Dirty Harry

Alan Spencer supplies his trailer commentary for the inaugural Harry Callahan adventure Dirty Harry. The odd conglomeration of names involved in the inception of what became Clint Eastwood’s signature movie include John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Irvin Kershner, Terence Malick and John Milius. The first two, along with Robert Mitchum and Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, turned down the role while the others were among the writers of numerous drafts, many set in New York rather than San Francisco. Bouncing from studio to studio, it almost ended up a TV movie for ABC! When Eastwood was approached he insisted on returning to the first draft and hiring Don Siegel to direct, as they had enjoyed working together on the offbeat flop The Beguiled.