Dirty Harry novels of the four first "Dirty Harry" films as tie-ins. Author and screenwriter Phillip Rock wrote the novelization of "Dirty Harry" in 1971, based on an early draft of the script. Mel Valley wrote the sequel, "Magnum Force", in 1973. Wesley Morgan novelized "The Enforcer" in 1976. The "Sudden Impact" novelization was written by Joseph Stinson, one of the screenwriters. Stinson, who had rewritten the originally independent script as a "Dirty Harry" vehicle for Eastwood, adapted the novel in 1983. Following "The Enforcer", Eastwood announced that he would not make any further "Dirty Harry" films (he eventually returned to the role
Clint Eastwood and the United States Department of Defense who expressed contempt for the film. At the time, the film was a commercial rather than a critical success, and has only come to be viewed more favorably in recent times. The film grossed $70 million domestically. Eastwood starred in "The Dead Pool" (1988), the fifth and final film in the "Dirty Harry" series. It co-starred Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, and a young Jim Carrey who plays Johnny Squares, a drug-addled rock star and the first of the victims on a list of celebrities drawn up by horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson)