Next, I pulled DIRTY HARRY off the shelf, a movie I haven't watched in probably a decade. I had forgotten so much about it. I was astonished to see that Andy Robinson was identified as the killer very early in the film. For some reason I had it in my mind that we didn't even see his face until the stadium showdown. Wrong!
The copy of DIRTY HARRY I have must have been one of the first Warner DVDs. There was no FBI warning screen, and the movie just started without going to the menu screen first. Even in that first year, Warner was doing anamorphic transfers of many of their films (but not all; the first BONNIE AND CLYDE was full screen).
I read recently that the DIRTY HARRY series is coming out on Blu-ray later this year, so I was eager to see what kind of transfer this was. There's dirt, and there has been no elimination of reel change markers or other artifacts. Surely the new Blu-rays will be struck from a better element. Still, they did repurpose the mono tracks and made a not bad 5.1 surround track.
I got DOG DAY AFTERNOON on Blu-ray for Christmas, but I haven't watched it yet. Seeing what it looks like on Blu-ray will likely provide a clue as to what DIRTY HARRY will look like in HD if I decide to buy it.