Play Misty for Me

This was "Fatal Attraction" 16 years before that famous movie was made.

The problem with this tense drama was credibility. There are several instances where just about everyone with a brain would avoid trouble by doing the sensible thing....except the character in here, of course. Also, being honest is the obvious thing to do here and, of course, that's not done either.

Nevertheless, it's a taut thriller with Jessica Walter doing a great job playing a nutcase stalker "Evelyn Draper." I also enjoyed watching Donna Mills. An appealing actress, and not just because of a pretty face, I wonder she didn't do more films? After this movie, it's been almost all television roles for her.

So-so mono sound and poor picture quality helped me eventually trade my VHS copy in but, with a nice DVD transfer now available, I might check this movie out again. Clint Eastwood, the male lead here, has rarely been in a boring movie, and this is no exception.

Too-careful shocker directed and starring Clint Eastwood involves a radio disc-jockey who gets seductive requests by telephone for the song "Misty"--he later meets the overly-friendly female fan and they share a fling, but she 'won't be ignored'. Tense thriller may have been the starting point for Adrian Lyne's "Fatal Attraction", though this one is far less slick. Sometimes an actor is so good in a role that it's impossible to see them as anyone else later in their career; such is the case with Jessica Walter, who nails this part of the psychotic woman--and seems to embody instability itself! Several scenes go on too long, the climax is so dark visually it is nearly incoherent, and there's a jazz festival interlude (and a romantic montage with Eastwood and Donna Mills) that feels like padding, but the central situation is unsettling, well-crafted and well-played. As for Walter, she had a tough time shaking off the affects left behind with this role, which of course is both pro and con. *** from ****

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.

This movie, I suppose, was the first nice-guy-being-stalked-by-psycho-female thriller. And it's quite damn good. Modern audiences might feel the film was too low-key, but I found it very suspenseful. This proves you don't need eerie music (there's very little score on the soundtrack) and continuous gore to create suspense. Jessica Walter is terrifying--maybe not as terrifying as Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction," but she comes pretty close. It's fun--and somewhat hilarious--to see Clint Eastwood as a young man with LOTS of hair. This was his first directorial effort, and he did a fine job. Over 30 years, the premise has become all-too-familiar, so unfortunately the story is predictable. Maybe 1970's audiences found it more shocking. But I was able to predict who would die and when. Nevertheless, I still found "Play Misty For Me" very entertaining and very well-acted. But what was with that jazz concert scene? Clint definitely should've left that on the cutting room floor.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

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.