Magnum Force - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[carla]

Albert Popwell, who played the pimp, appeared in the first four "Dirty Harry" movies with Clint Eastwood. He portrayed four different characters in each of the movies. He was the bank robber in Dirty Harry (1971), the pimp in this movie, a black militant leader in The Enforcer (1976), and as Harry's partner Horace in Sudden Impact (1983).

[mathew]

The original title was "Vigilance".

[mathew]

Earlington "Early" Smith's (Felton Perry's) sidearm was a Colt Diamondback snub nose. Manufactured from 1966 to 1986, this firearm is now a valuable collector's item.

[claude]

On April 22, 1974, two men robbed a Hi-fi shop in Ogden, Utah, made the five hostages drink Drano, and then shot them in the head. The next day, an unnamed informant called in a tip to Ogden City Police with information that would help wrap up the case much sooner than Police had anticipated. The informant, an airman stationed at Hill Air Force Base, told Police that he had overheard two of his fellow airmen talking about robbing a store and killing witnesses utilizing the "Death By Drano" method by which the pimp (Albert Popwell) murdered the prostitute in this movie, which the two had seen prior to the crime. Two of the hostages miraculously survived. The crime would forever be known as "The Hi-Fi Murders".

[claude]

Theatrical movie debut of Robert Urich (Officer Mike Grimes).

[jim]

In the aircraft-hijacking, Harry admits to his "co-pilot" that he'd never had a flying-lesson (this, with a trigger-happy terrorist holding a gun to his head); Harry then applies the aircraft's wheel-brakes ( the controls for which are apparently down near the rudder-pedals) as you would stop a car: his life depends on having to do this immediately and correctly just after "blowing" his "pilot" cover, yet he couldn't have had any experience of the cockpit-layout of a "707"- sized aircraft and could only have guessed where the brake-pedals/levers would be (some aircraft used to have them up on the pilot's control-column). Again, the set-up makes no sense except to allow Harry to make his obligatory little speech before exploding into action.

[francisco]

The sixth highest grossing movie of 1973. It made more money than Dirty Harry (1971).

[dustin]

This movie takes place in 1972.

[kylie]

This is Clint Eastwood's favorite "Dirty Harry" movie.

[stephanie]

This was the sixth highest-grossing movie of 1973.

[harry]

The air traffic controller who speaks to Lieutenant Neil Briggs (Hal Holbrook) wears a pocket protector which reads "PATCO". This stands for "Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization" and was the union whose members were fired by Ronald Reagan for going on strike in 1981.