A disk jockey named David is having trouble with an obsessed fan, Evelyn. She is stalking him and won’t leave him alone. Evelyn is making David’s life a living hell.
Blaine: “Play Misty For Me” was the first movie Clint Eastwood got to direct. Clint had been wanting to direct for a while and when he was on the show “Rawhide”, he asked the producers if he could direct an episode, but they said no. Clint was always a student while being on the set of “Rawhide”. Same thing with movies he was involved in. Clint loved to see the director work and it became a real learning experience for him. Clint Eastwood’s real inspiration was Don Siegel, who had directed him in “Two Mules for Sister Sara”, “Coogan’s Bluff”, “The Beguiled” and “Dirty Harry”. Clint knew a woman named Jo Heims for years and she had a dream of her own, which was to become a screenwriter. Clint ran into to Jo and she had written a script called “Play Misty For Me”. As Clint was reading through the script for “Play Misty For Me” it reminded him of something out of Alfred Hitchcock. Jo Heims was friends with someone who was a stalker and that’s where the idea came from. Clint thought something like this would be perfect to start off in directing. Clint told Jo that he wanted to direct “Play Misty For Me”. One day Jo called Clint to inform him she was planning to sell the rights of “Play Misty For Me” to Universal Pictures because she needed money. Jo couldn’t wait any longer and Clint wasn’t going to hold her back. But as luck would have it, Clint agreed to do three movies with Universal and while he was making a deal with the executives he mentioned “Play Misty For Me”. Clint didn’t think it would be easy to get the approval to direct a movie, but it was. Universal didn’t want to pay Clint though because they were already paying him for three other projects he would star in. Clint was fine with that because this was his opportunity to finally direct. Clint’s agent wouldn’t allow him to work without getting payed. So the agent convinced the executives to pay Clint for the work he was going to be doing on “Play Misty for Me”.
Clint was a little nervous doing both acting and directing at the same time, but legends before him like Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier had done it successfully. Clint learned it’s not that hard to be doing two things at once as he got started. Don Siegel supported Clint for his first directing job. Don would be Clint’s advisor on set. Don gave Clint useful advise that stuck with him the rest of his career as a director. Clint wanted Don to make a cameo as the bartender, but Don didn’t want to. Don asked Clint why not just hire an actor to play the part and the reason was because Clint needed Don around just incase he screwed anything up. Of course Clint was doing well with directing. Clint also thought Don should have an experience on what it’s like to be in front of the camera. Screenwriter Dean Riesner wrote a movie called “Coogan’s Bluff”, which Clint Eastwood starred in and Clint asked Dean if he could make a few changes to the script. The bartender was Dean’s idea. He knew a bartender who used to play this game called Cry Bastion, which was this fake game. He would set up a lot of bottle tops on the bar. It must be something like chess and Dean added that to the script.
Another guy Clint knew was Malcolm, who worked for a local station and he was sort of like Clint’s character David. Malcolm was a disk jockey who was very popular and worked in a small town. Malcolm was nice enough to let Clint and the crew use his house so that it can be David’s in the movie. Malcolm also became a tour guide to Clint Eastwood and the crew because he knew the whole area they were going to be shooting in. “Misty” was a classic song. There was no other title for this project except “Play Misty For Me”. Universal didn’t own the rights to the “Misty” song. They suggested using a different song like “Strangers in the Night”, but Clint informed them it had already been used in another movie very recently. Then Universal suggested “Scoobie-Doobie-Doo”. Clint thought the conversation was becoming ridiculous, so he ended it. “Misty” cost $25,000. to buy the rights to.
For the role of Evelyn, Clint wanted someone who looked attractive, but also had a quirky side to her. Jessica Walter had just moved to California. She started her career off in New York doing theater, television and movies. Clint wanted Jessica Walter after seeing her in Sidney Lumet’s “The Group”. There was one scene where Jessica is flirting with a ski instructor, he gets annoyed and slaps her. The look on Jessica’s face was really something for Clint and right then and there he knew she was perfect. Jessica was all for working with Clint Eastwood when he offered her the part. Jessica had heard some rumors about Clint that were slightly true. Clint was a one of a kind when Jessica met him. She was impressed with Clint and liked him right away. In 1970, female roles were more secondary in film, but Clint was offering Jessica a main role. Jessica thought Evelyn should look average who wore mini skirts, boots, little jacket because that was the style back then. Jessica spent most of her pay on clothes for the movie. Universal Pictures thought Evelyn should be shown as an escape mental patient, but Clint was against that because there needed to mystery to the story. It was better not to know where Evelyn came from. You don’t know she’s crazy in the beginning, but as the movie goes on she acts weird. Evelyn gets into David’s business, acts childlike, yells and screams. Then Evelyn becomes suicidal because if she can’t have David then she’ll take her own life. Evelyn slits her wrists at David’s place. Evelyn manages to survive, but now David is trapped. David can hardly do anything now because then she’ll probably try to take her own life again. David can't take it. When David is trying to make a business deal, Evelyn shows up and ruins it. David has had enough and doesn’t care if she tries to kill herself again, he just wants her out of his life. Clint taught Jessica how to hold a knife and it scared her to see how to use it. There’s a scene where Evelyn becomes dangerous and attacks David’s maid. Jessica Walter said she owed Clint a lot of credit for making her performance look good. Jessica Walter had no problems with Clint directing. Clint was Jessica’s type of director because the both of them didn’t like to do too many takes. They also had the same feelings about not over-rehersing.
David was almost written as a married man. That was another thing Clint was against because that would be a big problem for David. Clint thought it was better for David to be a bachelor. However there is this one girl David has known for a while that he has feelings for. Like Jessica Walter, Donna Mills started her career off in New York. She did a soap opera for three years and after that she left because she wanted to try something new. Donna was recommended to Clint through Burt Reynolds after working with her on a television show. Donna had a certain look to her, which is what Clint was looking for in the character, Tobie. Donna couldn’t believe she was offered to be in a movie with Clint Eastwood and it was even more surprising that she didn’t have to audition or meet with Clint just to prove she was worthy enough for the part. Donna didn’t meet Clint in person until around the time shooting began. Donna Mills was nervous about Clint Eastwood being a director because it was his first time. But Clint knew what he wanted and after the first day of shooting, Donna never doubted him again. Clint made Donna feel very comfortable.
Tobie doesn’t know if she wants to be with David at first, but she is willing to give their relationship a chance. Tobie hates the jealous type. Tobie thinks David stood her up at one point, but that’s because Evelyn wouldn’t let him go. David explains what he has been going through with Evelyn to Tobie and she not only understands, but realizes things have been really rough for him. So not everything in David’s life is turning into a disaster. Clint was listening to the song “Ever I saw your face” on the radio and he shared it with Donna. Clint thought the song went well with the scene where David and Tobie spend some nice quality time together and become closer as a couple. Donna thought it sounded beautiful. Clint informed Donna that the scene would involve nudity and he wanted to make sure she was ok with it. Donna didn’t know what to think because she had never done a nude scene before. She was nervous, but she allowed it. Once Donna saw the fully finished scene, she saw that Clint worked really hard on that scene to make it look romantic. No one liked that scene when the movie was released, but it's my favorite scene because the song really goes with the scene. David has just been through hell, but Evelyn has been put away after attacking the maid and now he finally has some peace with a woman he has feelings for. Of course you know Evelyn is going to return. Question is how?
Tobie has a new roommate, who turns out to be Evelyn and Tobie doesn’t know that because she doesn’t know what Evelyn looks like. Tobie knows her as Annabel Lee, which is a quote from an Edgar Allan Poe poem. There’s something about the name Annabel Lee that sounds familiar to David. Evelyn called David earlier saying she was better now, which wasn’t true, and she said a poem. Once David remembers, he realizes Tobie is in danger. Evelyn ties up Tobie and cuts her hair. Donna Mills was wearing wig because she didn’t want her hair to really be cut. It was scary for Donna to shoot that scene because the scissors that Jessica Walter was using in that scene were huge and they were close to Donna’s face. Donna didn’t realize that “Play Misty For Me” was supposed to be scary until she saw the movie. Donna thought Clint was a master at suspense. Clint wanted the scene to be suspenseful. As David is rushing over to the house, Evelyn is using the scissors to cut up a painting of David. David arrives to the house, the whole place is dark, so there’s no telling where Evelyn is. But as soon as David finds Donna, Evelyn comes out of the shadows and attacks David with the scissors. It was exhausting for Jessica Walter to shoot the ending where Evelyn and David are fighting each other, but at the same time it was exhilarating for her. David hits Evelyn on the face and she gets knocked out of the window. She falls down the rocky hill, down to the shore bellow and that’s what kills her. The producer was concerned if it was a good idea for Clint Eastwood to be hitting a woman. But Clint knew the audience would be on David’s side after everything Evelyn has done. She just killed a detective, so that makes her a murderer. The original ending had the detective surviving after Evelyn stabs him, then he shows up while David and Evelyn are fighting and he shoots Evelyn dead. Clint thought that was a weak ending. Before principal photography began, Clint found a house that was on a cliff down in the highlands, south of Carmel and he thought that should be the outside of David’s house, so that Evelyn could fall down the cliff. Jessica Walter called up her stunt double, Julie Johnson, and she did the stunt where Clint hits her on the face and gets knocked through the window. When Evelyn goes down the fall, it’s a dummy and when you see Evelyn in the water, that’s Jessica. Clint Eastwood was nervous when “Play Misty for Me” had a sneak preview at the San Jose theater. He didn’t know what the audience was going to think of the movie. Clint wore a disguise so he could sit in the audience without anybody recognizing him. Clint sat next to these teenage girls and they were enjoying the movie, but when Evelyn was going crazy, they jumped up in their seats. Clint was relieved because that meant they thought the movie was suspenseful. It meant a lot to Clint when Don Siegel, the man who was an inspiration for Clint, told him he did a terrific job.
My rating on “Play Misty For Me” is five out of five stars.
