Believe me, we need him.The film was a big hit, and Reisner was also to write the final screenplays for Siegel’s Dirty Harry (1971), another of its memorable lines being Harry’s final-reel challenge to the villain, “Ask yourself. do I feel lucky?”, and Charley Varrick (1973), both films notable for their taut plotting and skilfully manipulated suspense. The screenwriter Todd Farmer said, Dirty Harry and Charlie Varrick were flawed characters, but heroic too. Dean helped bring the idea of that sort of characterisation to film.In 1971 Eastwood realised his longtime ambition to direct a movie when he made Play Misty for Me, based on a story written by his former secretary Jo Heims. He hired Riesner to collaborate with Heims on the screenplay and the result was a gripping thriller of romantic obsession that became one of the outstanding films of its era. Riesner worked uncredited on Eastwood’s first western as director-star, High Plains Drifter (1973), and he co-wrote another in the “Dirty Harry” series, The Enforcer (1976), in which Harry comes to reassess his sexist views when given a female partner (Tyne Daly).Riesner had a great success on television in 1976, when he adapted Irwin Shaw’s best-seller Rich Man, Poor Man, about the divergent careers of two brothers, as an all-star 12-hour mini-series.
His adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s best-seller The Moneychangers was another hit in 1976.In 1984 Riesner was involved in controversy over John Carpenter’s Starman. Four directors had worked on the property before it was assigned to Carpenter, the main problem being the script’s similarity to that of E.T. Realising that the solution would be to get away from the emphasis on special effects and accentuate the film’s central romance between an alien and the woman whose late husband’s form has been adopted by the stranger, Carpenter hired Riesner to substantially revise the screenplay. The result was highly praised (and won an Oscar nomination for its star Jeff Bridges) but two Writers Guild arbitrations to determine screen credit both went against Riesner. Carpenter was so outraged that he dedicated the film to the writer.Riesner, who wrote the dialogue for the US dubbed version of the German submarine epic Das Boot (1981), was much in demand as a script “doctor”, his uncredited work including The Godfather, Part 3 (1990). His wife Marie died several years ago, but Riesner carried on working until recently.
His longtime friend the director Sean Cunningham said, He was able to bring an economy of language and make scenes come alive. He left room for the actors and the director to function, but he always drove the story forward.Tom Vallance. It would make sense if trainee officers were to attend classes in how to be magnificently dismissive without resorting to swearing, abuse or offensive behaviour. Not only are police officers younger these days, but they are ruder as well. Both phenomena are illusions, of course, fostered in the first case by the effect of the passage of time on the observer and in the second by the increasing propensity of British citizens to stand up for their rights. The Police Complaints Authority upheld 156 allegations of incivility last year.
Nevertheless, it would make sense if trainee officers were to attend classes in how to be magnificently dismissive without resorting to swearing, abuse or offensive behaviour.
These would involve reading the collected works of Enid Blyton, with special reference to the Five Find-Outers (and Dog). After which, fully-fledged professionals could safely be sent out on the beat to deal with time-wasters and smart alecs with a loud “Gah!” And to send loiterers, spitters and traffic-cone throwers on their way with a well-timed “Clear Orf!”. The White House reaction to Russia’s bombing of suspected Chechen rebel strongholds reflects a concern to polish its human rights credentials, but Mr Bush should go further still and demand the Kremlin end its dirty war. Russia’s bombing of suspected Chechen rebel strongholds in northern Georgia, and the sharp rebuke the action has elicited from Washington, are a welcome reminder that, even in President George Bush’s war against terror, a blank cheque cannot be presumed.
The early enlisting of Russia as an ally and supporter after the 11 September attacks came at an unspoken price – that the United States would turn a blind eye to Moscow’s incompetent and brutal pursuit of its drawn-out war in Chechnya, presented by the Kremlin as part of a global campaign to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism.