`Eastwood On Eastwood': Where Is Sondra Locke?

----------------------------------------------------------------- "Eastwood on Eastwood," feature-length documentary at 4 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday on TNT. Repeated at 8 p.m. Thursday, 9 p.m. next Sunday and 8 p.m. Nov. 28. -----------------------------------------------------------------

This highly selective overview of Clint Eastwood's movie career was created "with a level of personal access and intimacy that only his participation could provide," according to TNT's press notes.

Apparently that participation came at a price: the omission of Sondra Locke, his lover for 13 years and his co-star in six pictures, including the most popular entry in the "Dirty Harry" series, "Sudden Impact" (which Cinemax will show at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday). Their bitter breakup appears to be the cause.

While there's a brief mention of Eastwood's ex-wife, Maggie, who did not appear in his pictures, clips from the Locke/Eastwood movies have been edited so carefully that she doesn't appear to have been in any of them. It's like making a documentary about Humphrey Bogart and failing to mention Lauren Bacall.

For long stretches, the program also seems like a promotional film for Eastwood's latest picture, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," which opens in theaters Nov. 21. It's even narrated by one of that film's stars, John Cusack. Also coming out in November: the paperback edition of "Clint Eastwood: A Biography," which was written by this program's writer-director, Richard Schickel.

Still, the clips from Eastwood's other movies are well chosen, and Eastwood's comments on them are often instructive. He describes Rowdy Yates, the character he played in his television series, "Rawhide," as "the idiot of the plains" - a character who was so patronized by his co-star, Eric Fleming, that Eastwood felt he had to do something else.

That turned out to be "A Fistful of Dollars," a revisionist spaghetti Western that turned him into an international star in the mid-1960s. Just a few years later, with Don Siegel acting as mentor, Eastwood would be directing his own pictures, eventually earning Oscars for directing and producing "Unforgiven."

It would be interesting to hear Eastwood's comments on his most recent box-office flops, "Absolute Power" and the underrated "A Perfect World," which gave Kevin Costner one of his best roles. Neither is mentioned or excerpted in "Eastwood on Eastwood."

For a different view of Eastwood's career, check out Locke's new book, "The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey" (William Morrow, $25), which presents Eastwood as a crafty, vindictive manipulator. She certainly has an ax to grind, but at least she acknowledges her co-star and his talent.