Play Misty for Me
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Duke Everts, George Fargo, Jack Ging, Mervin W. Frates, Tim FrawleyPrimary Contributor: Jessica Walter
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 102 minutes
Release Date: 2001-09-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios
VHS Movie Reviews of Play Misty for Me
Movie Review: Excellent directorial debut from Clint...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a damn fine picture, and it's Clint Eastwood's first film as a director. It's not Citizen Kane, but it isn't Fear and Desire (Kubrick's abysmal first film), or Pirahana 2: The Spawning, James Cameron's first feature. either. It's a very good film, and considering this was the first time Clint stepped behind a camera, he did a very good job. The story is quite contemporary as Clint is playing a DJ who beds a woman (played very well by Jessica Walker) who turns out to be a bit unstable and homicidal. The word stalker had not entered the American vocabulary at the time, but this is in fact what she was. It's a terrifying film, very well acted, directed, edited, and shot mostly on location (an Eastwood favorite). It's a fine debut.
There's an interesting backstory behind this film. Clint has always had ambitions to direct, and he asked the studio heads at Universal if he could direct this film. They were understandably weary and cautious about letting an actor who had never directed before direct a film, but instead of Clint pulling the "I'm the biggest actor in the world! DO AS I SAY!" route, he told Universal he would do the film for no money, and take a percentage of the gross. Well, it turned out that Clint finished the movie early and under budget (he almost always does), and it was a box office hit, so Clint earned more from the gross than he would have from a straight salary.
Clint was never really taken seriously as a director (at least by American critics) until Unforgiven. Many critics just thought of him as an actor who was just amusing himself by directing occasionally. The truth is that he was directing many of his own films after Play Misty for Me. Clint has only worked with 3 major directors (other than himself) in his career: Sergio Leone, Don Siegel (who has a cameo here), and Wolfgang Petersen (in the film In the Line of Fire). He's really unique in the film industry in that he really controls his own creativity, along the lines of Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen (both of them rarely ever acted for others). Clint's remarkable career just keeps getting better, as he has a new film due out (Changeling), and one due out not too far after that (Gran Torino). So it turns out Clint was a much better artist than most made him out to be, and he keeps getting better and better.
Summary of Play Misty for Me
Clint Eastwood (making his very assured directorial debut) is a poetry-spouting stud-muffin DJ stalked by a maniacally amorous fan after a misguided one-night stand in this enjoyably schlocky, undeniably effective film about good intentions gone murderously wacky. Although many of the very '70s trappings presented here may ultimately be too dated to be taken seriously (including a very self-indulgent jazz number and a hilariously gooey seduction number between Eastwood and Donna Mills), the core premise of infatuation taken out of bounds remains uncomfortably plausible--and was influential enough to be appropriated by one of the biggest hits of the '80s. (Here's a hint--it starred Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and a very unfortunate bunny rabbit). A well-staged and occasionally very frightening thriller worth watching for Jessica Walter's peerlessly unhinged performance alone. Frequent Eastwood collaborator Don Siegel (director of Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, and The Beguiled, to name but a few) has a nice cameo as Murphy, the mustachioed, chess-playing bartender. --Andrew WrightDrama VHS Video
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