Ruth Gordon

After years of being sheltered in private school, Clifford Peache finds life difficult at his new Chicago high school, where a tough-talking bully and his pals regularly extort students lunch money. Refusing to pay up, Peache hires a bodyguard, the intimidatingly large class misfit whose rumored violent behavior is legendary. Though everyone else is afraid of him, Peache strikes up a friendship with the troubled loner. Their deepening relationship and unified stand against the thugs manages to rouse the entire school.

Philo Beddoe is your regular, easygoing, truck-driving guy. He's also the best barroom 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, two sneaky off-duty cops and a legendary brawler Tank Murdock. Every Which Way But Loose was a change of pace for Clint Eastwood - and it proved to be one of his most popular films.

For anyone who's wallowed in the inanities of 1970s disaster movies, The Big Bus is not only witty but downright endearing. Instead of an endangered airliner or a capsized cruise ship, this dippily deadpan parody features a block-long, atomic-powered, luxury super-Greyhound setting off on its first transcontinental run with a garish cross section of humankind programmed for redemption, retribution, or just sublime ridiculousness as they roll toward Doom--or Denver, whichever comes first. Writers Fred Freeman and Lawrence J.

Thery're back, Philo Beddoe, the easygoing truck driver and bare-knuckle brawler, and his 165-pound orangutan friend Clyde get into more mischief in this faster and funnier sequel to Every Which Way But Loose. Clint Eastwood starts again as Philo, now thinking he'll retire "from" fighting. But a new contender lures him back - and mobsters kidnap Philo's girl (Sondra Locke) to ensure he'll turn up for the showdown. Ruth Gordon as Ma, Geoffrey Lewis as Orville and those hapless motorcycle morons called the Black Widows all return in fine form.