Play Misty for Me (1971)

Overrated and overhyped

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Play Misty For Me (1971) Plot In A Paragraph: A brief fling between a DJ (Eastwood) and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening turn when another woman enters the picture.In his directorial debut, Clint sets the action in Carmel (the town he would later become Mayor of) and keeps the tension on a knife edge. This is the perfect movie to sit side by side in his filmography alongside The Beguiled, as it's another slow burner, and once again Clint discovers the female of the species is more deadly than the male. It starts off with a classic Clint directorial trait. Some aerial photography (this time the seaside town of Carmel as opposed to the city) as the credits appear. Clint's character certainly doesn't help himself, as he repeatedly sleeps with a clearly unbalanced woman. Jessica Walters knocks it out of the park for me, she is superb. She should have been nominated for an Oscar in my humble opinion. I think this is a somewhat under rated movie, I think if Hitchcock directed this exact same movie frame for frame, it would be considered a classic. When Clint Eastwood told Universal executive Lew that he wanted to direct the film, Wasserman agreed immediately. Then, as Eastwood and his agent were walking down the hall, Wasserman called the agent back into his office. In exchange for letting Eastwood direct, they wanted to pay him less than his regular salary under his three picture deal. Eastwood understood, given that he was a first-time director. In the end, he made the movie for a percentage of the gross. He has said he was so keen on directing, he would have paid Universal for the opportunity. Given complete freedom by Universal Pictures, Clint finished shooting four days ahead of schedule and 50,000 dollars under budget. The movie grossed $10 million at the domestic Box Office, a massive success given its $950,000 budget.

Clint Eastwood's career as a director has always been a little hit or miss. When at its' peak, though, in movies like UNFORGIVEN or GRAN TORINO, Eastwood is capable of delivering cinematic power. It all started here, though, with a tense thriller that sparked off a string of imitators in films like FATAL ATTRACTION. The movie, mostly, works well due, in large part, to the strength of its' two main actors, but the viewer will see the weaknesses of a director learning the ropes.The movie starts off a little slow. Eastwood is a womanizing DJ who meets a young woman at a bar. He charms her, naturally, and they settle in for a night of nookie, with the caveat that there are to be no strings attached, though. As in real life, this sounds better than it actually works and the woman turns out to be more clingy than Eastwood would like. That's a big problem because the girl of his dreams is back in town and Eastwood is ready to settle down with her and be a one-woman man.As the movie progresses, the stalker keeps showing up. It's uncomfortable and awkward, at first, but we begin to see signs that she's angry and capable of violence. We start to learn that she's more than a little mentally unhinged. The more that Eastwood tries to drive her out of his life, the more that she insinuates herself into it, leading to bloodshed and an ultimate showdown.Jessica Walter is fantastic as the psycho stalker. She is as equally capable of playing sweet and vulnerable as she is playing violent and demanding. She is excellent in the role. Eastwood mostly stays away from his steely hero demeanor. He is cool and suave, but also willing to show that he has a sensitive side, as well. He shows great moments as a man that legitimately has no idea how to deal with this situation at times. Donna Mills, also, shows up, though mostly as the good girl who is eye candy.Eastwood shows flourishes where we see a brilliant director developing. He uses some great camera angles, knows exactly how long to track a shot, or a scene, and maintains an atmosphere throughout this movie of danger on the edges. In every scene, even the most mundane, the viewer sits on the edge of their seat, waiting for the psycho to be watching just out of frame, or to pop up when least wanted.The movie, almost, derails just before the final act. We get an entire music video mid-movie, as Eastwood and Mills cavort in the woods, taking slow walks and making slow love to the tune of Roberta Flack's THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE. We get the entire song with nothing happening but an extended love montage. Within a few scenes, we get a mostly useless scene at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Three bands perform, most of three songs are heard and nothing happens except to introduce that his girl now has a new roommate. While that revelation will have repercussions to come, the scene lasts far too long, bringing nothing more to the film that to allow Eastwood to showcase an apparent love of jazz.This movie first came on my radar years ago in Bravo's much loved SCARIEST MOVIE MOMENTS series. It was well deserved as this movie definitely has it's tense and scary moments, but is not able to carry that tension for the entire run time.

"Play Misty for Me" could have been a good thriller but is let down by the script, acting and direction.Firstly, the script. Evelyn looms out of nowhere with no back story. Does she have a job or home? Was she always a psycho? What draws her to Dave? With none of these questions answered, she is more like a slasher film monster with supernatural abilities e.g. following Dave as if he had a GPS tracker on him, convincing Tobie to be her flat mate, killing a police detective with a pair of scissors, etc.Secondly, the acting. Jessica Walter is good. Clint is OK but squints all the time as if he is facing down Lee Van Cleef in a Spaghetti Western. The rest of the cast range from boring (Donna Mills as Tobie) to over-the-top (James McEachin as Al).Finally, the direction. Clint Eastwood had to start somewhere I suppose but this is self-indulgent and badly paced. Clint likes Carmel so we get panoramas of sea cliffs and pine forests. Clint likes jazz so we get home movies of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Clint likes sex so he gets naked in a waterfall.I seem to be one of the few people who has not seen "Fatal Attraction" so I will not compare the two films. But I have seen movies with suspense and "Play Misty for Me" has very little of that.

Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is an overnight radio DJ in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter) calls in to ask "Play Misty for me". She tracks him down at a bar and they have a sexual encounter. He's a serial casual dater but she won't take a hint. His casual dating turns into a hard break-up. She takes it badly by trying suicide in his home. He is forced to care for her and she threatens his reputation.This is Clint Eastwood's directorial debut and it's competent work. A lot of it is Jessica Walter doing a stellar job as the woman who slowly reveals herself to be crazy. There are no likable characters and that's the same problem I have with Fatal Attraction. I don't particularly care for anybody in this movie. There's also nothing quite as memorable as a boiled bunny but Jessica Walter is great.