Play Misty for Me reviewed in under 4 minutes!

Play Misty for Me is a 1971 film directed by Clint Eastwood, his 1st film as a director based on a story by Jo Helms who also wrote the script. The film stars Clint Eastwood, Donna Mills, Jessica Walter, Don Siegel, James McEachin, Irene Hervey, and John Larch.

A mysterious woman calls smooth-talking disc jockey Dave Carver (Clint Eastwood) regularly to request Misty. One day this caller, whose name is Evelyn (Jessica Walter) shows up at his favorite bar, one thing leads to another and they wind up making love at her place. He is upfront about his situation; there’s an old flame he’s trying to win back and he isn’t looking for a committed relationship. The following day, however, Evelyn shows up at his place unannounced. She shows up again and again and again disrupting Dave’s life, his job, and his chances at reuniting with Tobie (Donna Mills). Dave soon discovers that it’s easier to start a fire than it is to put it out!

Play Misty For Me has everything going for it. From the scenic landscapes of Monterey, California to Errol Garner's Misty and Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

The scene that sums up the movie to me is an exchange between Dave and Evelyn in which she tells him that she loves him and he replies: "We don't even know each other!” In this exchange I saw a metaphor of our present society where real intimacy has been streamlined to impersonal sexual encounters.

Dave and Evelyn's relationship can also be interpreted as a metaphor of addiction. Like a smoker trying to wean himself off cigarettes, Dave tells Tobie that he is trying to cut back on the number of women he sees. Their relationship can also be interpreted as the dark nature in all of us. Remember that Tobie told Dave that she left him because she felt herself becoming the type of jealous female that she hated which happened to be Evelyn.

Regardless of how you look at it, Play Misty for Me is a great film that Director Adrian Lyne based his own 1987 psychological thriller Fatal Attraction on. Clint Eastwood is one of the few actors who turned out to be as good behind the camera as he was as an actor in front of it. Mel Gibson is another one. And Clint is still directing films at 87 years of age! The DVD comes with a documentary on the making of Play Misty with interviews by Clint and the actresses who still look great, especially Donna Mills.