the orangutan gimmick. The plot is thin and meandering — a road chase romance that never quite gels dramatically, with a love interest who feels more frustrating than charming. Eastwood is relaxed and likable, and the supporting cast (Geoffrey Lewis, Sondra Locke) adds texture, keeping acting above average. Cinematography is workmanlike drive-in fare with no distinctive visual ambition. The orangutan and bare-knuckle combo gives it a genuinely odd, one-of-a-kind flavor that lifts Novelty. The ending deflates rather than satisfies, with the romance resolution feeling anticlimactic and the final fight undercut by its own premise.