"THE GAUNTLET"........THE CLINT 'N SONDRA VARIETY SHOW.......

The Gauntlet (1977)    We thought we'd use this post as a sort of R.I.P. for Sondra Locke, an actress who spent the most high profile part of her career as both co-star and live in companion to Clint Eastwood........

                Honestly, we can't work up all that much praise for the Eastwood-Locke team.......she seemed to go along for the ride, playing primarily abrasive babes along side Eastwood's patented irascible tough guys.........

                If there was chemistry in their relationship, we never saw any of it on screen......they came off as two supremely self-contained actors giving separate performances........they intersected only because......well, that's what the plot called for.......

                  It's possible these film might have improved a bit with actresses who attempted to engage more directly with Eastwood......but who knows.

                 In fact Barbra Streisand was designated for "The Gauntlet" before her falling out of the project.......so inevitably, in came Locke.......

                  Locke was a competent enough actress and she gave it her all, playing a tough-as-nails hooker who's a star witness in an upcoming mob trial. Eastwood's the burn-out drunk cop given the thankless task of transporting her from Las Vegas to Phoenix for her court date.....

                   And it doesn't take long for him to figure out he and Locke have been  targeted for death by the evil police commissioner (William Prince), who's in league with the mob.....

                   Thus starts a bumpy desert road trip, with our squabbling duo regularly assaulted by both cops and mob guys.......who subject them to more sustained gunfire than expended in World War 2.

                 The grand finale (and what seems to be the film's entire reason for existence) features Eastwood and Locke driving a cross-country passenger bus into downtown Phoenix through a hail of bullets, courtesy of the entire city police force.

                   Supremely idiotic......but yeah, a hell of a guilty pleasure to watch.

                  Even more stupid, the heavily armed cops, after subjecting Clint and Sondra to Battle Of The Bulge firepower, patiently gather around the two, allowing them to polish off the villains right in front of them.......cause......that's how it read in the script, we guess........

                  As everyone knows, the Eastwood-Locke pairing ended as badly and toxic as possible with multiple lawsuits and Eastwood using the full force of his influence and stardom to thwart Locke's attempts at a directing career........

                At the news of her death, we contemplated how Locke's career might have gone without her long period of toiling as excess baggage in Eastwood vehicles........maybe even lucking into a film or two that showcased her commitment to fierce performances.......

                 Ironically, she got such a chance with her last Eastwood effort, "Sudden Impact", playing the vigilante rape victim who's the only kind of criminal who could warm  Dirty Harry's cold, cold hear.......but alas, it was, after all, a Dirty Harry movie.......and that's all anyone really remembered about it.........

                2 stars (**).......for the bus finale and for the striking poster done by the legendary sci-fi-fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. Standard stuff for Eastwood at the time......but Sondra deserved better movies than this one.........