Review of Play Misty for Me (1971) by Alison O — 24 Dec 2005

Best in Show: Clint Eastwood.

One for the future: n/a.

Stand-out scene: The maid's fate.

Brainer or no-brainer: Brainer.

Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Repeated.

DVD commentary any good?: n/a.

DVD.

This movie's as old as me and isn't obvious Christmas Eve fare but I needed to clear space on a DVD so decided to give it a spin. Clint Eastwood's first full length movie as a director (he'll soon be hitting the thirty mark in these stakes) it's a cautionary tale about a disc jockey's one night stand with an obsessive fan turning into a protracted nightmare. Filmed in just 21 days, under budget and ahead of schedule it's awash with early seventies details and this is worth seeing for the gaudy spectacle that is DJ Dave Garper's cliffside bachelor flat alone. Having found Clint Eastwood a one-dimensional and fairly wooden actor previously I must say that this has made me see him in a new light as there were signs of green shoots emanating from his knotted-browed bark on show here. The following decade saw the big hair and compulsion to turn lights on and off of Fatal Attraction and I must say that I found this a more entertaining movie, if only for Jessica Walter's startling mood swings. They were meant to be chilling but with the thirty five years of moviemaking that have passed by in the intervening years have rendered them tame. The surroundings of Carmel, California get some exposure during the movie and Eastwood shows a deft touch in his directing style, which is never hurried. Donna Mills off of Knots Landing portrays the DJ's on-off girlfriend and Eastwood's love of jazz gets some screentime. Comically dated but worth watching.