Clint Eastwood by critics. Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote that film was "...the best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while", and praised Eastwood's directing, intricately juxtaposing the old West and the new West. Later that year, Eastwood starred in "Any Which Way You Can", the sequel to "Every Which Way But Loose". The film received a number of bad reviews from critics, although Maslin described it as "funnier and even better than its predecessor". Released over the Christmas season of 1980, "Any Which Way You Can" was a major box office success and ranked among the
Clint Eastwood in the 1960s James Coburn and Ty Hardin were considered for the main role. When none of them accepted, the producers drew up a list of lesser-known American actors and asked Richard Harrison for his input. He suggested Eastwood because he knew the Rawhide actor could play a cowboy convincingly. Harrison later said: "Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing "Fistful of Dollars", and recommending Clint for the part". While Leone wrote that he was initially distracted by Eastwood, after Fleming turned the role down, Sartori urged him to rewatch the episode and to concentrate on Eastwood instead. Leone asked Irving