History Trivia / DirtyHarry

* RealLifeRelative: At the quarry scene in the end, Andy Robinson is taking his own stepson Steve Zachs hostage. It was originally going to be director Don Siegel's son, but he got sick at the last moment so Siegel chose someone else from the cast and crew's kids who happened to be on set that day, and he happened to pick Robinson/Scorpio's.

* RealLifeRelative: At the quarry scene in the end, Andy Robinson is taking his own stepson Steve Zachs hostage. It was originally going to be director Don Siegel's son, but he got sick at the last moment so Siegel chose someone else from the cast and crew's kids who happened to be on set that day, and he happened to pick Andrew Robinson/Scorpio's.

* RealLifeRelative: At the quarry scene in the end, Andy Robinson is taking his own stepson Steve Zachs hostage.

* ThrowItIn:
** Creator/AndrewRobinson improvised several of Scorpio's lines, including the "hubba hubba" bit over the telephone and "my, that's a big one" when Harry pulls his gun in the park. The flip that Scorpio does when he is shot by Harry in the stadium was also Robinson's idea.
** The child taken hostage by Scorpio at the end was originally going to be played by director Don Siegel's son, but he got sick at the last moment so Siegel chose someone else from the cast and crew's kids who happened to be on set that day, and he happened to pick Andrew Robinson/Scorpio's.

* ThrowItIn: Creator/AndrewRobinson improvised several of Scorpio's lines, including the "hubba hubba" bit over the telephone and "my, that's a big one" when Harry pulls his gun in the park. The flip that Scorpio does when he is shot by Harry in the stadium was also Robinson's idea.

* ThrowItIn: Creator/AndyRobinson improvised several of Scorpio's lines, including the "hubba hubba" bit over the telephone and "my, that's a big one" when Harry pulls his gun in the park. The flip that Scorpio does when he is shot by Harry in the stadium was also Robinson's idea.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #41
** AFIS100Years100HeroesAndVillains:
*** #17 Hero, Harry Callahan
** AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes:
*** #51, "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

* WordOfDante: 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.

* AFIS100YearsSeries

-->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?

* ThrowItIn: Andy Robinson improvised several of Scorpio's lines, including the "hubba hubba" bit over the telephone and "my, that's a big one" when Harry pulls his gun in the park. The flip that Scorpio does when he is shot by Harry in the stadium was also Robinson's idea.

** Warner Bros. considered Creator/MarlonBrando for the lead role, but never officially approached him.

** The screenplay for the first film went through numerous iterations and had several potential endings, including one in which Scorpio gets dispatched by a Marine sniper rather than Harry himself. Eastwood felt that the later drafts were overcomplicating the core premise and opted for one of the earliest screenplays written instead. The story was originally set in Seattle.

* CaliforniaDoubling (for itself): Averted since almost everything in movies 1, 2, 3, and 5 was filmed on location in San Francisco and in the surrounding Bay Area, though there are a few exceptions:
** In ''Dirty Harry'', the only thing that isn't an on-location shot is the entire bank robbery scene, which was done on the "New York" open-air set of the Universal Studios backlot.

* DuelingMovies: The first film with ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'', another 1971 CowboyCop movie.

* RealLifeRelative: In the first movie, at the quarry scene in the end, Andy Robinson is taking his own stepson Steve Zachs hostage.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: The most powerful handgun in the world. In fairness, the claim is only made in the initial movie, but an upgrade is made to the .44 [=AutoMag=] in ''Sudden Impact''. Given that handguns have gone up to impractical calibres even for action movies, he goes back to his famous S&W revolver for ''The Dead Pool''.

** Plans for a CarChase were dropped as, ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'' [[ItsBeenDone had already set the bar]]; the next film, ''Magnum Force'' would have a bike-car chase filmed on some of the same streets, and ''The Dead Pool'''s suicide-bomber RC-car chase was modelled after the one in ''Bullitt''.

** The "Do I feel lucky?" scene originally ended with Harry putting the gun to his own head. Creator/ClintEastwood and Creator/DonSiegel thought this was too extreme, even for Dirty Harry.

* WorkingTitle: The title of the first film's script was ''Dead Right''.

** Plans for a CarChase were dropped as, ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'' [[ItsBeenDone had already set the bar]].

* ActorAllusion: In the bank robbery scene, the movie theater across the street lists ''Film/PlayMistyForMe'', a movie Creator/ClintEastwood also starred in, and the first feature film directed by him, released earlier in 1971, on its marquee.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor:
** Andy Robinson plays the gleefully bigoted, murderous psychopath Scorpio. Whereas the vegetarian, liberal pacifist Robinson is a gentle and, by all accounts, sweet-natured guy who'd never even held a gun before this role (for which he had to be coached out of his habit of screwing his eyes shut and flinching whenever he fired it). He absolutely ''hated'' filming the school bus scene as well. What makes this disturbing is that Robinson actually received [[FanDumb death threats]] after the movie was released.
** Goes for Eastwood himself, too, given the actor has a reputation for being a fairly nice guy, whereas Harry is... well, Harry.

** In ''Dirty Harry'', the only thing that isn't an on-location shot is the entire bank robbery scene, which was done on a Hollywood set.

* DuelingMovies: The first film with ''TheFrenchConnection'', another 1971 CowboyCop movie.

* UncreditedRole:

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/JohnMilius did an uncredited rewrite.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

** Creator/SteveMcQueen turned the film down because he didn't want to do another cop movie after ''Film/{{Bullitt}}''.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Scorpio is one of the most monstrous villains on film. Andrew Robinson is a pacifist who despises guns. Robinson's performance was so effective that the actor actually received death threats.

** A video game for the series was planned, but ultimately fail through.

** Creator/RobertMitchum turned down the lead role, calling this, "a film I would not do for any amount". Mitchum's younger brother John appears in the first three films as Insp. Frank DiGeorgio.

** Plans for a CarChase were dropped as, [[ItsBeenDone ''Film/{Bullitt}'' had already set the bar]].

** Plans for a CarChase were dropped as, [[ItsBeenDone ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'' had already set the bar]].