{"id":1461,"date":"2024-07-31T02:41:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T02:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:38:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:38:53","slug":"play-misty-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/31\/play-misty-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Misty for Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Play Misty for Me <\/strong>(1971)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, stalking, brief nudity, sexual content, language, thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clint Eastwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jo Heims and Dean Riesner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dee Barton \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Bruce Surtees\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 12, 1971 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, Jack Ging, Irene Hervey, James McEachin, Clarice Taylor, Donald Siegel, Duke Everts, Britt Lind, Ginna Patterson, Johnny Otis, Cannonball Adderley.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.6M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s dispense with the obvious right away, shall we? The psychological thriller Play Misty for Me<\/strong> is the primary influence for Fatal Attraction, the hit 1987 movie that dissuaded many a married man from committing adultery with its psycho mistress from hell scenario. Details may differ (e.g. no boiled bunny in this one), but it\u2019s the same situation. A guy screws around with the wrong woman and lives to regret it. Now that we\u2019ve established this, let\u2019s get on with the review.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Post-Man with No Name\/pre-Dirty Harry Clint Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a Carmel-area DJ at KRML who plays smooth jazz and reads poetry. A female listener calls nightly to request the standard \u201cMisty\u201d by Erroll Garner. One night after work, Dave picks up a woman in a bar he frequents. It turns out NOT to be a chance meeting. Her name is Evelyn Draper (Walter, Grand Prix) and she\u2019s the caller that always asks for \u201cMisty\u201d. She admits to deliberately seeking him out. They have sex and Dave thinks that\u2019s the end of it. WRONG-O! Evelyn turns out to be a delusional psychopath who doesn\u2019t take kindly to rejection. He tries to be nice, but only makes things worse. The more he rebuffs her, the crazier she becomes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Evelyn proceeds to make Dave\u2019s life a living hell. She attempts suicide in his bathroom. She costs him a prime gig at work when she loudly interrupts a business luncheon meeting. She also interferes with his attempts to rekindle his relationship with ex-girlfriend Tobie (Mills, Knots Landing), a level-headed sort who goes through roommates like the Osmonds go through toothpaste. At one point, Evelyn breaks into his home, destroys his belongings and attacks his housekeeper (Taylor, The Cosby Show). The police finally have to step in and take control of the situation, but it doesn\u2019t last long. There\u2019s no keeping a scorned woman down.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After 50 years, Play Misty for Me<\/strong> still holds up remarkably well. It\u2019s an effective shocker, but it\u2019s more than that. If you look closely, it\u2019s a critique of male entitlement, a cautionary tale about taking women for granted as Dave does with Evelyn. Here\u2019s a man that keeps women at arm\u2019s length in order to avoid messy emotional connections. In other words, he loves \u2018em and leaves \u2018em. He\u2019s about to pay dearly for this character flaw. By the same token, the character of Evelyn can be seen as a manifestation of the terror of estrangement. She so yearns for human connection, she\u2019ll latch on to any guy that shows her the slightest bit of attention and make more of it than it is. As such, a one-night stand becomes a declaration of undying love in her troubled mind. It\u2019s every male swinging single\u2019s worst nightmare come true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eastwood made his directorial debut with Play Misty for Me<\/strong> and it\u2019s as solid a first film as one could hope for. Early on, his meticulous sense of pacing and scene composition is clearly evident. Look at the recurring ocean motif; it\u2019s obviously symbolic of the fear of solitude that grows more pronounced as one gets older. He frequently allows the ocean and coastline to overshadow the characters like the scene where Dave and Tobie go for a walk-and-talk on the beach. Notice how he uses voiceover instead of showing them speak directly to each other. It shows that they\u2019re together yet not completely together because of old resentments and Dave\u2019s reluctance to connect on an emotional level. Of course, none of this would be possible without the expert cinematography of frequent Eastwood collaborator Bruce Surtees who makes the film\u2019s Monterey locations look especially gorgeous.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As a director, Eastwood knows how to elicit great performances from his actors. He delivers a fine performance himself as Dave, a likable sort with one major character flaw. He can\u2019t keep it in his pants. It\u2019s a real departure from the iconic roles that made him famous. It took me a short while to get used to him in this role, but he does a dynamite job of it. Walter is terrifying as Evelyn, an insanely possessive woman prone to violent outbursts when her distorted view of reality is challenged. Mills is also good as the girlfriend destined to be in jeopardy in the final act.<\/p>\n

\u00a0All of this is good, but what about the thriller aspects? Play Misty for Me<\/strong> works well on that level too. There\u2019s plenty of suspense and tension, especially in the climax with Dave racing to stop Evelyn from doing something terrible. A lot of people complain that Eastwood\u2019s films move too slowly, but I disagree. I say his films are deliberately paced. Like his Dirty Harry character, he\u2019s the master of the slow burn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Music is always an essential component of Eastwood\u2019s films. He\u2019s a huge jazz fan which explains the plot-unrelated sequence at the Monterey Jazz Festival featuring performances by Johnny Otis and Cannonball Adderley. It\u2019s a good scene even if it doesn\u2019t further the plot in any way. He also makes excellent use of Roberta Flack\u2019s hit song \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d, using it as a backdrop for a beautiful love scene between Dave and Tobie. Dee Barton contributes a wonderful score including a jaunty piece accompanying the title sequence of Eastwood driving along the coast. It\u2019s an interesting contrast to the horrific events that follow.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s interesting that Eastwood chose to do a suspense-thriller rather than a western as his inaugural directorial effort. Play Misty for Me<\/strong> proves he has great versatility as a filmmaker and actor. It\u2019s taut, tense and unsettling. It\u2019ll make members of the male species think twice about picking up women for one-night stands.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Play Misty for Me (1971)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Suspense-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, stalking, brief nudity, sexual content, language, thematic material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Clint Eastwood\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jo Heims and Dean Riesner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dee Barton \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Bruce Surtees\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 12, 1971 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, Jack Ging, Irene Hervey, James […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-suspense-thrillers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Play-Misty-for-Me-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2023,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1461\/revisions\/2023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}