PLAY MISTY FOR ME

Already an established actor in Hollywood, his first taste of directing came from a close colleague based upon an obsessed woman (Jessica Walters) stalking a Californian Radio DJ (Clint Eastwood). In 1971, Play Misty for Me is the story about the misinterpretation of commitment and where Eastwood would play a character, which is essentially victimised, but on a darker level. Creative comparisons to the Hitchcockian qualities are Eastwood’s level’s of energy, shock and suspense, which was portrayed through the relentless pressure from Evelyn’s emotional and physical demands, leading to Eastwood’s character being unsettled, humiliated and shown as weak and powerless. One of Hitchcock’s major themes was certainly invoked in the movie, ‘the intrusion of violently irrational disorder on a serenely untroubled universe’ (1)

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The role of Evelyn in Eastwood’s first film was pivotal. Two of Eastwood’s biggest influences Billy Wilder and John Huston included the actors’ ideas on their film sets through the 1940’s and 1950’s, and by the 1970’s method acting had a huge contribution from some directors in their performances, which was also something Eastwood believed in and directing Jessica Walter, Eastwood wanted a performance that showed women could be as realistic in a role as a man could. From Walters 1^st speech, we are seduced by her like Eastwood is; she’s as authentic and completely human as Eastwood could be. Walters is the exact opposite to Eastwood character – impulsive where he is controlled, passionate and sensual where he is content, innocent, yet corrupted in this intense love story.

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Walter’s is as much the protagonist as Eastwood is, a woman hell bent on a masculine style of revenge and manipulation and to a degree achieving it. This was an influence from Eastwood growing up ‘My preferences for strong roles for women stems from when I was a kid. I grew up on pictures in which women played very important roles.’ (2)

Eastwood’s directing style for Play Misty for Me is cool, calm and collected as well as giving a strong sense of real time influenced heavily from Don Siegel films like The Beguiled. Like Siegel, Eastwood was effective in his filming of violent, action scenes. The story was told with tight direction; Eastwood tightened his grip on audiences when it was needed and forced them to be on the edge of their seats once the film got going. He lured them into a false sense of security and then displayed Evelyn’s madness with sharp, sudden cuts that startled and shocked audience alike. Shot with Panavison equipment, Eastwood wanted to make sure he had superior zoom shots, the final scenes of Dave and Evelyn fighting captured this, by using fast cuts and moving the camera into the heart of the brawl between both of them capturing the intensity with a furious montage of fragmented bodies and barely seeing the knife, much like Hitchcock’s Shower scene capturing the same feeling of revulsion and pain.

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The sounds and reactions from both characters add to the tense final encounter when Evelyn is punched over the cliff, again Eastwood creatively styled the sequence much like the Detective falling the down the staircase.

The film was shot in the Carmel area (where Eastwood would later become Mayor of), not a single studio shot giving the films spectacular aerial photography of the scenic environment taken from his experiences from working with Sergio Leone on the Spaghetti Westerns as well as John Ford’s western.

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The landscape played an important part in his first film, specifically; the scene where Eastwood and his girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills) share a love scene accompanied by the song “The first time ever I saw your face”. This tender moment showed a raw and emotional side to Eastwood’s character with a Garden of Eden type setting giving a passionate feel to the movie, but still reminding the audiences of Evelyn’s presence in the wide shot of her hand creeping in bringing tense, overbearing feel to a calm situation.

The shoot lasted only four and a half weeks and was the beginning of Eastwood’s style of incredible organisation taken again from the influence of Don Siegel’s approach to filmmaking - shooting one or two takes, coming under budget and on schedule.

“Don could be anything but extravagant. He was always grumbling but, my, he was efficient! He knew what he wanted and he knew how to take decisions. He kept to is budget and to his schedule. His frugality rubbed off on me”. (3)



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