Sudden Impact (1983)

Preceded by: The Enforcer (1976)
Succeeded by: The Dead Pool (1988)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Harry Callahan	Clint Eastwood	½
Jennifer Spencer	Sondra Locke
Chief Lester Jannings	Pat Hingle
Captain Briggs	Bradford Dillman
Mick	Paul Drake	½
Horace King	Albert Popwell
Ray Parkins	Audrie J. Neenan

Review

In the only entry in the Dirty Harry series directed by Clint himself, Harry Callahan finds himself in pursuit of a seemingly sexually motivated serial killer, of course while at the same time battling his superiors over protocol and methods. The latter has become tediously repetitive by now, but the main plot line, which is told from the perspective of Sondra Locke's character, has a crude Hitchcockian quality. This obvious nod to the master of suspense is Eastwood's best achievement in an otherwise often stupidifying film. Harry Callahan himself no longer seems to be on a mission to serve and protect; he's just a crooked cop rebelling against authorities and protocol – or normal police work, if you like. And Clint's increasingly wooden acting makes him lifeless to boot. The same can be said about his interplay with real-life partner Sondra Locke. They seem to be on completely different wavelengths. The only player adding some zest here is Paul Drake as the main villain, but as with the rest of the bad guys, he is wildly over the top – probably as a defence mechanism in order to not really deal with the jungle of personality disorders they harbour. The film's best asset: yet another evocative jazzy score from Lalo Schifrin.