Clint Eastwood earned two of his biggest hits via 1978’s comedy Every Which Way But Loose and its 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can. Between those two, Eastwood put out 1980’s Bronco Billy, a modern adventure-comedy with links to the actor’s roots in Westerns.

“Bronco” Billy McCoy (Eastwood) operates a traveling Wild West show, one that struggles to find audiences. With dwindling income, Billy can’t even muster the resources to pay his employees.

As they travel, they encounter Antoinette Lily (Sandra Locke), an heiress whose husband abandoned her on their wedding night and made off with her money. Now short on funds herself, she agrees to join the show as Billy’s assistant, and a romance eventually blooms.

As mentioned earlier, Billy came out during a period where Eastwood enjoyed good box office appeal. That didn’t help this film.

Whereas Any Which Way You Can wound up in fifth place for the year’s ticket sales, Billy sputtered to 26th place. Clearly Eastwood hoped it’d find a bigger audience.

However, like its lead character, Billy seemed like a relic by 1980. Even 39 years ago, this film felt resolutely old-fashioned.

The movie’s gentle qualities and its throwback feel allow it to muster some charm. However, Eastwood creates such a slow, semi-meandering effort that Billy never makes much of an impact.

Billy clearly attempts to meld screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s with the Western, but Eastwood can’t make the two genres connect. Whereas the comedies thrive on energy and wackiness, Eastwood gives Billy a lumbering, laconic vibe that doesn’t suit the potential laughs.

Locke clearly bases her performance on Katharine Hepburn, a choice that reminds us even more of the comedies from earlier decades. With a nod toward classics like Philadelphia Story, Billy needs more kick than Eastwood wants to provide.

The movie largely seems to exist as Eastwood’s love letter toward days long gone. He views the Wild West show and its participants in a romanticized way that makes them uniformly sweet and charming, without a seedy grifter in sight.

If Eastwood allowed the film to show more spark, this fantasy take on carnival life might seem less awkward, but Billy really does ramble. It includes a plot related to Antoinette and her husband/family, but it ignores that thread for too long, as it prefers life on the road with the performers.

Again, some of these scenes manage charm, but too many drag and feel superfluous. Bronco Billy fails to present an especially entertaining ride.

Bronco Billy appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film came with a decent but dated image.

Sharpness usually appeared fairly concise, with only an occasional soft shots, mainly during interiors. While never razor-sharp, the image came across with reasonable delineation.

I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and the image lacked edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to materialize.

Colors went with a fairly natural orientation much of the time. A few brighter hues appeared on occasion and they added some life, though much of the film felt earthy. The hues lacked pop but they seemed acceptable.

Blacks were fairly dark and deep, while shadows showed reasonable clarity. Nothing here impressed, but the image remained more than watchable.

I found the film’s DTS-HD MA stereo soundtrack to seem acceptable for its era. Music spread across the front speakers in a pleasing manner, and some effects cropped up on the sides as well.

These elements usually stemmed from vehicles, as cars, trucks and trains moved across the channels. Other effects brought pretty good localization, though a lot of the mix felt pretty monaural.

Speech showed a little edginess at times and the lines seemed somewhat tinny, but dialogue appeared intelligible. Music failed to show great impact but the songs and score gave us decent clarity.

Effects didn’t bring much punch, and distortion to elements like gunfire occurred. This turned into a pretty mediocre mix.

The Blu-ray includes the film’s trailer but it lacks other extras.

Allegedly Clint Eastwood views Bronco Billy as one of his favorites among the films he made. I can’t figure out why, as the movie tends to feel sluggish and lackluster. The Blu-ray brings decent picture and audio but it lacks bonus features. This becomes a forgettable effort.