Sadistico

This is quite an impressive, very 70s looking psycho-thriller that is sure to please.

Clint Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a radio DJ in southern California. One night, a woman calls requesting that he "Play Misty for me." Later, he meets the woman at a bar he goes to often, and they go back to her house together and make love. The next morning, he leaves, figuring it was just a one-night stand, but when he gets home, the woman, Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter) shows up with groceries and starts to make herself at home. Dave decides to go with it, and later sees that his old girlfriend, Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), is back in town, and the two become close again. But Evelyn won't go away, and continues to follow Dave everywhere, and starts to get viciously jealous of Tobie. And as Dave and Tobie's relationship forms, Evelyn becomes angry and violent, and eventually, murderous, and Dave must find some way to stop her before she ruins his life, and potentially, kills him.

A very creepy movie. Jessica Walter is beyond convincing as the jealous psycho lover, and Clint Eastwood proves that he doesn't just do Dirty Harry movies. Donna Mills is also quite good as the innocent girlfriend. The movie implies and foreshadows a lot, making everything even scarier. But the best scene in the whole movie is the knife attack on the maid, Birdie. That scene competes with the shower scene in "Psycho" as one of the most shocking in film history. The way the camera darts and swings around, and Birdie's screams as she struggles and fights to get away, all add up to one of the scariest scenes I've every seen. The climax is quite good, if not executed a little too quickly, but what led to it was shocking enough to overshadow it.

All in all, a great film that I would definitely recommend.

This movie, I suppose, was the first nice-guy-being-stalked-by-psycho-female thriller. And it's quite damn good. Modern audiences might feel the film was too low-key, but I found it very suspenseful. This proves you don't need eerie music (there's very little score on the soundtrack) and continuous gore to create suspense. Jessica Walter is terrifying--maybe not as terrifying as Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction," but she comes pretty close. It's fun--and somewhat hilarious--to see Clint Eastwood as a young man with LOTS of hair. This was his first directorial effort, and he did a fine job. Over 30 years, the premise has become all-too-familiar, so unfortunately the story is predictable. Maybe 1970's audiences found it more shocking. But I was able to predict who would die and when. Nevertheless, I still found "Play Misty For Me" very entertaining and very well-acted. But what was with that jazz concert scene? Clint definitely should've left that on the cutting room floor.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

In the city of Carmel, the popular disc-jockey David Garver (Clint Eastwood) has one night stand with Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), a strange he met in a bar after his show. The woman, indeed a deranged obsessed fan, stalks David and threatens his life, his girl-friend Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), his friends and even his job.

The debut of Clint Eastwood as director could not be better. This low budget and low paced movie has a simple, but frightening story, which was ripped off at least in the famous "Fatal Attraction" and the teen version "Swimfan". The magnificent landscape and locations in the beautiful city of Carmel, where Clint Eastwood was elected Major many years later, are another attraction. The performance of Jessica Walters is awesome, changing naturally her behavior from a sweet to an aggressive person, really incorporating her character. Clint Eastwood is very cool, as usual, and Donna Mills very gorgeous. I like the unusual break of tension adopted when Evelyn is arrested and Dave and Tobie's routine returns to normal, dating, going to festival, making love, increasing the suspense after the twist point. I do not recall how many times I have seen "Play Misty for Me", a classic and one of the best thrillers of the 70's. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Perversa Paixão" ("Wicked Passion")

Clint Eastwood certainly learned his lessons well when it came to making his directorial debut, with this now legendary shocker. It may not be all that original, but when it comes to this kind of stalker melodrama, it definitely set a template for others to follow. The pacing wasn't always as tight as this viewer would have liked, but the script (written by Jo Heims and Dean Riesner, based on Heims' story) is often pretty snappy and the film is well cast, and well acted, from top to bottom.

Clint also stars, playing late night jazz D. J. Dave Garver, who learns that he has a devoted admirer in the sexy Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). They have a brief fling, but Dave finds that Evelyn will be extremely unwilling to let him go. She will also go over the deep end upon her discovery that Dave is busy making amends with another woman, an ex-girlfriend named Tobie (Donna Mills). The balance of the film shows what happens as Evelyns' actions threaten to completely derail Daves' life.

Clint is good in the lead, and Mills is appealing in her part. John Larch is a delight as a sardonic police detective who gets involved when the deranged Evelyn assaults Daves' housekeeper Birdie (Clarice Taylor). All lending their valuable support are Jack Ging, Irene Hervey, and James McEachin. Clint also casts his directing mentor, and five time collaborator, Don Siegel, in the role of Murphy the bartender, and Siegel does a solid and engaging job. But the main reason that "Play Misty for Me" is so memorable is because Walter is so incredible. She is, by turns, amusing, sexy, clingy, pathetic, and ultimately psychotic.

Well filmed, and situated in Clints' old stamping ground, the town of Carmel. In addition to the score by Dee Barton, there's plenty of great music along the way, with some sequences set at the Monterey Jazz Festival. There are brief, jarring bursts of violence, and a fairly effective and suspenseful finale.

This has to rank as one of the most iconic films in this whole sub genre of thrillers.

Seven out of 10.

Clint Eastwood made his directorial debut with this 1971 suspense/thriller, `Play Misty for Me,' in which he also stars as Dave Garver, a late night radio disc jockey for a small station in Carmel, California. During his show, he opens the phones to take requests, at which times a frequent caller-- a woman named Evelyn (Jessica Walter)-- always asks for the same tune, `Misty.' Her obsession, it turns out, is not with that particular record, but with Garver, who is currently sorting out a relationship gone bad with a young artist, Tobie (Donna Mills), but which may be on the mend in light of the fact that Tobie has just returned to town after a lengthy absence in the wake of their breakup. In the interim, Garver has become entangled with Evelyn, a fan he soon discovers gives new meaning to the term `fanatic.'

Eastwood invades Hitchcock territory with this film, which it turns out was indeed a harbinger of the course his career would take from this point on, that of directing and starring in his own movies. With this one, it's apparent that he had that special touch from the beginning; he knows unequivocally what he likes, what works and how to deliver it. The only weakness in the film (if you can even call it a weakness), would be the use of longshots during a couple of scenes between Garver and Tobie that take place on the coast. It adds a scenic vista for a backdrop, but listening to the dialogue with the actors in the distance gives it a dialogue-added-later feeling. It's a minor flaw, however, that takes nothing away from the overall impact of the film, especially as Eastwood establishes a deliberate pace that allows the tension to mount throughout.

It would seem that for an actor to direct himself would be a monumental undertaking, especially the first time, but Eastwood proves here what has been corroborated over the years and with his films since, that he is his own best director. And it's a club to which few actor/directors belong, which puts him in the elite company of Welles, Branagh and most recently, Ed Harris (with `Pollock'), just to name a few of the select. As Garver, a minor celebrity whose biggest fan turns out to be his worst nightmare, Eastwood is thoroughly convincing, and though this may not be one of his most memorable roles, it is certainly well acted, and delivered with that subtle Eastwood charm.

Jessica Walter combines just the right amount of beauty, charm and menace for her role of Evelyn, which just may be her most memorable performance ever. She creates a character who is smoothly confident, if slightly vulnerable, and prone to instantaneous bursts of psychotic anger. It's an honest portrait of an extremely disturbed individual with the ability to conceal the true nature-- and danger-- of her mental state. Exceptionally well realized by Walter, Evelyn could be the older sister of Stephen King's Annie in `Misery,' a role for which Kathy Bates received an Oscar for Best Actress some twenty years after Walter inhabited the body of Evelyn.

The supporting cast includes John Larch (Sergeant McCallum), Jack Ging (Frank), Irene Hervey (Madge), James McEachin (Al Monte), Clarice Taylor (Birdie) and Don Siegel (Murphy). A film that will have you on the edge of your seat by the end, `Play Misty for Me' withstands the test of time and works every bit as well today as when it was originally released. A tale from the dark side, it's engrossing entertainment that may give you second thoughts about that casual acquaintance you've just invited to your house for dinner. Eastwood chose a perfect setting for his film, using one of the most beautiful spots along the California coast as a background against which to contrast the grisly events of the story. It all adds up to a wild ride for the audience, and an auspicious debut for Eastwood as the Man Behind the Camera. I rate this one 8/10.