First? Really?:Clint Eastwood's PLAY MISTY FOR ME

 PLAY MISTY FOR ME

Clint Eastwood, Jessica Harper, Donna Mills. Dir. Clint Eastwood, Universal, 1970

Does the hunter get captured by the game? In a sense, that's Clint's big question in his directorial debut, PLAY MISTY FOR ME. Portraying Dave, a jazz deejay on his way up, it's not impossible to see him as a character hoist on his own petard, however hapless he may appear.

Dave Garroway, a successful jazz deejay, and ladies' man, runs across Evelyn, the ultimate - in all senses - fan. Falling back in love with "good girl" Donna Mills, courted by a bigger-market station, Dave has everything going his way. Including cute, gamine, passionate Evelyn, his self-appointed #1 fan, who calls & asks him to "play 'Misty' for me" every night. Needless to say, complications develop.

It's difficult, at times, to accept this as Clint's first movie as director. Like Alan Parker's fame, he brings such a sure touch to his material. Like Robert Redford, you have to think he asked a million questions onset & remembered every answer. There is never a false note, never a clumsy trope designed to cover some rookie mistake. Few non-directors could watch this film & spot the newbie mistakes.

My initial thought involved pairing MISTY with its followup BREEZY, but PLAY MISTY's psycho-fan/woman-scorned forms too much the template for Adrian Lyne's FATAL ATTRACTION or Barbet Schroeder's SINGLE WHITE FEMALE to ignore. As I wrote up both FAME & ALL THAT JAZZ, I noted to myself that Lyne's breakthrough, FLASHDANCE, particularly in its breakdancing sequence, aspired to be more like those films, but uber-producer Don Simpson, who never met a script he couldn't dumb down, kept the impressionism out of Lyne's film. Nice theory, but Lyne's producer by FATAL ATTRACTION, Richard Joffe, didn't enjoy the same rep. Other hand, FATAL ATTRACTION, for its surface similarity to PLAY MISTY, reduces Glenn Close's Alex to a caraciature, a maniacal H'wood monster whose appearances follow a logical sequence. All of which works like crazy for a late '80s audience, but maybe not as much for a 1970 demographic. FATAL ATTRACTION jumps from infidelity to getting weird about it to getting really weird about it to dead rabbits in the stewpot. PLAY MISTY recalled Schroeder's roomate thriller more often, for Evelyn's escalation, not unlike Leigh's, appears so reasonable until you realize THIS PERSON IS IN YOUR LIFE & YOU CAN'T GET HER OUT. Evelyn's buildup is so gradual she's almost a fixture by the time she gets friendly with the butcher knife. Her antagonism is constant in a way Leigh's, but not Close's, is.

Complicating matters, Garroway's at least nominally in love with artist Donna Mills, no fan of Garroway's swinging lifestyle. While she certainly complicates the plot, her presence & Clint's enchantment with it, adds another layer. Is she his ONE TRUE LOVE, his salvation & redemption? Or is she the means by which Garroway distinguishes between Evelyn & herself? It's tempting to believe the latter, but Garroway's indiscretions gave me pause. Is Eastwood positing "good girl" Mills as a symbol of his redemption, or as another signpost on a twisty road of blind curves?

To his credit, Eastwood leaves that answer to us. While Harper's Evelyn is, in fact, monstrous, Eastwood allows the audience to decide why, including Garroway's hedonistic apathy.

As I mentioned before, PLAY MISTY's greatest debit is in its female stars' failure to break through to screen idol stardom. Harper did a ton of TV, especially ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, & Mills starred on KNOT'S LANDING for at least a decade. That said, both more than hold their own next to Clint, & yet where's the reward? Mills, as a woman who suspects she's being played, yet can't stay away, is particularly effective.

Eastwood directs his debut like a man schooled by Leone & Siegel. That said, neither would have given over almost 6 minutes of screentime to highlight Roberta Flack & Cannonball Adderly. It might be a "rookie mistake," but as a fan, it only endears me to him. Otherwise, I watch PLAY MISTY & try to comprehend it as a debut film. Universal underpromoted it at the time. How?