Trivia for
Dirty Harry (1971) More at IMDbPro »

• When Don Siegel was hired as director, he was considering Audie Murphy for the role of Scorpio. Siegel thought it would be a nice irony to have a genuine war hero and heroic screen icon known for playing clean-cut characters playing a psychopathic killer. Siegel offered Murphy the role, but Murphy died in a plane crash on 28 May 1971 prior to making his final decision.
  
  
• The opening sniper scenes were shot from atop San Francisco's Bank of America Building located at 555 California Street. The sniper's target is a girl swimming in the pool on the roof of the Holiday Inn in Chinatown, a few blocks north at 750 Kearny Street.
  
  
• After the film was released, actor Andrew Robinson received several death threats, and had to get an unlisted phone number.
  
  
• Andrew Robinson who played Scorpio, claims to have ad-libbed the line "Hubba, hubba, hubba, pig bastard" while taunting Harry on the phone.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Don Siegel] pedestrian walking past Harry's car when he and Chico return to police headquarters.
  
  
• When Universal let go of the script, Warner Bros. purchased it with a view to cast Frank Sinatra. Sinatra was interested, however he had broken his wrist during the filming of The Manchurian Candidate (1962) eight years previously, and during contract negotiations, he found the large handgun too unwieldy. Additionally, his father had recently passed away, and Sinatra decided he wanted to do some lighter material. After Sinatra dropped out, Warner Bros. considered Marlon Brando for the role, but never officially approached him. Next, they offered it to Steve McQueen and then Paul Newman, both of whom turned it down. Newman however suggested Clint Eastwood as a possible star.
  
  
• Dirty Harry's gun is supposedly a Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, chambered for a .44 Magnum cartridge. In the film, the gun is shown as being capable of sending assailants flying through the air, even when shot from a distance, however, in reality the gun does not produce such dramatic results. Additionally, the .44 Magnum round is not considered to be a practical caliber for urban police force use due to recoil (which makes target re-acquisition difficult) and over-penetration issues, which greatly increases the likelihood of the bullet going through its target and injuring bystanders. The actual gun used on set by Clint Eastwood was reportedly not a Smith & Wesson Model 29. According to a story circulated by a member of the studio's prop department, Smith & Wesson did not have a Model 29 in stock at the time, and so a Smith & Wesson Model 57 chambered for a .41 Magnum cartridge was used. The Model 29 and Model 57 are identical except for minute differences in bore size, chamber dimensions, and exterior markings, none of which are visible in the film. Fans however, have claimed that in a close up at the end of the film, the gun carried by Eastwood is in fact a genuine Model 29 chambered for a .44 Magnum. The close-up clearly shows the markings "44 MAGNU," with the final "M" blocked from view.
  
  
• Serial killer Scorpio was loosely based on the Zodiac killer, who used to taunt police and media with notes about his crimes, in one of which he threatened to hijack a school bus full of children. The role of Harry Callahan was loosely based on real life detective David Toschi who was the chief investigator in the Zodiac case.
  
  
• In real life, Andrew Robinson is a pacifist who despises guns. In the early days of principal photography, Robinson would flinch violently every time he fired. Director Don Siegel was forced to shut down production for a time and sent Robinson to a school to learn to fire a gun convincingly. However, he still blinks noticeably when he shoots. Robinson was also squeamish about filming the scene where he verbally and physically abuses several schoolchildren, and the scene where he racially insults the man he pays to beat him up (Curtis Mayfield).
  
  
• As is well known, Clint Eastwood directed the scene with the suicide jumper (Bill Couch). However, it is often claimed he directed the scene only because Don Siegel was ill. This is inaccurate. Siegel was indeed ill, and wasn't on the set, but Eastwood had always been scheduled to direct that scene, due to the difficult logistics of getting the actors, director, camera-man and sound-man all together on the top of a small ledge. In the shooting schedule, 6 nights had been set aside for the shooting of the scene. Eastwood told the studio he could shoot it in two nights. In the end, he shot the entire scene in one night.
  
  
• After Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel came on board the project, they hired writer Dean Riesner to work on the script. In his first rewrite, the bank robbery scene ends with Harry not pointing the gun at the robber, but placing it against his own temple. He pulls the trigger, laughs and then walks away. Eastwood and Siegel both felt this was too extreme, even for Harry Callahan.
  
  
• The Hutchinson Co. quarry where the final shootout takes place was located just south of the Larkspur exit off highway 101. It was demolished in the mid 1980s.
  
  
• Albert Popwell appeared in every "Dirty Harry" film except The Dead Pool (1988) playing a different character in each movie.
  
  
• The bridge Callahan jumps off landing on the roof of a schoolbus (in Larkspur, California) was torn down in August 2003 after being damaged by a truck two months earlier.
  
  
• All the outdoor scenes were actually filmed in San Francisco except for the bank robbery which Dirty Harry foils, when he first utters his immortal phrase, "'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" This scene was shot on a set.
  
  
• Initially, Warner Bros. wanted either Sydney Pollack or Irvin Kershner to direct. Kershner was eventually hired when Frank Sinatra was still set to star, but when Sinatra dropped out, so too did Kershner.
  
  
• The original title was "Dead Right".
  
  
• When Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is being run all over town by Scorpio, he passes a wall which bears the graffiti "Kyle", the name of Eastwood's son, Kyle Eastwood.
  
  
• Clint Eastwood performed all his own stunts, including the stunt where he jumps onto the roof of the hijacked school bus from a bridge. His face is clearly visible throughout the shot.
  
  
• A police department in the Philippines ordered a print of the movie for use as a training film.
  
  
• When Harry finally meets Scorpio in Mount Davidson Park, Scorpio orders him to show his gun with his left hand. Harry pulls it from his holster and Scorpio ad-libs the line, "My, that's a big one!" This line caused the crew to crack up and the scene had to be re-shot, but the line stayed
  
  
• Andrew Robinson was cast at the behest of Clint Eastwood who had seen him in a Broadway production of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot". Eastwood then convinced director Don Siegel that Robinson had the right unnerving characteristics to make an effective Scorpio.
  
  
• A close-up shot was planned for Debralee Scott's appearance, in which she played the nude corpse of Ann Mary Deacon. She felt so cold in the dawn chill that she shivered uncontrollably. After several failed takes, her scene was filmed as a long shot.
  
  
• Writer John Milius made a major contribution to the film (as well as Dirty Harry's mystique). He wrote the lines Harry quotes to punks about "Did he fire six shots or five?" and the immortal "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
  
  
• According to the original script, the phrase that Dirty Harry quotes during both the bank robbery and his final confrontation with Scorpio was not the actual quote for the movie, the actual quote in the script was, "Well? Was it five or was it six? Regulations say five...hammer down on an empty...only not all of us go by the book. What you have to do is think about it. I mean, this is a .44 Magnum and it'll turn your head into hash. Now, do you think I fired five or six? And if five, do I keep a live one under the hammer? It's all up to you. Are you feeling lucky, punk?"
  
  
• The movie's line "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was voted as the #51 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
  
  
• Josef Sommer's first film.
  
  
• Scorpio's real name is never revealed through out the entire movie, and in the ending credits he is simply listed as "killer". However after the film's release, a novelization gave his real name as Charles Davis.
  
  
• Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Steve McQueen and Burt Lancaster all claimed to have turned the film down.
  
  
• Burt Lancaster turned down the lead role because he strongly disagreed with the violent, right-wing morals of the story.
  
  
• 'Dirty Harry' is the slang term for a photographer (either shooting paparazzi and/or modeling shoots) with a single lens reflex (SLR) camera. The slang term for an SLR camera is a .44 Magnum.
  
  
• The movie's most famous line is often misquoted. A lot of people mistakenly quote the line as "Do you feel lucky, punk?", while the actual line is "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
  
  
• The role of Harry Callahan was originally written for John Wayne. The writers, husband and wife team Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink, had just finished working with Wayne on Big Jake (1971) and when they were trying to sell their script, they used him as an example of how they envisioned the character. Wayne however said he wasn't interested in the role as he felt the violence in the script was unjustified and glorified. Eventually, the Finks sold their script to Universal, who were thinking of using it as a Clint Eastwood vehicle, but they never followed up on initial plans, and they let the rights to the script run out.
  
  
• The sniper calls himself "Scorpio" which is the Zodiac sign for people born between October 24th and November 22nd. November 22nd 1963 is the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a sniper in Dallas, Texas, a killing that the Clint Eastwood character in In the Line of Fire (1993) would be directly involved in.
  
  
• Insp. Harry Callahan's badge number is 2211. His radio ID is 71.
  
  
• In the school bus, Scorpio and the children sing two popular children's songs, 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' and 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'.
  
  
• Marlon Brando was another actor considered for the lead.
  
  
• Banned in Finland for over a year.
  
  
• Clint Eastwood agreed to star in the film only on the proviso that Don Siegel direct. Siegel was under contract to Universal at the time, and Eastwood personally went to the studio heads to ask them to 'loan' Siegel to Warner. Eastwood has always maintained in interviews that the reason he took the role was because he felt the issue of victims' rights was being ignored in the political arena at the time, and he thought the film could be a good way to bring it more to the fore (which it did).
  
  
• One of the reasons why Don Siegel cast Andrew Robinson as Scorpio was because he wanted someone "with a face like a choirboy".
  
  
• In 1972, a copycat crime took place in the state of Victoria in Australia, in which two men kidnapped a teacher and six pupils at gunpoint and demanded a $1 million ransom. The state government agreed to pay but the children managed to escape and the kidnappers were subsequently jailed. One of them was called Eastwood.
  
  
• Dirty Harry helped popularize the Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver which experienced an upswing in sales following the film's release.
  
  
• In reality the police forces would never use a .44 Magnum as a standard issue weapon as it has an excessive recoil and over-penetration issues, greatly increasing the chances of a bullet going through targets and injuring bystanders.
  
  
• Such was the success of the film that Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel found themselves invited to address police gatherings.
  
  
• Uncredited screenwriter John Milius wrote his draft of the film inspired by Akira Kurosawa's studies in lone-gun detectives, while director Don Siegel tackled the material from the viewpoint of bigotry.
  
  
• One of the film's biggest fans was Carry On regular Kenneth Williams who wrote about it at great length in his diaries.
  
  
• The idea of a car chase was dropped as another cop thriller set in San Francisco - Bullitt (1968) - had already set the bar for that.
  
  
• Before each of Harry's 3 combative encounters with Scorpio, there is a cross and or a reference to Christ: 1.) At the rooftop stakeout, the "Jesus Saves" neon sign. 2.) At the park ransom location, the giant, cement cross. 3.) And at 1:35:14, at the pivotal moment when Harry is spotted by his nemesis from the school bus, a cross extending up from the streetlight. Scorpio even exclaims, "Jeeeesssus!"
  
  
• The original draft of the script by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink was set in New York City. When Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel became involved in the project, they initially planned to relocate the film to Seattle, Washington before ultimately deciding on San Francisco.
  
  
• When Frank Sinatra and Irvin Kershner were still attached to the project, James Caan was under consideration for the role of Scorpio.
  
  
• When Clint Eastwood approached Don Siegel to offer him the directing job, Eastwood gave Siegel four drafts of the script, one of which was written by Terrence Malick. In Malick's script, he had altered Scorpio from being a mindless psychopath killing only because he likes it, to being a vigilante who killed wealthy criminals who had escaped justice. Siegel didn't like Malick's script, but Eastwood did, and Malick's ideas formed the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force (1973).
  
  
• Andrew Robinson created a backstory for Scorpio which involved him being drafted into the Vietnam War, and seeing unspeakable horrors. When he returned home to the United States, he found himself a figure of hate, and his war experiences, combined with the people's treatment of soldiers, caused him to go insane.
  
  
• This film makes references to the then recent criminal court trials of Escobedo v. Illinois and Miranda v. Arizona. Escobedo v Illinois was a 1964 case which ruled that any statements made by a suspect without the presence of legal counsel were inadmissible as evidence. Miranda v Arizona was a 1966 case which ruled that a suspect had to be informed of his rights prior to interrogation. If he was not informed of his rights, the subsequent interrogation was deemed null and void.
  
  
• Scorpio wears a belt with a peace symbol buckle throughout the film. According to director Don Siegel, "It reminds us that no matter how vicious a person is, when he looks in the mirror he is still blind to what he truly is".
  
  
• Harry drives a 1968 Ford Galaxie 500.
  
  
• All of the blanks for Harry's gun had to be made especially for the film, as the standard 5-in-1 blanks used in most films do not fit a .44 chamber.
  
  
• The gun Scorpio steals from the liquor store owner is a 9mm Walther P38. During his rooftop shootout, he uses a German MP40 sub-machine gun.
  
  
• Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Urich cite the character of Harry Callahan as being one of the biggest influences on their careers. Schwarzenegger said that watching Dirty Harry inspired him to seek out action roles with wisecracking heroes who were a law unto themselves. Urich based his portrayal of Dan Tanna in the TV show "Vega$" (1978) on Clint Eastwood's performance in Dirty Harry, especially his tendency never to get angry or raise his voice. According to Urich, when shooting the pilot, he was very consciously doing an impression of Eastwood.
  
  
• In a 2009 poll for MTV News, the character of Harry Callahan was voted the "Greatest Movie Badass of All-Time." Dirty Harry beat other movie icons like Rambo, Ellen Ripley and John McClane to the top spot.
  
  
• When composer Lalo Schifrin was scoring the film, he told director Don Siegel that he wanted to use female vocals for the scenes with the Scorpio killer in them. When Siegel asked him why, Schifrin replied that he believed Scorpio was conflicted about what he was doing as he wore a peace symbol belt buckle yet he was a murderer. Schifrin believed that Scorpio heard voices in his head and the female vocals would represent that. (This particular score was later sampled by rap group N.W.A in 1991 for the rap song Approach to Danger.)
  
  
• The first of five movies starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
  
  

• SPOILER: Body count: 7 (Four kills by Scorpio, three by Harry)
  
  
• SPOILER: Kezar Stadium, the scene in which Callahan shoots Scorpio, is the former home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, and has since been remodeled as a state park, with the playing surface still intact.
  
  
• SPOILER: Clint Eastwood objected to the end of the film when Harry throws his badge away after killing the Scorpio Killer, arguing with director Don Siegel that Harry knew that being a policeman was the only work for which he was suited. Siegel eventually convinced Eastwood that Harry threw his badge away as a symbol that he had lost faith in the justice system.
  
  
• SPOILER: For the iconic final shot when Dirty Harry tosses away his badge, Don Siegel was dismayed to discover that they had only brought one badge to the location shoot, so Eastwood had to throw it perfectly in just one take.
  
  

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