Play Misty For Me (1971)

6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Play Misty For Me (1971) 90mins Suspense/Thriller

Sparkie from Bristol, England, 8th January, 2006

A must see if you appriciate a 'Good Film' with 'Good Acting'. .................... Carmel and the California coast locations look good too. .................... Eastwood did a very good job as a director. .................... (Plus extras on DVD).

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3 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Another Clint Eastwood masterclass

Nick from England, 20th October, 2004

Clint Eastwood stars as David Garver; radio DJ and ladies man. However, his philandering gets him into trouble one night when he picks a woman in a bar, a woman whom, unbeknown to him, is the same woman that has been phoning his radio show to ask him to 'play Misty for me'. It isn't long before Dave realises that there's something not quite right about this woman, but by then it's too late; he's already being plunged into every man's worst nightmare! Jessica Walter is absolutely superb as the smothering Evelyn Draper; she captures just the right mood for the obsessed woman; the scenes in particular that see Eastwood and Walter argue, with Walter ignoring everything he says are absolutely superb. Clint Eastwood is the quintessential leading man, and it's not hard to why he cast himself in the lead of this film. Eastwood's performances are always understated, and always dripping with testosterone, and this one is no different. His character here is a little more down to earth than what we're used to from Eastwood, but he plays the role well and it's good to see him in a less familiar sort of role. Eastwood is my favourite actor of all time, and I've never seen him in a film that isn't worth watching.

Clint Eastwood also directs this film. Eastwood is under appreciated as a director; he, obviously, has won acclaim for his masterpiece 'Unforgiven', but a lot of his other films such as this one, High Plains Drifter, his entry into the Dirty Harry series; Sudden Impact and more recently, Blood Work didn't receive the recognition that is rightfully theirs. In this film, Clint revs the tension up to the max and the viewer is almost constantly on the edge of their seat waiting for the next thing that the movie sees fit to throw at you. Unfortunately, the movie isn't able to keep it's thrilling pace up for the entire duration as it takes a pit stop mid way through for Clint to go to a rock show. This section of the film diffuses the tension that the movie has created for itself and thus shouldn't be in the film. I feared that the movie might go down the pan after this ill-advised section of the film, but I'm happy to report that the movie soon gets back on course for a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.

The music in the film is also superb. The title track, 'Misty' doesn't appear until the end, but the rest of the score is where the real musical artistry comes into play. The music for the film sets the tone of the movie just right, and the theme tune in particular is great; it's playful and easy to like and adds some fun into an otherwise dark thriller. Overall, Play Misty For Me is a very decent thriller. It's not a classic, but it's worth watching and it's a lot better than it's remake; Fatal Attraction.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

could not view it

A Customer from London, 8th October, 2008

The disc has some kind of adult protection thing on it, so could not get it going

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2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Nicho#1 from FALLOWFIELD, 6th June, 2004

The word scary is branded about to much in film these days. I personally have never been scared by a film, but the closest that I've come have been not in the Haloween films, the Nightmare on Elm Street series or other such "Scary Movies" but in films with a believable yet terrifying threat. I found Evelyn in Play Misty For Me to be one such threat. The tangle that Clint Eastwood's Dave Garver gets into with Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), and the wind that he can find no way out of it is a good starting point, but add to that Eastwood's cool even in this danger and his deranged stalker, and you have a damn good movie.

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forever watchable

muski from , 9th December, 2009

Having seen this film on a couple of occasions I still find it most enjoyable. I would say to anyone not seen it yet to give it a go. As ever Clint Eastwood is playing the role so well as are the supporting cast

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Ageless

Tricky from , 20th February, 2009

Once again another superb thriller with Eastwood as the star, thoroughly enjoyable.

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*** May contain spoilers ***

Strong directoral debut.

SunKing from , 7th September, 2008

A couple of thoughts. First off, it's a good debut film for a first-time director, however, there are a few problems with the film. The first, and probably the most obvious, is that the film grinds to a halt about two-thirds of the way through to show a long and protracted love-making scene and some of the Monterey Jazz Festival. It comes over as highly self-indulgent and is bizarre from a plot structure point of view. These scenes do nothing to progress the story or really tell you anything more about the characters you didn't already know. Second problem, is most notably Clint himself. God bless the man, the only person he can play is himself, the grouchy enigmatic tough-guy role he seems to play in every film. In films like Dirty Harry and A FistFul of Dollars this works great but in this role, when he's supposed to be paranoid and afraid most of the time he just looks irritated and annoyed. The first time he escapes Evelyn's attempt to kill him he just looks mildly peeved instead of what he probably should be feeling, which is, sh*t-scared. You can almost forgive him for this because, hey, it's Clint! But still, it's not very realistic. On the other hand, Clint punching Jessica Walter in the face is a hillarious pay-off for the viewer when she topples over the balcony to her death. Jessica Walter by the way, is rather good in this, showing a lot more acting skill than Clint does. All-in-all, an entertaining thriller with a few flaws which is to say, it's good but not much better than the average.

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