With the cult of rape/revenge movies - Death Wish, Ms 45 and I Spit on Your Grave - doing the box-office rounds in the early Eighties, Clint Eastwood - desperate for a hit after the poor showings of Honkytonk Man and Bronco Billy - directs himself as Dirty Harry for the first time in this pretty nasty fourth outing for the rogue cop.

After coming under fire (again) for his violent detection methods - and becoming a Mob target after causing the untimely death of an ageing gangland boss - Harry is dispatched 'on vacation' to San Paulo to help in a particularly gruesome case where a victim has been found shot in the head and groin.

Soon it becomes apparent that there is a rape victim (Sondra Locke) dishing out her own justice, and Harry must face up to his own beliefs about whether she is in the right or wrong.