Play Misty for Me
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Movie Reviews of Play Misty for Me
Movie Review: The Film That Started It All for Clint the Director.
Summary: 5 Stars
Viewed: 1/04, 7/08
Rate: 10
7/08: Play Misty for Me is a strong directional debut for Clint Eastwood who has learned well how a film ought to be made. He joins the ranks of great directors when it comes to the theory that accomplishing a successful horror/terror/suspenseful flick is a sign of a great director. And that turned out to be true as he has churned out unforgettable films. Play Misty for Me is a small, simple but brilliant picture about a female stalker who can't stop her ways until she is satisfied but is never content for more than a few seconds. Clint Eastwood plays a great Dave Garver, a real hip guy who has a mild temperament, until finally pushed to his limits and is forced to react differently than he is accustomed to. Jessica Walter did her character beautifully well...not exactly a Norman Bates but clearly psychotic. The resulting conflict makes Play Misty for Me an endearing, and also obscure, classic. There is a bit of Hitchcock about it, but what I saw was purely Clint Eastwood. The trademarks such as aerial views in the introduction and the beginning, the short, sweet confrontations; the capturing of seemingly a random scene (Monterey Jazz Festival), lots of background scenery, and the gathering of characters for small talks. When I was watching Play Misty for Me, it felt like a nice stroll through the park, exactly how a film should be. The elements needed to create terror were nicely crafted as I see the reactions on faces of each characters, a typical technique of 60's and 70's films. I loved the dialogues, most notable between Dave Garver and Al Monte, because there is smoothness about them. Personally, I've known a couple of girls that fit Evelyn's persona, and I can feel for Dave Garver. Stalkers are truly pain in the asses, and they are always tiring. When Evelyn attempted suicide or waved around the butcher's knife that did happen for one girl around me. It was so ridiculous that I had to elevate my mind onto another level in order to understand her. The ending is great, Clint's punching Evelyn in the face before she falls off the cliff. All in all, Play Misty for Me is a classic, no less. I wonder if this movie is the original of its concept. For the rating of Play Misty for Me, I've raised it from `8' to `10'.
Movie Review: classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Clint Eastwood has of course moved on to make far more ressonent films than Play Misty For Me from 1970.
But several qualities make this film, about a man trying to settle down being stalked by a one night stand lunatic, Evalyn Draper-classic. A rough and tough cowboy or cop, Eastwood here directs himself as a Karmel jazz DJ, Dave Garver, back when such figures where part of a genuine counter-culture. This move is bold.
The stalking part is great, as is the backdrop of jazz and Calafornia bohemia. Phrases are planted all over: "Everything is Everything, Baby" Sideburns and bell-bottoms and West Coast boutique trimmings get more fun to watch as they go from a while ago to genuine history.
Eastwood's friend and coleuge is a pot smoking African Amerian. No mention is made of race--now this is typical, but for a darling of macho reactionaries in 1970, this was daring. Still, it gives you the idea of how cool Clint has really always been--it was us who beleived the cartoon who were really unhip.
There are parts that could be trimmed, the love scene, and it also seems implusable that Garver would put up with the stalking crap for that long: wet-nursing the women who just slit her writsts in your bathroom to minipulate you is not beleivable, in 1910, 1970, or 2010.
But what does work is how this cool cucumber lets his stalker slowly tie him in knots. Ahead of its time here is that in 1970, people were trying to be "understanding," and "compasionate" and may
have seen the stalker as a lost soul, looking for love and comfort. But when Evalyn kills a cool cop and binds , gags, and cuts the hair of Garver's real girlfiend, it allows Eastwood to show how mean and hostile and disgusting this behavior is.
For plot, retro-peeps and some genuine chills, this is just a fantastic film to watch
Movie Review: THIS IS A REAL CHILLER....
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the original stalker movie, the template for others later on. Clint Eastwood made an incredible directorial debut with this movie, and everyone in it is superb. Jessica Walter is marvelous as the obsessed one-night stand girl who gets dumped in favor of the long-time relationship between Eastwood and Donna Mills and goes off the deep end in a big way. JW is breathtaking, and one can understand why Eastwood was attracted to her...BIG mistake! There are many shocking moments throughout the movie, and you literally never know from one moment to the next, when something horrifying will happen...it keeps you in suspense all the way. The San Franciso woman, Madge Brenner, who offers Eastwood a job, comes up to meet with him; their meeting takes place in a local restaurant and is one of the more stunning moments...Madge Brenner, the woman meeting with Eastwood, is perfect as the older woman (check out the hairdo; coiffed so hard it would take a hurricane of Category Five on the Saffir-Simpson scale to move one single hair! We're talking MAJOR hair spray...) trying to be "hip" and "groovy"; and actually says (this gives me goosebumps, it is so embarassing) "Yes, Mr. Garver, Let's talk show...I picture something LOOSEY GOOSEY, Monterey Pop, Unstructured type of thing..." All the drama is set against one of the world's most beautiful locations, Carmel, California, and it is magnificent. Another highlight is the Monterey Jazz festival, and the rendition of "Willie and the Hand Jive" the music moves many audience members to literally dance in the aisles; you wish you were there! The machinations and obsessions of Jessica Walter culminate in a heart-stopping climax, and this really is superb; even many years later, it still has incredible power to grab you and involve you in the story...Movie Review: The Originals Are Always the Best.
Summary: 5 Stars
In an age when Hollywood can seem to do nothing original, and the Silver Screen is awash with remakes, it's nice to go back and revisit the artistry of which the film industry has made hash.
A tense psychological thriller, Play Misty for Me is the template from which the likes of Fatal Attraction sprang.
Clint Eastwood plays a terminally cool yet sensitive late night jazz DJ who, while estranged from girlfriend Donna Mills, has a one night stand with Jessica Walter.
As Walter's obsession with Eastwood grows, her violent emotions manifest themselves first against herself in a manipulative suicide attempt, and then against the others in Eastwood's life.
Edgy, hard, and oh, so seventies, the tension ramps smoothly with Walter's character's escalating psychosis until the final scene.
Eastwood's girlfriend tied up by Walters, the local police detective lying on the driveway with a pair of scissors stuck between his ribs, and a darkened cliffside house. Eastwood is constantly attacked by Walters with a knife to the accompaniment of her maddened, and maddeningly effective, screams.
Finally, bloodied and exhausted, and in perhaps his least Eastwood-esque solution, he sends her through the french doors, and over the edge of the balcony to fall to the cold Pacific hundreds of feet below with a single punch.
Clint Eastwood as actor and director does a good job of making the characters believable and sympathetic. Bravo. Scenery and cinematography; Carmel at it's most beautiful.
Jim Bob says - Check it out; it's worth a night in a darkened living room with a bowl of popcorn, wondering whether or not your ex-girlfriend really meant what she said when you dumped her.
Movie Review: BETTER THAN FATAL ATTRACTION!
Summary: 5 Stars
Having seen both this movie and "Fatal Attraction" this one is far and above the winner!! The standard upon which all "stalker" films should be based. Clint Eastwood does a fantastic job of acting and directing, though his character is a bit stupid. Point in case: When Jessica Walter (Evelyn Draper), the psycho, attempts suicide in his bathroom he should have had the police take her away to the "Psych" ward immediately!! But, then of course, we wouldn't have had the marvelous scene afterward where she hacks the maid, and embarrasses him at the restaraunt at his business meeting with the older woman who was trying to give him a better radio job. Walter is fantastic!! She steals every scene she is in! Unlike Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" one understands Eastwood's initial attraction for her. I never understood Michael Douglas's motive behind his attraction for Glenn Close because he was married to the beautiful Anne Archer who no man in his right mind would cheat on. Anyhow, this is about "Misty". The only scene that bogs the movie down is the "Monterey Jazz Festival" which drags on for nearly ten minutes and adds nothing to the plot. Aside from this though, the rest of the film is pure excitement! The scene where Eastwood is sleeping and wakes to find Walter standing over his bed with a butcher knife is enough to give anyone the willies...and this should be a lesson to everyone! Avoid premarital sex and make sure you get to know a person well enough before you start dating them and NEVER, EVER lead anyone on!