Dirty Harry Week: Sudden Impact

Hey there folks and welcome to Day 4 of the Dirty Harry Week.  We are finishing up here because my copy of The Dead Pool VHS died horribly in a move 9 years previously.  I would much rather catch up with Callahan and his ability to attract danger and craziness all the while solving what appears to be random homicides.  This time around Eastwood is beyond and in front of the camera which sounds like a complicated adult film maneuver but he is directing as well as acting.  This is Sudden Impact.

This is my "You've really stepped in it" face.

Chief Lester Jannings: So you're the famous Harry Callahan. So I'm going to tell you two things. We don't have any spoilers in this town and we don't need any from you. Got it?
Harry Callahan: Aye-aye, sir.

Callahan is getting razed by a judge due to yet another unreasonable search and seizure and the little pukes get to walk.  They snark on Callahan in the elevator and Harry sets them straight by terrifying them with size and snarl.   No sooner is he back on the streets he interrupts a robbery at his favorite diner by smoking three of the four scumbags and tells the surviving punk to make his day.  The smart lad drops his pistol and gives up.  Disrupting a stakeout of an alleged crime boss Threlkis at his granddaughter's wedding, the slime finds out he actually has a heart as it fails on him and he vapor locks.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy in this writer's opinion and Harry agrees.

Difference of opinions.

Callahan's superiors are teed off at the actions of the inspector leading to this heart attack and  grumble at his methods demanding Harry takes a vacation rather than they suspend him.
No sooner is Harry on vacation that four of Threlkis's men try to ambush him leading to three of them having holes inside them the size of cantaloupe and one managed to escape.  Lt. Donnelly (Michael Currie of Dark Shadows, Soap, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Dead Pool and Dying Time) gives Harry an assignment to San Paulo where a previous homicide used to live so Harry is to do some background checking and then report back.  Meanwhile in San Paulo a similiar homicide that occured in San Francisco happens.  Harry digs deeper in spite of Chief Jennings (Pat Hingle of Invitation to a Gunfighter, Hang 'Em High, Nightmare Honeymoon, Batman and Batman Returns) grumblings.
  
Harry starts to fall for an artist with a dark past, Jennifer (Sondra Locke of The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy and Any Which Way You Can) but the clock is ticking as the homicides keep piling up in this small town.  I think Death and Harry have an agreement or understanding.

I had just some fun trivia on the movie.  This would be the eleventh movie Eastwood directed and the only Dirty Harry Movie Eastwood directed.  Furthermore, this is the first Dirty Harry film that Harry does not have a partner backing him up and still remains the highest-grossing of the Dirty Harry franchise.

I use this one for bears and kids blaring their hip hop.

#425!!!! Dirty Harry Week: The Enforcer

Hello you Harry fans and welcome to Day 3 of Dirty Harry Week.  Our installment this time around deals with hostages, militants and lots of military hardware.  With two sects of revolutionaries harassing the good citizens of San Francisco, it's up to Inspector Callahan to wage in and cash these punks out.  This is The Enforcer.

Harry, slow down . I'm in heels for crying out loud.

Harry Callahan: Here's a seven-point suppository, Captain.
Capt McKay: What did you say?
Harry Callahan: I said stick it in your spoiler.


Marin County lose a few gas company men as they are lured away from their route by a little blonde with great legs, Miki (Jocelyn Jones of  The Other Side of the Mountain,The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, Fun and Games and Nowhere to Run) who assists her psycho former Vietnam Vet boyfriend and all around thug Bobby (DeVeren Bookwalter of The Omega Man, Cover Girls, Manhole, Evita Peron and Richard II).  Bobby's crew calls themselves the People's Revolutionary Strike Force (which makes a really crappy acronym) who plan to use the van and uniforms for a heist.

Callahan and DiGiorgio (John Mitchum of Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Telefon and The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains) are on the scene of a liquor store robbery gone bad and they have hostages.  They demand a fast car with a police radio before they give up any hostages.  Callahan drives his squad car through a plate glass window and ventilates the perps thus saving the day.   Callahan's uptight wank of a Captain chews Callahan's butt for the damage to the store and the injury of the hostages from flying glass sending Harry to Personnel.

Typical Tuesday in San Fran.

DiGiorgio is wounded stumbling on the PRSF's weapons heist, including LAW rockets and M-16s and Harry is assigned to the case along with a new female inspector Kate Moore (Tyne Daly of Cagney & Lacey, The Last to Go, Face of a Stranger, Christy, Bye Bye Birdie and The Autumn Heart).  Working the streets, Harry sits in with a black militant group Uhuru, our former Vietnam Vet was associated with and the leader of the group tells Harry what he needs to know and pretty much establishes to get that psycho off the street before he sees black and white squaddies in his neighborhood.

Harry and Kate are in hot pursuit now but can they find these lunatics before all hell breaks loose?
I had a quick couple of observations on the film now.  The two militant organizations are clearly based off of the Symbionese Liberation Army (the folks that brainwashed Patty Hearst) and the Black Panther Party but for obvious reasons they did not use either real named parties.

The Enforcer cleared over $60 million stateside and another $120 million overseas making this one of the most grossing Eastwood movies of its time.  The biggest SNAFU of this movie was a lawsuit aimed at Eastwood for the title The Enforcer.  Writer Bretaigne Windust (June Bride, The Pied Piper of Hamelin and Winter Meeting) was annoyed his title ending up as Eastwood's working title and Eastwood simply stated that is where the inspiration came from.  Warner Brothers produced both films of course and the case was dismissed.

We don't dig the establishment, man!

Dirty Harry Week: Magnum Force

Welcome back to Day 2 of Dirty Harry Week.  Today is one of my personal favorites out of the batch.  Homicides are piling up in the old town of San Francisco, which is nothing new but this time around the victims may all have something in common and it is up to Harry to figure out what is going on and how to stop it.  This is Magnum Force.

Scram Mormons!!!

Harry Callahan:  The rest of you could shoot like them, I wouldn't care if the whole damn department was spoiler.



Mobster Ricca gets acquitted due to a technicality in the case and is off on the road when a traffic cop pulls him over.  No sooner is he done looking at the driver's ID he comes back and wastes all three men in the car at point blank range.

Inspector Callahan and his partner Early Smith (Felton Perry of The Towering Inferno, Sudden Death, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Robocop and Robocop 2) have been lifted from Homicide to a stake out duty on a kingpin when their Lieutenant, Neil Briggs (Hal Holbrook of All the President's Men, Lincoln, Midway, The Fog and The Bachelor) has Ricca and crew's homicides looked into and Harry is just the man to stick the job with.   Early and Harry look over the Lincoln and get the ballistics and corner reports while an house party of a known scumbag gets gunned down, guests and all.

Doing anything tonight, bright eyes?

As Callahan and Smith pursue the case, a known pimp is also smoked like turkey at close range but Harry notices the pimp's cash is available like a bribe to a traffic cop.  Later that day Callahan meets four rookie traffic cops with impeccable aim at the gun range.  Turns out all four men are former Airborne Rangers and chose to carry the good fight on in civvie life via police.

I had just a few comments to make about this film.  This is the second of the Dirty Harry series as was directed by Ted Post (Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Hang 'Em High, Peyton Place and Beneath the Planet of the Apes).  Our four rookies are played by David Soul (Here Come the Brides, Starsky and Hutch, Salem's Lot and Tides of War) Tim Matheson (Animal House, 1941, Fletch, Cannonball Fever, Trial & Error and Burn Notice) Kip Niven (Earthquake, Damnation Alley, New Year's Evil and The Painting), who I didn't immediately recognize and lastly but certainly not least Robert Urich (SWAT, Vegas, Spencer: For Hire and Night of the Wolf).

 With a fast pace, disturbing content and a bit of nudity this hard hitting action film pushed boundaries and make us root for Harry yet again.

JUST PAY THE PARKING FINE!!!!

Dirty Harry Week: Dirty Harry

Hey kids and welcome to Day 1 of Dirty Harry Week.  The saga of Inspector Callahan and his Smith and Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum.  Personally anything over a .357 Python seems to be a bit much but hey this cat can one hand it so more power to him.  A different breed of cop is needed for the streets of the 1970's.  One that has the stomach to dish it out as much as he takes.  So hand me that oil, prep me some hollow points and cover your ears.  This is Dirty Harry.

HANDS AT TEN AND TWO!!!

De Georgio: Morning, Harry.
Morning, fatso. Spoiler wants to see you.
De Georgio: You are a sweet man, Harry.



A serial killer roams the street of San Francisco and prowls its rooftops with a sniper rifle.  He calls himself Scorpio (Andrew Robinson of Barnaby Jones, Cobra, Hellrasier, Shoot to Kill, Child's Play 3 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and seems to murder at random or when it suits his purpose.  He demands $100,000 dollars from the Mayor's office or his next target will be a priest or a n*gger.  The Mayor (John Vernon of Point Blank, Topaz, The Outlaw Josey Wales and  Animal House) wants this handled with care as they are not about to pay an assassin to not kill deeming it terrorism and asks Inspector Callahan (Clint Eastwood of Rawhide, Fistful of Dollars, Magnum Force, Sudden Impact, Heartbreak Ridge and Unforgiven) to defuse this situation with subtly and diplomacy.

Oh yes, he looks completely sane.

Harry's Lieutenant, Bressler (Harry Guardino of Houseboat, Pork Chop Hill, The Five Pennies and The Enforcer) is a bit of a kiss ass, easy going with the brown nosers and has no issues with the press conferences but must have an ulcer the size of a softball with Harry's pension for attracting wackos, weirdos and scumbags.
Our villain is stepping up the game as he kidnaps a girl to make up for being shot at by Harry after a foiled attempt on a priest's life.  The first face-to-face meeting with Scorpio, he comes alone and unarmed.  Scorpio kicks hims, taunts him about he may kill the girl anyway and Harry stabs the slime with a switchblade.  Only to start the dance all over again.

I have just a few comments to make at this time. The National Film Registry deemed this film historically and culturally significant for a full restoration in 2012.

Andrew Robinson's portrayal of Scorpio was so effective that he had to get an unlisted number after several death threats from mail and phone.  Wonder if Kane Hodder is approached with axes, hammers and pitchforks for being an effective Jason Vorhees.  Robinson ad-libbed his line"My, that's a big one" aimed at Harry's hand cannon and the scene had to be reshot due to laughing crew.   Eastwood performed all his own stunts, even leaping onto the roof of the bus.  Guess he's no sissy.

Get back in your seats and STOP DOING THE WAVE!!

Dirty Harry Week

Hey folks.  Sorry for being AWOL today.  I am building cosplay costumes for a photo shoot later this April and I lost track of time.   This week I thought we would tackle the original glib action hero.  A man of few words, dirty deeds and a hog leg that could blow your head clean off.  I speak of none other than Inspector Harry Callahan otherwise known as " Dirty Harry".  A rough and tumble modern day cowboy that totes a hand cannon .44 magnum six shooter.   The inspector works homicide for San Francisco Police Department and is given every dirty job that comes down the pike because he can stomach it but he doesn't have to like it.  He's rude, mean and packs a helluva right hook when he isn't blasting an offender and is exactly the man you need for the scum plaguing the streets whether the higher ups want to admit it or not.
   
Played by Clint Eastwood at the time was known primarily from the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Eastwood did appearances in Maverick and Death Valley Days before becoming a regular on Rawhide.  Dirty Harry allowed him to showcase a cop that didn't follow every rule and bend the others to get the job done.  Without setting this paradigm character there would be no Axel Foley of Beverly Hills Cop or John McClane of Die Hard.   That in mind let's enjoy the Dirty Harry Collection and hope that no punk thinks he is lucky enough to handle the man.

Like the suit?  Well, do you, punk?