MovieChat Forums > The Dead Pool (1988) Discussion > If Frank Sinatra had played Harry Callah...

If Frank Sinatra had played Harry Callahan

posted 18 years ago by joekiddlouischama
3 replies | jump to latest

... as he had been scheduled to do prior to suffering a hand injury in November 1970, I think that Dirty Harry (then set to be directed by Irvin Kershner with a rather different script) would have been more akin to The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988). An older, curmudgeonly, grumbling cop pursues a psychotic killer in a lightly entertaining, rather parodic affair that makes a few clever comments but doesn't offer much punch or heat. Indeed, in The Dead Pool, an aging, mellowing Harry actually starts dating a blonde! Certainly, he isn't the misanthropic, iconoclastic Harry of old, and the film becomes a routine (if occasionally funny) Hollywood cop movie, lacking the rebellious fury and distinction of its series predecessors.

http://www.the-dirtiest.com/sinatra.htm

[–] c-huddleston 18 years ago

I think Dirty Harry would have turned out like the other Sinatra cop movies - pretty routine stuff.

[–] dhmason6155 18 years ago

You can get a really good idea of what it might have been like if you watch "The Detective" with Sinatra. It looks like the movie he ended up making when he lost out on "Dirty Harry". He plays a disillusioned veteran, loner cop who questions authority and the system.

You look like the kind of girl who won't press charges

[–] PACman66 16 years ago

The Detective: I'll have to look that one up, being a Sinatra fan.
But I LOVED this film. This is a great film, and if they ended it on this note, is a great end... But, like everyone, I WOULD love to see that one more..

Trust me,
Swan