Synopsis
When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath. Harry eventually collars Scorpio in the process of rescuing a kidnap victim, only to see him walk on technicalities. Now, the maverick detective is determined to nail the maniac himself.
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Cast
- Clint EastwoodHarry
- Harry GuardinoBressler
- Reni SantoniChico
- John VernonThe Mayor
- Andrew RobinsonKiller
- John LarchChief
- John MitchumDe Georgio
- Mae MercerMrs. Russell
- Lyn EdgingtonNorma
- Ruth KobartBus Driver
Recommendations
- 100
Empire
It is also, of course, quite unrelentingly cool. - 100
Time Out
Try to get Siegel’s masterful camera rise out of your head: gun-happy Harry looming over his jabbering perp, who screams like a stuck pig as the shot recedes high into a dense night fog. This is not a cop film. It’s a monster movie. - 100
Chicago Reader
A crisp, beautifully paced film, full of Siegel's wonderful coups of cutting and framing. - 100
The New York Times
The pleasures of this movie are abundant. The pacing is as swift as a speeding bullet. There are wonderfully evoked lived-in San Francisco locations... And there are splendid set pieces that showcase the perpetually-underrated Don Siegel's great skill a director. This film is efficient, unpretentious and much wittier and more stylish than your average cop movie. - 90
Film Threat
I can see why this movie scared so many people. I’m fairly liberal and I find Clint’s super-cop infinitely appealing. Imagine how this movie goes down with people who already have one foot in the door of the local militia or Klan auxiliary. Even Pauline Kæl would have to admit that politics aside, this is a pretty damn effective action movie. This is Clint at maybe his best looking and healthiest, and his Inspector Callahan is perhaps every rebel’s dream. - 80
The New Yorker
As suspense craftsmanship, the picture is trim, brutal and exciting; it was directed in the sleekest style by the veteran urban-action director Don Siegel, and Lalo Schifrin's pulsating, jazzy electronic trickery drives the picture forward. It's also a remarkably single-minded attack on liberal values, with each prejudicial detail in place - a kind of hardhat The Fountainhead. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Dirty Harry is very effective at the level of a thriller. At another level, it uses the most potent star presence in American movies -- Clint Eastwood -- to lay things on the line. If there aren't mentalities like Dirty Harry's at loose in the land, then the movie is irrelevant. If there are, we should not blame the bearer of the bad news. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A fascist film, or a film about a fascist cop? Either way, this is suspenseful, energetic stuff, directed with urgency and style by Cahiers du Cinema favorite Don Siegel.
