Review of Play Misty for Me (1971) by Blake P — 13 Aug 2015

Movies can work wonders when it comes to scaring audiences straight. "Basic Instinct", a sleek exercise in noiry eroticism, ignited a fuse within us that caused one to wonder if the person sleeping next to them is really one to be trusted. "Fatal Attraction" deterred married men from screwing around in fear that the other party might turn out to be, you know, a crazy person. 1971's "Play Misty for Me", the directorial debut of the inimitable Clint Eastwood, is of the same category as the latter, working as a supremely suspenseful tale of a one-night-stand gone wrong.

It stars Eastwood as Dave Garver, a disc jockey living the life of a carefree, contented bachelor. He sleeps around not as a nympho waiting in the wings but as a man at ease with treating himself on a regular basis, picking up women in bars, dropping them the next day, continuing on with his cushy job. One night, while residing in the comfy confines of his regular tavern, he captures the attention of Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), a sexy brunette. It only takes her a few moments to admit that she's a huge fan of his show, and that their meeting isn't so much a coincidence as it is the result of her eager listening (she noticed a promotion for the bar earlier that day).

Dave is intrigued, and the two, throwing caution to the wind, end up spending the night together. Evelyn promises that strings won't be attached as soon as their few hours together ends, but she, as it turns out, isn't so good at keeping her word: the following afternoon, she shows up at his doorstep, groceries in hand, acting as if they've been together for years. Red flags are strung up everywhere, but Dave isn't one to do away with good manners, and they end up casually continuing their fling. But once his ex (Donna Mills) comes back to town after a prolonged vacation, they rekindle their relationship, igniting the jealousy of the unstable Evelyn, who slowly begins to let sanity slip away and let murderous fire clog her pores. As her actions become increasingly alarming, Dave is forced to decide whether to take matters into his own hands or let the law figure things out. But considering that Dave is portrayed by Clint Eastwood, it's easy to tell which direction he'll go.

The story of "Play Misty for Me" has been played out dozens of times, sexily or unsexily - but what makes it sting so greatly can only be indebted to Eastwood's understated directorial choices and Walter's tour-de-force performance. As the lead, Eastwood is as drily masculine as ever; but as director, we see talent even more prominent, magnificently effective.

Even in its quieter moments, the film bears an acutely ominous foreboding, as if we can see a lion ready to lunge miles away but can hardly tell when that instantaneous shock will let itself be known. The mini-climaxes, found through Evelyn's many unsettling violent outbursts, are edited with a precision so electric that one can only be reminded of "Psycho" or artfully minded giallo flicks of "The Black Belly of the Tarantula" label. Never do we feel safe throughout "Play Misty for Me"'s entirety, and that's what makes it such an unforgettable thriller: we're thrilled even when it's not trying to be thrilling.

Walter, in an archetypal role made more famous by Glenn Close some 16 years later, is spectacular. Delicately unhinged but not campily so, her mounting aggression is terrifyingly believable. Walter is so in control of her performance that we can subtly see the insanity creeping behind her eyes even before we know of her true mental state. As she moves past clinginess into obsession into homicidal intention, we are hardly surprised - it's a natural progression, and Walter hits all the right notes. A performance of this category is hugely difficult to pull off - an actor doesn't want to appear over-the-top nor predictable - but Walter finds middle-ground between unusually toned-down Joan Crawford territory and Anthony Perkins likability. It's a superbly frightening performance, and Walter convinces.

In "Play Misty for Me", Eastwood toys with us like it's some sort of sick game, but it's the kind of toying that seduces us, abandons us, yet still manages to bring us back wanting more. It's latter-day, more adult Hitchcock. Since its release, Eastwood has managed to have a filmmaking career more fruitful than most actors could ever imagine: the first introduction to his powers remains to be one of his finest.