“Do I feel lucky…?” Well, I was very happy to win this one earlier this year at auction. 

Dirty Harry is not only one of my fave Clint Eastwood movies its also one of my all-time fave thrillers, period. It spawned 4 sequels, each of which upped the ordance whilst removing any of the moral ambiguity surrounding Harry’s lack of respect for civil liberties. The later movies became all about Clint’s catch-phrases (“Go ahead, make my day” etc) and blowing away bad guys. 

Don Siegel’s original certainly sets the template for these too, but it is a fantastically well-made thriller, and very fresh for its time. Clint has never been better, and Andy Robinson’s creepy performance as the psychotic villain Scorpio deserves a mention too.

This French poster is now framed and on my wall. The US one-sheet with the same image is considerably more valuable, but I prefer the all-orange design of this French ‘moyenne’, plus ‘L’Inspecteur Harry’ has a nice ring to it, I think.

I also have a ‘grande’ version of this iconic poster FOR SALE here.

Plus, here’s another variation on the design – this is from a Spanish A4 ‘guia’ (guide), which would have been sent to cinemas with instructions for poster display. The image of Clint appears to have been redrawn for this.