Eastwood Retrospective

Your “Today’s Best Bets” column (July 2) states that Sergio Leone resurrected Clint Eastwood’s career. I wish to question the word “resurrected.”

Records show that Leone’s three Eastwood films did not fare well when they opened in the United States. To take it a step further, the general feeling that existed then was that an American actor making an Italian movie was taking a step backward. It buttressed the impression that Eastwood was not exactly in demand at home.

Nevertheless, Leone’s three Eastwood films were highly successful in Italy, Japan and South America. The above lucrative results ignited United Artists’ determination to do a film with Eastwood. “Hang ‘Em High,” which I directed, was Eastwood’s first full-fledged American effort and, despite its mixed reviews, helped UA keep its bank account from evaporating and at the same time catapulted Eastwood, as a star, in the American marketplace. It was then that Universal and Warner Bros. embraced him. The rest is history.

TED POST, Los Angeles