Play Misty for Me
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Movie Reviews of Play Misty for Me
Movie Review: Play that Funky Jazz White Boy....
Summary: 4 Stars
Clint Eastwood made an impressive directorial debut with 1971's Play Misty For Me. He plays a popular Carmel, California disc jockey named Dave Garver who keeps getting requests to ' play Misty for Me" (as in Errol Garner classic Misty)--from an extremely sexy voiced female listener. After a fight with his girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills), D.J. Dave meets Evelyn (Jessica Walter) in a singles type bar. She's the woman who's been requesting Misty. They wind up in bed with the understanding it's not going to lead to a relationship. But Evelyn is a very disturbed and psychotic woman. Even when Dave patches things up with Tobie, Evelyn won't leave him alone. Yes, you might call this the original Fatal Attraction. It's a much better film though. Eastwood's Dave Garver is a Smooth Operator, a selfish womanizing cad. It's worth noting that Eastwood the director does not give Eastwood the actor vanity project type starring roles. Often he plays quirky, somewhat dark and flawed characters in the film's he directs. While his DJ character in Misty doesn't deserve an almost murderous psychotic woman stalker in his life, he is certainly partly responsible for how the situation began. In contrast, the character Michael Douglas plays in Fatal Attraction is mostly exonerated of wrong doing when he is portrayed by a psycho. Several scenes are almost identical in both films (both women wind up slitting their wrists as a ploy for sympathy and understanding). . Family values are over-emphasized in the ridiculously overly political correct Fatal Attraction.
Play Misty for Me is not a perfect film and there's 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. In a nutshell: Eastwood's performance is a little stiff and un-even; Carmel locations are beautifully photographed; there's a scene set at the real Monterrey Jazz Festival, The taught direction, the beautifully photographed Carmel locations ; a scene set at the real Monterrey Jazz festival, Jessica Walter's harrowing, memorable performance and the tasty jazz on the soundtrack more than make up for Eastwood's un-even performance. Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face quickly moved to the top of the charts after the film was released (it's featured in the film).
Look fast and you'll see director Don Siegel appearing as a bartender. In fact the story is that the first scene Eastwood shot as a director was the one with Siegel (who directed Eastwood in some of his best films including Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz, Coogans Bluff and the Beguiled.) and supposedly after 11 takes he then told the cameraman to put film in the camera. The idea for the script was by a former Malpaso production company secretary (Jo Heims) which was turned into the shooting script by Dean Riesner who worked on the Rawhide tv series and Coogan's bluff. Eastwood finished the film ahead of schedule and about $50,000 under budget.
ON DVD
Play Misty for Me is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The film does show some tell-tale signs of it's age and there are a few noticeable blemishes and visible grain on the print. The colors look slightly over-saturated in a style that's more late 1940's then 1970's but it's a very warm intentional look. As with most 1970's films, close-ups in particular are not crisply detailed and have a slight soft focus look to them. This is often the fault of older film-stock.
Black levels have been adjusted but some blacks appear grayish during night scenes and colors get washed out.
Over-all this DVD version of the film is much improved over previous video versions, with sharpness increased and graininess decreased throughout it's presentation.
Yes the audio on the disc is presented in 2.0 mono. It is one of the best sounding mono-soundtracks I've ever head and the Monterrey Jazz Festival sequence sounds so clear and crisp it's as if it was in stereo. There's very little distortion or noise. Some of the dialogue was obviously looped and has a different sound quality in some scenes than in others but that has to do with how it was originally recorded. This was a very low budget film remember.
Movie Review: Good Drama/Thriller -- the Original "Fatal Attraction"
Summary: 4 Stars
1971's "Play Misty for Me" was Clint Eastwood's debut as a director. The story features Clint as a DJ in Carmel, the scenic coastal town south of San Francisco. He has what he thinks is a casual fling with one of his devoted listeners (Jessica Walter). When Eastwood starts to see how clingy and wacko the woman is he tries to end it, but she is determined to have a relationship. Things get crazier and bloodier from there. Donna Mills co-stars as Clint's other (real) girlfriend.
"Play Misty for me" is the obvious precursor to the more popular later film "Fatal Attraction" (1987), but I haven't seen "Fatal" for so long I can't compare the two.
The story and acting are completely realistic, which I find refreshing, as well as engaging. One of the highlights is definitely the gorgeous Carmel coastal locations.
Personally, I don't find Jessica Walter very attractive so I can't relate to Eastwood's interest in her in the story, but -- then again -- maybe that's why he just wanted to "use her and lose her." Also, I feel he should have caught on a bit quicker that she was too clingy and looney -- I would have.
Lastly, I realize that Clint's attitude toward women and sex in the story simply reflects the zeitgeist of that era, but doesn't he share at least some of the blame for the problems that ensue? In the film Clint's character views sex as a mere physical encounter and Misty as a throwaway object in which he can satisfy his lust and pride. On the contrary, Misty is a real person who understandably sees their sexual union as something deeper. Something not just physical, but emotional and spiritual as well. Is it any wonder that she starts to increasingly lose it after Eastwood breaks off the relationship? Not that I'm justifying her actions.
I'm not preachin' to anyone here, anymore than the film itself. I'm just pointing out how "Play Misty for Me" potently illustrates the possible consequences of treating people like throwaway sex objects. In the vast majority of cases, of course, the consequences aren't nearly as extreme, but there are always repercussions, even if it's just a broken or hardened heart. Try as we might, separating the physical from the spiritual is a lost cause.
"Play Misty for Me" is a deceptively quiet film that slowly builds momentum to the emotionally explosive climax. It probably won't blow you away or anything, but it gave me everything I could possibly want in this type of film. Recommended.
Movie Review: Into The Mist
Summary: 4 Stars
Play Misty For Me is Clint Eastwood's directorial debut and it is an entertaining thriller about obsession that is a precursor for films like Fatal Attraction. Mr. Eastwood plays against type as a DJ Dave Garver, who works at a jazz station in Carmel, CA (The town where Mr. Eastwood would become the real life mayor ). Mr. Eastwood is usually the strong, silent type who seeks revenge or is an enforcer. In this film, he is a sensitive ladies man, who reads poetry on the air and plays jazz music. He is also the victim. He has what he thinks is a one-night affair with Evelyn Draper played by Jessica Walter. Evelyn claims that there's no strings attached, but that turns out to be the farthest thing from the truth. She stalks Garver, showing up unannounced at his home, at a bar he frequents and in one instance tries to kill herself in his bathroom. In the meantime, Garver is trying to get back together with his former girlfriend Tobie played by a young Donna Mills. Evelyn trashes Garver's house and almost kills his housekeeper, Birdie (Clarice Taylor) and is taken away by the police and put into an asylum. Garver thinks it's over, but Evelyn gets out of the asylum and there is one last chilling scene involving scissors and a knife. Mr. Eastwood uses the natural beauty of the Monterey Peninsula to great effect in the film, with wide shots of the rolling surf and picturesque sunsets. There is one odd montage in the middle of the film which is like a music video set to Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", in which Tobie & Garver roam through the landscape and end up in a secluded pond. The use of the two year old song in the film actually propelled it to number one on the charts and made a star out of the relatively unknown Ms. Flack. There is also a scene from the Monterey Jazz Festival with actual performances by Johnny Otis and Cannonball Adderley. The actors all give credible performances. Even though Mr. Eastwood is playing the sensitive type, he still exudes his famous cool. Ms. Mills is luminous and she is just fragile enough to be a victim. Ms. Walter is perfect as Evelyn. She plays the part of a psychotic, unhinged, scornful woman just enough over the top to be scarily believable, but not too over the top to become cartoonish. The film is a strong debut for Mr. Eastwood as a director and despite some dated material, the film holds up as an effective thriller.Movie Review: Excellent directorial debut from Clint...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a damn fine picture, and it's Clint Eastwood's first film as a director. It's not Citizen Kane, but it isn't Fear and Desire (Kubrick's abysmal first film), or Pirahana 2: The Spawning, James Cameron's first feature. either. It's a very good film, and considering this was the first time Clint stepped behind a camera, he did a very good job. The story is quite contemporary as Clint is playing a DJ who beds a woman (played very well by Jessica Walker) who turns out to be a bit unstable and homicidal. The word stalker had not entered the American vocabulary at the time, but this is in fact what she was. It's a terrifying film, very well acted, directed, edited, and shot mostly on location (an Eastwood favorite). It's a fine debut.
There's an interesting backstory behind this film. Clint has always had ambitions to direct, and he asked the studio heads at Universal if he could direct this film. They were understandably weary and cautious about letting an actor who had never directed before direct a film, but instead of Clint pulling the "I'm the biggest actor in the world! DO AS I SAY!" route, he told Universal he would do the film for no money, and take a percentage of the gross. Well, it turned out that Clint finished the movie early and under budget (he almost always does), and it was a box office hit, so Clint earned more from the gross than he would have from a straight salary.
Clint was never really taken seriously as a director (at least by American critics) until Unforgiven. Many critics just thought of him as an actor who was just amusing himself by directing occasionally. The truth is that he was directing many of his own films after Play Misty for Me. Clint has only worked with 3 major directors (other than himself) in his career: Sergio Leone, Don Siegel (who has a cameo here), and Wolfgang Petersen (in the film In the Line of Fire). He's really unique in the film industry in that he really controls his own creativity, along the lines of Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen (both of them rarely ever acted for others). Clint's remarkable career just keeps getting better, as he has a new film due out (Changeling), and one due out not too far after that (Gran Torino). So it turns out Clint was a much better artist than most made him out to be, and he keeps getting better and better.
Movie Review: What Clint Eastwood called,"The original 'Fatal Attraction'"
Summary: 4 Stars
I first saw "Play Misty for Me" in the theatre way back in the early 1970's.Remember it well.It was a triple feature at the drive-in when tickets were around two bucks.That's something you don't see anymore,triple features,drive-ins and movie tickets for two bucks.Saw it recently on home video and the picture has held up rather well.Clint Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a late night DJ at a Jazz radio station in Carmel,California,(remember he was elected mayor there in 1986 in which he served a two year term in office). Jessica Walter gives a terrific performance as Evelyn Draper who is a big fan of Garver's radio program..Donna Mills is also very appealing as Garver's girlfriend Toby.It features fine cinematography by Bruce Surtees and a good score by the late Dee Barton.In an interview in 1988,Eastwood referred to "Play Misty for Me" as the original 'Fatal Attraction'".This was shortly after that picture came out and became a big hit.(Glenn Close was nominated for Best Actress for her role.She didn't win but she should have though.)"Misty" was made 16 years earlier and I thought it was just as good.The DVD edition has some interesting extra features too.
Some trivia for you,Steve McQueen considered the role of Dave but changed his mind.Eastwood made a long distance phone call to Roberta Flack to ask her permission to use her song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in the film.Shortly afterward the tune became one of the biggest selling hits of the 1970's.In the top fifty best selling songs of the entire decade according to "Casey Casem's American Top Forty Countdown".It made money at the box-office and was a hit with many critics.The screenplay was written by the late Jo Heims.She was a secretary at Eastwood's production company Malpaso.It was co-written by the late Dean Riesner who co-wrote the screenplay for "Dirty Harry".Eastwood's friend and mentor and frequent Director Don Siegel has a cameo as Murphy the bartender.A few months later the two went on to make "Dirty Harry".And,"Play Misty For Me" was Clint Eastwood's directorial debut.And,a very impressive one indeed.A preview of things to come.