Play Misty for Me

source: Play Misty for Me

This movie has got to be on the top ten list of the best movies ever made. It's perfect. You really can't say anything negative about it because there is nothing wrong with it. It is paced just right, the acting is excellent, and its story is very engrossing. Play Misty for Me begins in California at Eastwood's radio station when he gets a call, with a very sexy voice, saying the film's title. He then has a little rendezvous with this woman, but when he decides to break it up, and go back to his original girl, she just won't leave him alone (the first Fatal Attraction, and the better). By the time the end comes (which is perfectly set in a secluded cliffside home)you are guaranteed to have jumped out of your seat, or you'll find yourself grabbing onto something, or biting your nails. I did. Hang on for a wild ride. Rating: **** out of ****

This is quite an impressive, very 70s looking psycho-thriller that is sure to please. Clint Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a radio DJ in southern California. One night, a woman calls requesting that he "Play Misty for me." Later, he meets the woman at a bar he goes to often, and they go back to her house together and make love. The next morning, he leaves, figuring it was just a one-night stand, but when he gets home, the woman, Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter) shows up with groceries and starts to make herself at home. Dave decides to go with it, and later sees that his old girlfriend, Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), is back in town, and the two become close again. But Evelyn won't go away, and continues to follow Dave everywhere, and starts to get viciously jealous of Tobie. And as Dave and Tobie's relationship forms, Evelyn becomes angry and violent, and eventually, murderous, and Dave must find some way to stop her before she ruins his life, and potentially, kills him. A very creepy movie. Jessica Walter is beyond convincing as the jealous psycho lover, and Clint Eastwood proves that he doesn't just do Dirty Harry movies. Donna Mills is also quite good as the innocent girlfriend. The movie implies and foreshadows a lot, making everything even scarier. But the best scene in the whole movie is the knife attack on the maid, Birdie. That scene competes with the shower scene in "Psycho" as one of the most shocking in film history. The way the camera darts and swings around, and Birdie's screams as she struggles and fights to get away, all add up to one of the scariest scenes I've every seen. The climax is quite good, if not executed a little too quickly, but what led to it was shocking enough to overshadow it. All in all, a great film that I would definitely recommend.

In the city of Carmel, the popular disc-jockey David Garver (Clint Eastwood) has one night stand with Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), a strange he met in a bar after his show. The woman, indeed a deranged obsessed fan, stalks David and threatens his life, his girl-friend Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), his friends and even his job. The debut of Clint Eastwood as director could not be better. This low budget and low paced movie has a simple, but frightening story, which was ripped off at least in the famous "Fatal Attraction" and the teen version "Swimfan". The magnificent landscape and locations in the beautiful city of Carmel, where Clint Eastwood was elected Major many years later, are another attraction. The performance of Jessica Walters is awesome, changing naturally her behavior from a sweet to an aggressive person, really incorporating her character. Clint Eastwood is very cool, as usual, and Donna Mills very gorgeous. I like the unusual break of tension adopted when Evelyn is arrested and Dave and Tobie's routine returns to normal, dating, going to festival, making love, increasing the suspense after the twist point. I do not recall how many times I have seen "Play Misty for Me", a classic and one of the best thrillers of the 70's. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Perversa Paixão" ("Wicked Passion")

You know, I always thought FATAL ATTRACTION was the first of the psychological thrillers. You know, the film that kicked off that huge wave through the late '80s/early '90s and which gave Michael Douglas a decade of playing rich-guys-haunted-by-powerful-women. Now I've watched PLAY MISTY FOR ME, a 1971 thriller directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, and I realise that FATAL ATTRACTION is nothing more than a rip-off. PLAY MISTY FOR ME gets there first, and arguably does it better, giving the story more 'meat'. Certainly most of the plot elements – the initial hints of desperation, the suicide attempt, the climax – are borrowed wholesale for the latter film. But, although this film came out a good decade and a half before the Glenn Close movie, I have to say I enjoyed the latter one more. PLAY MISTY FOR ME hasn't dated too well, and Eastwood's direction and acting are less than you'd expect given his calibre. His character feels bland and unlikeable, and his direction is pedestrian. It's as if he were learning the ropes, ready for future greatness in the likes of THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Certainly the pacing is as slow as molasses. The characters are mostly stereotypes. Jessica Walter is more of a tragic figure and nowhere near as frightening or disturbed as Glenn Close was. She doesn't really cut it as a villain. Despite some beautiful locations, you never really get a sense of time or place. Characters just drift through the movie and Clint never seems too bothered or surprised that Walter's character is targeting him. I never got a sense of real terror or menace, and in fact I was pretty bored by the whole thing. All right, so it might have got there first and it's an important film for the films it later inspired, but PLAY MISTY FOR ME is one of my least favourite Eastwood movies.

Clint Eastwood made a fine debut as a director with Play Misty For Me. There is a laid-back quality to this film, which begins in a casual way, and then tightens the screws later as the stalking plot kicks in. The film beautifully captures the Edenic qualities of Carmel and Monterey, and Eastwood has a great eye for the particular scenic details of the Northern California coast. Most movies today have a "cut to the chase" mentality, in which everything has to move at warp speed, so it's refreshing to see a movie take its time to establish the setting and the characters. This film is an interesting rebuke to the sexual revolution of the late 60's and early 70's. Jessica Walter's character may be acting in an extreme way, but there is some justification for her rage -- Eastwood's character is a ladies' man who likes to rack up as many conquests as he can, and then move on, but here's one woman who refuses to be discarded. The point is, there are repercussions to all our acts. Also, being a public figure brings its share of grief and misery (just ask John Lennon).

Clint Eastwood starred in his directorial debut, 'Play Misty for Me', but his role is thankfully self-effacing and (very) laid back; there's some nice cinematography (especially the shots of the Californian coastline), the use of music is interesting and overall this film is surprisingly accomplished for a rookie's work. However, he does not manage to extract great performances from his female co-stars, Donna Mills and Jessica Walter, who are both wooden, and this type of plot (about a crazed stalker) suffers from some inherent problems which are not avoided here. Firstly, the film forces us to take sides against someone with serious psychological problems: the absence of ambiguity makes for a less interesting tale. Following on from this, the finale becomes inevitable long before it is arrived at. And finally, the madness of the stalker can make the whole story seem merely a horrific accident in the life of the victim, more notable for its violence than for what it reveals about the individual. These problems can be avoided in stories of this type. For example, in Ian McEwan's novel 'Enduring Love' a victim of a stalker learns some uncomfortable truths about his real relationships from this experience; but predictability and one-sidedness still shadow the story. Better still is Shane Meadows' superb film 'A Room for Romeo Brass' in which Paddy Considine plays (with supreme skill) a man as sympathetic as he is unhinged. On the other hand, there are Hollywood disasters like 'Single White Female'. 'Play Misty for Me' has an individual style, but the essence of the plot fits the Hollywood template. Overall, a promising film, but not quite a good one.

Dave Garver is a late night DJ who reads poetry and plays chilled music during the graveyard shift. He picks up a girl in a bar after one of his shows who turns out to be one of his fans who has come there deliberately to meet him. After going to hers for sex, Dave assumes he'll never see her again and is surprised when she comes round to his house the next day to cook him dinner. Putting it down to over-enthusiasm he thinks nothing more of it but Evelyn continues to force herself into his life but the more he tries to get rid of her the more unhinged and desperate she becomes. Watching this film now it is hard not to be put in mind of Fatal Attraction; the plots are quite similar and it is easy to look at Fatal Attraction and think it is better simply because it is more recent. Misty has dated quite badly in some regards but it is still a good film in it's own right. The plot follows the thread we all know having seen it repeated in Fatal Attraction, and it does it pretty well, even if it flags ever so slightly once or twice. The ending is good and was the only way to end it after Evelyn madness had gone so far, and it's impact isn't really spoilt by the dated fake blood. As director Eastwood has clearly been influenced by the style of Don Siegel and you can see plenty of touches that have rubbed off him onto these films. However Clint also uses plenty of gimmicks and shots that really make the film look dated (the freeze frame, some close ups etc) although they really would have worked in the early seventies. The film is helped by a good lead pair as well as interesting, if undistinguished support. Eastwood plays his usual macho self and is actually quite understated for most of the film. Occasionally he lets it show that this macho personae that he plays is actually flawed – but this thread is soon let to go by the wayside in favour of Evelyn's collapse. Walter takes the role like a duck to water and certainly one thing you could never accuse her of here is restraint or subtlety. After a normal start she quickly gets down to the business of becoming a bunny-boiler. It bothered me a bit that she was so crazy so quickly but it certainly was an enjoyable performance that helps the lift the tension. The support cast are all very much in the shadow of these two and the only ones that stuck in my mind were small roles from Siegel and McEachin (who I couldn't help but see as Lt Brock from the Perry Mason films!). Overall this is a good film if far from perfect one. It lacks the intelligence of Fatal Attraction and has dated quite badly in some regards but it still works for what it is. Despite the dated touches, Eastwood's direction is solid enough as a debut and he delivers a film that is far from perfect but still worth seeing.

Clint Eastwood never fails to amaze me. I have not seen a resume like what he has for an actor, a producer, a composer, a screenplay writer and a director, considering the fact he started off as a mere extra. Made his debut in 1955 as an actor and later turned into a producer and a director and is still going strong and looks fit for his age (Million Dollar Baby). The beginning of the 1970s found Clint Eastwood either at or near the front ranks of actors who were considered sure box office, right up there with actors as diverse as Paul Newman and John Wayne. What caught a lot of people off guard in 1971, however, was when Eastwood, armed with the expertise he had gained working with Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, got into the business of directing. No one could have predicted that the Man With No Name would soon become the Man With A Big Name behind the camera. But that is indeed what happened; and his first effort both in front of and behind the camera was a winner: PLAY MISTY FOR ME Filmed in Carmel, California, 'Play Misty For Me' features Eastwood as a DJ at a local jazz radio station taking all-night requests.On a particular night he gets a call from a mysterious woman to "Play 'Misty' for me", referring to a classic Errol Garner song "Misty". As it turns out, that woman (Jessica Walter) has something of a fixation on Eastwood. Furthermore, when Eastwood meets back up with an old flame of his (Donna Mills), Walter's fixation takes a turn towards the psychotic. At this time if you are thinking this sounds like Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas, you would be right. The plot is same somewhat but personally I like 'Play Misty For Me' more cause me being a huge fan of Clint Eastwood. 'Play Misty For Me' was not a perfect movie when it was released. There are a couple of awkward sequences that simply don't work at all in the film, but Eastwood recovers from such scenes and makes some very good and mature directorial choices as the film progresses. Featuring of a cameo role from Eastwood's mentor Don Siegel as his local bartender, 'Play Misty For Me', despite some slightly misogynistic overtones, is an incredibly suspenseful work of film-making and shows the first glimpse of just how good Clint Eastwood would become both in front of and behind the camera.

At the time the topic -a psychopathic stalker- was really modern. At first it's also cleverly done as Eastwood does not take sides: both characters are equally emotionally retarded and Eastwood comes across as downright nasty. It's also well acted. The problem with that film is however that the story does not carry it for a feature length so Eastwood includes two awfully long and boring scenes. These films are very visual but also very self indulgent. What the film would have needed is more character development in the middle. So you end up with a film that starts pretty interesting, then slows down incredibly with an ending or rather a climax that comes to sudden. So all in all the dramaturgy is wrong and the look of the film (long, long scenes with music) today seems terribly dated.