Dirty Harry

One of my other many favorite movie series!

Dirty Harry

Plot
-In 1971 San Francisco, a killer who calls himself Scorpio is sniping random, innocent people and demanding ransoms throught notes left at the scenes of his crimes. Investigating the case is Inspector "Dirty Harry" Callahan and his new partner, Inspector Chico Gonzalez.

-So it's a game of cat and mouse between the 2 cops and the Scorpio killer, who promises to kill one person a day until he gets his $100,000 in ransom money. And to throw in, he decides to double the odds, by kidnapping a 14 year old girl named Ann Mary Deacon. He beats her severely, rapes her and leaves her in a hole naked to suffocate unless the city can pony up the money. But then, before long, the girl is dead and is being taken out.

-Later, Scorpio hijacks a schoolbus full of kids and Dirty Harry must intercept the bus. The cat and mouse chase leads the 2 of them to the Hutchinson Co. Rock Quarry, where Harry shoots the Scorpio killer, landing him in a small pond

Cast
-Clint Eastwood: Dirty Harry Callahan
-Andrew Robinson: Charles "Scorpio" Davis
-John Vernon: The Mayor
-Reni Santoni: Insp. Chico Gonzalez
-Harry Guardino: Police Lt. Bressler
-John Larch: The Chief
-Ruth Kobart: Bus driver
-James Nolan: Liquor store owner
-William Patterson: Judge Bannerman

Did You Know?
-The stadium where "Dirty Harry" Callahan shoots the Scorpio killer is Kezar Stadium, former home to the San Francisco 49ers, but has been remodeled into a park
-Unlike most police departments, the San Francisco Police Department calls their detectives Inspectors
-During the bank robbery scene, the movie theater nearby is playing the movie Play Misty for Me, a movie he had starred in prior to this
-The Scorpio killer uses many types of rifles in here. The one he steals from the liquor store owner is a 9mm Walther P38. During the rooftop shootout, he uses a German MP40 sub-machine gun. The sniper rifle he uses is a Japanese-made 7.7mm Japanese Arisaka Type 02 Paratrooper Takedown rifle. All of the weapons are WWII-era infantry weapons

-The car Harry drives is a 1968 Ford Galaxie 500
-Scorpio wears a peace sign belt buckle and according to director Don Siegel "No matter how vicious someone is, when he looks in the mirror, he is still blind to what he truly is"
-The actor who played Scorpio, Andrew Robinson, decided to create a backstory for the killer. He was drafted into the Vietnam War and seen the horrors of war. And when he returned home, he found that he was hated, and combine that with the war experiences, people treating the soldiers badly, and that caused him to go insane

-Supposedly, Harry's gun is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 Revolver, with chambers for a Magnum .44 cartridge

-Andrew Robinson was cast as the Scorpio killer because Don Siegel wanted someone with a face like a choirboy
-The killer calls himself Scorpio, which is an astrological sign for people born between Oct. 24 and Nov. 22. Nov. 22, 1963 was the day that President John F. Kennedy was killed by a sniper in Dallas, Texas, while going through a motorcade

-A close up shot was planned for Debralee Scott, who played Ann Mary Deacon, the girl was was raped, beaten and left in a hole naked. But because of the dawn chill, the close up shot turned into a long away shot because she was shivering uncontrollably
-Despite his character being a psychopathic killer, in real life, Andrew Robinson is an extreme pacifist. During the shooting of the movie, every time he fired a gun, he flinched. He was squeamish about verbally abusing the kids on board the bus and racially insulting the man he pays to beat him up

-The Scorpio killer was loosely based on the Zodiac killer, who taunted police and media with notes about the crimes committed. Harry Callahan was loosely based on David Toschi, who was the lead investigator on the case.
-Andrew Robinson had to get an unlisted number after this movie was released because he was getting death threats