News

Quick Links Eastwood's Long String of Duds and Flops How Eastwood's Early Setbacks Shaped His Career Today

Clint Eastwood is one of the most iconic actors of all time. While primarily known for directing today, Eastwood started his career by appearing in several famous Westerns and crime flicks. A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Dirty Harry, and The Outlaw Josey Wales are among the greatest early works. But Eastwood didn't rise to fame overnight. He had to endure a long string of critical and commercial flops before finally breaking through with A Fistful of Dollars. But just how many?

It took a whopping nine duds before Eastwood finally found his mark. With all his success, looking back on that run of failures today is surprising. So what went wrong? Several of these early entries were low-budget B-movies, with Eastwood appearing in cameo or uncredited roles.

Some actors are linked forever to certain genres: Humphrey Bogart and film noir, Hugh Grant and romantic comedies, Clint Eastwood and Westerns. And yet, just because an actor might be tied indelibly to a certain genre doesn't necessitate that it's one of their personal favorites.

The aforementioned Clint Eastwood is a living legend to Cowboy enthusiasts everywhere, but the one movie he loves the most has nothing to do with the Wild West at all. Instead, it's a revolutionary noir comedy helmed by one of the most talented screenwriters of any generation, Billy Wilder. Moreover, the potential impact this seminal film had on Clint's career is worth exploring.

Related 10 Best Film Noir Movies, Ranked

The film noir genre massively influenced American cinema throughout the 1940s and '50s, spawning several iconic movies in the process.

So, What Is Clint Eastwood's Favorite Film? A Movie About the Greatest Star of Them...

If you're lucky enough to be graced with cash or gift cards this Christmas, and you have a big hole on your DVD shelf where Clint Eastwood ought to be, Warner Bros will be happy to help you out. On February 16 they're releasing a massive, 19-disc collection Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years at Warner Bros that celebrates the actor / director / producer. Included will be a booklet and a feature length documentary by Richard Schickel. The retail price will be a hefty $179.98.

Warners didn't release a complete list of those 35 films, but it spans the tender years of Where Eagles Dare all the way to 2008's Gran Torino. I imagine there will be some crossover with what you already own, like the entire Dirty Harry collection and The Outlaw Josey Wales. But most of his output from the late 1970s onward was done at Warner Bros, so all those films you've...

Paul Burke was a leading actor from the 1950s and the star of the 1957 horror film The Disembodied. He starred as Tom Maxwell, an author and adventurer who runs afoul of voodoo queen Allison Hayes when he becomes part of a romantic triangle with the queen and her older husband while on an expedition in the deep jungles of Africa.

Burke was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 21, 1926, and was the son of boxer Martin Burke. He went to Hollywood in the mid-1940s and studied acting as the Pasadena Playhouse. He began his film career in the early 1950s with small roles in several films including the talking-mule fantasies Francis Goes to West Point (1952) and Francis in the Navy (1955). He moved up to larger roles later in the decade with the voodoo horror film The Disembodied (1957).

He also became a familiar face on television from the 1950s, with...