Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Jo Heimsc and Dean ReisneR
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Evelyn: I did it because I LOVE YOU!
Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut is a solid thriller with a few real scares.
Dave (Eastwood) is a DJ at a radio station in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a picture-postcard tourist village on the California Coast. He hosts the late night show, playing mellow jazz and taking requests. Dave has a wandering eye. His biggest fan is Evelyn (Jessica Walter). She calls most nights to request that Dave play Errol Garner’s “Misty” for her and he obliges Finally she tracks him down to a bar and makes advances leading to a one-night-stand. After this Evelyn is crazy in love (she was already crazy) and she begins to act like the female half of the most passionate affair of the century. Dave tries to let her down gently but Evelyn doesn’t have a subtle bone in her psyche.
The situation gets even more complicated when Dave’s sometime-girl friend and true love decides to give him another chance. This Evelyn is one seriously messed up chick.
For my final film of 1971 I had to chose between The Hired Hand one and this one which I saw before years ago. I’m glad I picked this one though I will remain curious about the other. Clint started out as he meant to continue – making workmanlike entertainment as concisely as possible. This first one has some pretty darn scary jump shots and a dynamite performance by Jessica Walter. There’s also an awesome jazz score which includes Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” Clint just acted like Clint. There’s some of those flowery slo-mo romance shots that seem to plague movies of this era but not too many of them.
I rather like this as a directorial debut. A big part of that is the fact that Clint makes himself vulnerable in this–he’s the victim rather than the hero, and that’s a really intersting switch.
Jessica Walter, though, is the reason this works.
It also works incredibly well as Clint’s love-note to his beloved Carmel. I never really cared for the kind of people Clint played but as a director he sure has delivered some amazing work and it all started here!
I remember it well, though I haven’t seen MISTY since the original release and had forgotten that the film featured Roberta Flack. She was a favorite of mine.
Thanks, as always, for stirring memories of our youth!
Those were the days! 1972 will be another memorable year.