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.
Acting
Eastwood's squint became cinema's most iconic moral ambiguity.
Direction
Siegel's stripped-down efficiency—no fat, all nerve.
Cinematography
San Francisco as character: fog, hills, and rot.
Director
Don Siegel
Clint Eastwood
Harry
Harry Guardino
Bressler
Reni Santoni
Chico
John Vernon
The Mayor
Andrew Robinson
Killer
John Larch
Chief
John Mitchum
De Georgio
Mae Mercer
Mrs. Russell
Ruth Kobart
Bus Driver
Woodrow Parfrey
Mr. Jaffe
Josef Sommer
Rothko
William Paterson
Bannerman
James Nolan
Liquor Proprietor
Maurice Argent
Sid Kleinman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Eastwood initially passed; Frank Sinatra and Robert Mitchum were considered. Imagine Ol' Blue Eyes snarling through this.
Conservatives embraced Harry; liberals recoiled. The film accidentally birthed decades of debate about police brutality in pop culture.
US
