"Go ahead....make my day"...Dirty Harry ,Clint Eastwood discussion.

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  • Posts: 19,339
    Wow that's really interesting !

    I noticed on the website just now that there are photos and stills of this scene as well,so they definitely filmed it

    These are possibly part of the scene I think :

    maxresdefault.jpg

    hqdefault.jpg

    Also I have found a still from this deleted scene,so it also must have been filmed :

    The Clothing Store Robbery

    Before arriving at the scene of the Ricca murder, Harry and Early are driving around the city. As Early talks, Harry notices a group of teens carrying a large bundle of clothes that appear to be brand-new. They approach the group, but are not greeted very warmly. As Early tries to question the suspects, Harry pulls one aside into an alley. When Harry returns with the suspect, he is much more willing to admit the clothes are stolen.


    MAGNUMFORCE+UNUSED+SHOT+1.JPG

  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    No, those still shots of the CGI bearded guy are from something else. However, the B&W still of Eastwood are 100% from a deleted scene.

    Here's some 16mm footage that was found after 37 years in a can with old production shorts from Magnum Force. It has no sound...



    The full version is below with "Three salty looking dudes"...

  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    Another thing I thought I'd share with you Eastwood fans is a little snippet of information concerning the original script for Dirty Harry when Sinatra (and presumably Robert Mitchum passed on the role) was attached. It comes courtesy of the link site to Eastwood.org site that I posted above (or on the other page) and it concerns the "Terry Malick/John Milius/H.J. Fink" script dated 1970. Yep, that's the same Terrence Malick as Badlands who went uncredited in the final movie. I must emphasise this isn't a script I have in my own possession but from a member of the Eastwood forum, who has kindly given details to the never-before-seen script. As far as I know, no Dirty Harry script is easy to come by, so we must thank this forum member who goes by the name of KC for his insight. Below is the full transcript of what he divulges as the major differences of these early scripts...

    "It's a "Rev. Final" draft dated 11/17/70, with "Frank Sinatra" penciled in as Harry and "James Caan" as "Travis" (the killer). It's safe to say that it's virtually unrecognizable as the Dirty Harry we know. It has a few elements in common with it: a sniper loose in a big city, a jumper scene, a rooftop shootout, a scene where Harry is run from phone to phone, the sniper getting arrested and released because of inadmissible evidence, Harry shadowing the sniper, who gets himself beaten up and blames Harry, and an ending with the sniper dead and Harry alive. Even in these parts, most of the details are entirely different from what we have in Siegel's film ... and not much else is even remotely similar. I suspect most of it stems from the fevered brain of Milius (incredible ballistic minutiae, beginning with an opening scene that has Harry lecturing a class of police cadets on "stopping power," demonstrating by firing various guns at a row of watermelons). One very striking difference is the identity of the killer's victims ... they aren't innocent people, like the young women and the boy in Dirty Harry, but powerful criminals, the kind the police can't touch, as in Magnum Force. It seems that the seeds of what would eventually become the sequel to Dirty Harry were sown here.

    Appended to this script, in the copy I have, is an outline captioned "FINK SCRIPT" and this (confirming what Siegel related about the various versions) is extremely close to the way the final script developed, except that the ending takes place at the airport, where the killer, Harry and Chico shoot it out after the killer has killed one of the police snipers stationed there and "[shot] down a helicopter."

    As to the ending of the Milius script, it takes place in a slaughterhouse, where the killer is employed, and ends not with gunplay (Travis disarmed Harry and eventually threw away his own gun), but with Harry and Travis dueling on a catwalk, Harry wielding a knife and Travis a 2 by 4. Harry "stabs [Travis] in the solar plexis" and "he topples over the railing and falls forty feet down the sluice onto a pile of bones," while Harry, who "is seriously hurt but, it should be clear, will not die," "topples off the catwalk" into a pen of sheep:After a moment, he collects himself and sits down in a feed trough, overcome by a new surge of exhaustion. The sheep surround him."


    So, it's fair to say that had Sinatra made Dirty Harry, it would have been an entirely different movie. Thankfully Eastwood and Don Siegel came on board and turned it into the monster hit that we all know and love today.
  • Posts: 19,339
    bondsum wrote: »
    Another thing I thought I'd share with you Eastwood fans is a little snippet of information concerning the original script for Dirty Harry when Sinatra (and presumably Robert Mitchum passed on the role) was attached. It comes courtesy of the link site to Eastwood.org site that I posted above (or on the other page) and it concerns the "Terry Malick/John Milius/H.J. Fink" script dated 1970. Yep, that's the same Terrence Malick as Badlands who went uncredited in the final movie. I must emphasise this isn't a script I have in my own possession but from a member of the Eastwood forum, who has kindly given details to the never-before-seen script. As far as I know, no Dirty Harry script is easy to come by, so we must thank this forum member who goes by the name of KC for his insight. Below is the full transcript of what he divulges as the major differences of these early scripts...

    "It's a "Rev. Final" draft dated 11/17/70, with "Frank Sinatra" penciled in as Harry and "James Caan" as "Travis" (the killer). It's safe to say that it's virtually unrecognizable as the Dirty Harry we know. It has a few elements in common with it: a sniper loose in a big city, a jumper scene, a rooftop shootout, a scene where Harry is run from phone to phone, the sniper getting arrested and released because of inadmissible evidence, Harry shadowing the sniper, who gets himself beaten up and blames Harry, and an ending with the sniper dead and Harry alive. Even in these parts, most of the details are entirely different from what we have in Siegel's film ... and not much else is even remotely similar. I suspect most of it stems from the fevered brain of Milius (incredible ballistic minutiae, beginning with an opening scene that has Harry lecturing a class of police cadets on "stopping power," demonstrating by firing various guns at a row of watermelons). One very striking difference is the identity of the killer's victims ... they aren't innocent people, like the young women and the boy in Dirty Harry, but powerful criminals, the kind the police can't touch, as in Magnum Force. It seems that the seeds of what would eventually become the sequel to Dirty Harry were sown here.

    Appended to this script, in the copy I have, is an outline captioned "FINK SCRIPT" and this (confirming what Siegel related about the various versions) is extremely close to the way the final script developed, except that the ending takes place at the airport, where the killer, Harry and Chico shoot it out after the killer has killed one of the police snipers stationed there and "[shot] down a helicopter."

    As to the ending of the Milius script, it takes place in a slaughterhouse, where the killer is employed, and ends not with gunplay (Travis disarmed Harry and eventually threw away his own gun), but with Harry and Travis dueling on a catwalk, Harry wielding a knife and Travis a 2 by 4. Harry "stabs [Travis] in the solar plexis" and "he topples over the railing and falls forty feet down the sluice onto a pile of bones," while Harry, who "is seriously hurt but, it should be clear, will not die," "topples off the catwalk" into a pen of sheep:After a moment, he collects himself and sits down in a feed trough, overcome by a new surge of exhaustion. The sheep surround him."


    So, it's fair to say that had Sinatra made Dirty Harry, it would have been an entirely different movie. Thankfully Eastwood and Don Siegel came on board and turned it into the monster hit that we all know and love today.

    Aaah fair play,i wasn't totally sure about the bearded cop scene,glad you cleared that up.

    I still don't see Sinatra or Mitchum as Harry,especially with the very physical script above against a young James Caan.

    Interesting info though @bondsum ,thanks again !

    (I cant see the footage you posted on this stupid work PC,but I will have a look at home tonight .)
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    The raw footage is about 4:12 long @barryt007. I'm not sure whether it's now been included in the recent DVD releases as I don't own them?

    Funnily enough, I can see Sinatra playing the tough guy cop, as we'd already glimpsed something similar in Tony Rome (1967), The Detective (1968) and Lady in Cement (1968). Even casting Robert Mitchum is probably the nearest thing to not having Eastwood in the role. Of course, I don't believe that the movie would have been the huge hit it was if either of these two actors had been cast in place of Eastwood.

    If you haven't seen either Tony Rome movies, there worth seeking out. His best is probably The Detective, written by the same author who wrote Die Hard...

  • Posts: 19,339
    I must admit that the 2 Tony Rome films and The Detective always seems to get away from me ,I haven't seen any of them.

    But I will keep a sharper eye open now.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    The only off-putting thing about the last Tony Rome movie is the terrible score by Hugo Montenegro for Lady in Cement. Coincidentally, who would have a #2 hit with a cover version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly Theme on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968 of the same year. Do you like the way I made a connection to Eastwood there?
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    Posts: 15,423
    I always thought Hugo Montenegro was more of a master at rearranging music for cover installments rather than a composer himself. To be honest, I don't like his cover tracks of famed songs and music, either. Well, most of them, anyway.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    Mostly he was. He did score two Matt Helm movies,The Ambushers (1967) and The Wrecking Crew (1968) plus the Elvis Presley western Charro! (1969) followed by another western starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson the same year called The Undefeated. By the turn of the decade, and the abominable Toomorrow produced by Harry Saltzman and starring Olivia Newton-John, his talents were confined solely to TV once again with The Partridge Family. I can take or leave his kitsch-style music but Lady in Cement has to be heard to be believed.
  • Posts: 3,333
    You Eastwood fans probably already know this, but Eastwood is returning to being in front of the camera in his next movie project called The Mule. Details are scant but it tells the true story of a 90 year-old WWII veteran who becomes involved with a Mexican drug cartel. The plot has been tweeted to make Eastwood's character an unwitting accomplice of the bad guys. Eastwood will also direct the film which could reunite him with his "American Sniper" star Bradley Cooper.
  • Posts: 19,339
    bondsum wrote: »
    You Eastwood fans probably already know this, but Eastwood is returning to being in front of the camera in his next movie project called The Mule. Details are scant but it tells the true story of a 90 year-old WWII veteran who becomes involved with a Mexican drug cartel. The plot has been tweeted to make Eastwood's character an unwitting accomplice of the bad guys. Eastwood will also direct the film which could reunite him with his "American Sniper" star Bradley Cooper.

    Sounds like a perfect Clint film to me,and I like Bradley Cooper too,so this will be a win win !!
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    Yes @barryt007. It's based upon the true story of Leo Sharp who was an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran known for his prized day lilies when he was busted for running drugs for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo, and sent to prison at the age of 90. He was transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Michigan in his beat-up old pickup truck when he was arrested by the DEA. Sharp was sentenced to just three years after his lawyer argued that his client’s dementia sent him down the wrong path.

    The real full-story can be found here if you're interested...

    https://nytimes.com/2014/06/15/magazine/the-sinaloa-cartels-90-year-old-drug-mule.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=D6219CF3885C7F9E13BF144EACAAC894&gwt=pay
  • Posts: 19,339
    Thanks @bondsum ,I will take a look at that !
  • Posts: 17,241
    bondsum wrote: »
    The only off-putting thing about the last Tony Rome movie is the terrible score by Hugo Montenegro for Lady in Cement. Coincidentally, who would have a #2 hit with a cover version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly Theme on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968 of the same year. Do you like the way I made a connection to Eastwood there?

    Can forgive that score, as the film itself is quite entertaining (as is the first Tony Rome film…Tony Rome). Watched both of them last year, and preferred Lady in Cement, actually.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 6,682
    Just watched Tightrope. Enjoyed it a great deal. Random stuff I liked/noticed (SPOILERS, naturally):

    - This must've been a rather edgy project for Clint to have taken on. It paid off very well, though. I like how you think you're gonna get a straightforward detective story at first, and then you find out the hero and the killer frequent the same places and share similar habits. Block's character and the reasons that drew him into that world in the first place are neither over nor understated in the film. They're developed in just the right way, and thematically, there's just enough to latch on to, as a viewer. "There's a darkness inside all of us. Some act it out. Some try to control it. Most of us walk a tightrope between the two." That line sums it all up, of course. The contrast between the seedy underworld and Block's pleasant family life is a good representation of that idea.

    - I loved the camera work and the look of the film. Those numerous handheld tracking shots, combined with the moody color palette and lighting, were highly immersive. The way the shots were framed was very satisfying. A moment that stuck in my mind is when the first victim is found, and IIRC, there are about two or three shots which follow the same pattern: Block, or another police officer, is standing in front of the camera, facing away from it, and then moves away, revealing the body of the dead woman lying on the bed. Another great shot was when Clint finds the tie tied to the statue, and then touches the tie he's wearing. He is in the foreground of the shot, to the right, with the two cops in the background, to the left. There are probably several other examples of good cinematography but I'd have to see the film again to remember them.

    - The editing is terrific. Economical and stylish. Each scene has plenty of room to breathe in the beginning and the middle, and then, at the end, it makes its main point and gets out of the way as soon as possible. I liked that brief first glimpse of the killer wearing the mask in the tub, as well as that cut from Block about to answer the phone to his approaching the crime scene of the latest victim. Another great little moment was when one of the victim's roommates screams while facing the camera, and the film cuts to Block, not because he was there with her at the same time, but because we have skipped ahead in time and he's checking the crime scene. Nice way of visually establishing the psychological connection between Block and the killer.

    - Good location work, and I like how the city doesn't feel anonymous.

    - Good score, as well. One theme that stuck with me was the one that plays when Block goes home after his daughter's attack, and starts tearing the place apart in a fit of rage. It features a prominent string section. I see the film didn't get a proper soundtrack release, though, so it's likely unavailable.

    - Alison Eastwood is pretty great in her role. Very natural. Runs in the family?

    - So is Geneviève Bujold.

    - Those psychological scenes --the dream, the montage in the brewery-- are very stylish. The latter one is maybe a tad too much but I appreciated how it conveys Block's mental state in a more subjective way.

    - Using clowns for suspense. It never gets old.

    - Pretty gruesome death, that of the babysitter. But it's just enough to shock the viewer and raise the stakes of the story. Any more gore than that and it would've been too much.

    - I loved that part in which the daughters are hiding in the closet and you can only hear what's happening out there. Dog barking, punch, gunfire. Superb way of making you share their fear and uncertainty.

    - I like seeing Clint Eastwood run. In the chase scenes in his movies, somehow, you feel the physical exertion and the feet hitting the pavement more viscerally than in other films. Those smooth transitions between shots of Block and the killer running remind me of the foot chase in Sudden Impact, a year before.

    - Nice, minimalistic ending. Beryl tries to touch Block's face once again, and this time, unlike before, he welcomes it. The demons have been vanquished. We're done, roll credits.

    - In the cast list are such characters as Surtees, Carfagno and Valdes, all in reference to the film's crew members.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 3,333
    bondsum wrote: »
    The only off-putting thing about the last Tony Rome movie is the terrible score by Hugo Montenegro for Lady in Cement. Coincidentally, who would have a #2 hit with a cover version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly Theme on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968 of the same year. Do you like the way I made a connection to Eastwood there?

    Can forgive that score, as the film itself is quite entertaining (as is the first Tony Rome film…Tony Rome). Watched both of them last year, and preferred Lady in Cement, actually.
    Excellent @Torgeirtrap/ I'm glad you enjoyed them. You should check out The Detective if you can.

    I saw Tightrope when it first came out at the theatres @mattjoes. It's one that I haven't revisited since, but I do remember it being quite good but not up to the standards I expected from the great man himself. Funnily enough I gave his next movie City Heat a skip at the theatres but saw both Pale Rider and Heartbreak Ridge in the theatre upon release.
  • Posts: 1,879
    If I'm remembering it right, the ad campaign for Tightrope said something like "This time he's not Dirty Harry" and was clear to emphasize this was gripping in a different type of way and not to expect the iconic lines like "Go ahead, make my day."
  • Posts: 19,339
    BT3366 wrote: »
    If I'm remembering it right, the ad campaign for Tightrope said something like "This time he's not Dirty Harry" and was clear to emphasize this was gripping in a different type of way and not to expect the iconic lines like "Go ahead, make my day."

    That wouldn't surprise me,with it being just a year after Sudden Impact i'm sure people would be thinking its another Harry film.

  • Posts: 6,682
    @bondsum I see. My current feeling about Tightrope is that I prefer to about three or four Dirty Harry films. So I'm quite pleased with it.
  • Posts: 17,241
    bondsum wrote: »
    bondsum wrote: »
    The only off-putting thing about the last Tony Rome movie is the terrible score by Hugo Montenegro for Lady in Cement. Coincidentally, who would have a #2 hit with a cover version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly Theme on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968 of the same year. Do you like the way I made a connection to Eastwood there?

    Can forgive that score, as the film itself is quite entertaining (as is the first Tony Rome film…Tony Rome). Watched both of them last year, and preferred Lady in Cement, actually.
    Excellent @Torgeirtrap/ I'm glad you enjoyed them. You should check out The Detective if you can.

    I have! It came in a DVD-set with the two Rome films. The Detective was interesting too, although I preferred the lighter tone of TR/Lady in Cement. I'm going to rewatch all three during the summer. :-)
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 7,889
    I was an extra in Tightrope; it was a full day shoot and Clint was on the set all day. While he was not the official director, he was clearly the one in charge. He was very relaxed and his crew moved with great efficiency. I'm holding the clipboard.

    fBAJJn3.jpg
  • Posts: 19,339
    Wow respect to you Talos,great photo !
    I’m jealous as hell x did u get an autograph or anything ?
  • Posts: 3,333
    Richard Tuggle was the director of Tightrope having previously worked on the screenplay for Escape from Alcatraz. His directing career never took off as he only got to direct one more movie after this before being sidelined. It says on Imdb that reportedly, Clint Eastwood did the majority of the directing after apparently Richard Tuggle was too slow behind the camera. Contractually, Tuggle still retained the director's credit.

    Got any good stories @talos7?
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 7,889
    No, I think that would have been a quick way to get removed from the set. It was a very cool experience. At one point we were starting from the same mark and had a couple of minutes of small talk about New Orleans and the brewery in which we were filming.
  • Posts: 19,339
    talos7 wrote: »
    No, I think that would have been a quick way to get removed from the set. It was a very cool experience. At one point we were starting from the same mark and had a couple of minutes of small talk about New Orleans and the brewery in which we were filming.

    That’s true, I keep forgetting that extras have to be a professional as the main cast.
    You had small talk wz Clint ?!

  • Posts: 7,653
    The director of Tightrope is indeed an unknown with hot very much to his name, So I guess I would not be surprised of Eastwood actually being the visionary an director of this movie, as it has som many of his style on it.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 6,682
    Thanks for sharing that, @talos7!

    ---

    In the seventies and eighties, when he wasn't directing them himself, Eastwood's films were often helmed by people like James Fargo and Buddy Van Horn, who had been second unit directors or stunt coordinators in his previous films. People he was acquainted and comfortable with. Seems he usually wanted to be the one calling the shots in his movies. Be the auteur, whether directing or not.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    Posts: 23,102
    mattjoes wrote: »

    Some good screen captures, I bought the film on Bluray a few months ago. Still need to watch Tightrope and the other Dirty Harry films, though the transfer of Tightrope does look impressive.
  • Posts: 7,653
    88 years today what a guy, I do hope we see some more movies made by him.
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