A Quiet Voice On The Phone Can Be A Terrible Thing

 Getting To Know Your Listeners Too Well

Play Misty For Me (1971) – Dave Garver is the smooth voiced night time DJ at a radio station on the California coast. A one-night hook up with an obsessed fan turns into terror and tragedy.

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Starring Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch

Why I Liked It – A classic thriller from the golden age of free form radio.

Clint Eastwood was on the cusp of stardom when Universal Studios offered him a multi-movie contract to direct. He was coming off a successful run on “Rawhide”, his four classic westerns (“Fistful of Dollars”, “A Few Dollars More”, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”and “Hang ‘Em High”), a couple solid war movies, and his ill-fated dip into musicals (“Paint Your Wagon”). He has the chance to bring together several of his personal passions in this story – jazz music and the city of Carmel, where he would be elected mayor years later.. The result is a stunning thriller of a debut.

Radio old-timers, like me, will catch some obvious errors. Like the fact that the reel Garvin (Eastwood) puts on the tape deck when he has to leave the station would never last as long as needed. There’s about fifteen minutes of audio on a tape that size. None of them are important to the story. When I talked with new DJs during my career, I always referenced this movie. It was a classic example of the dangers of getting involved with your listeners. A good air personality makes the audience feel like they know them, that they’re friends. They feel comfortable with you (I had a lady who told me she showered with me every morning!) That can be a very dangerous place to go in real life.

Jessica Walter plays Evelyn, the obsessed listener who tracks Garvin down and seduces him. That doesn’t take much work, since the character is a serial philanderer. It cost him his only serious relationship with Tobie (Mills). This fling may cost him more than that. Walter is brilliant as the aggressive and emotionally volatile stalker. Evelyn turns on a pin from cheery and playful to furious and violent. Almost moment to moment, the fury builds and the craziness becomes more apparent. While it’s Clint’s name with top billing, the tour de force performance belongs to Jessica Walter. Dave Garver is the victim, harassed, abused and tormented. His salvation is accidental.

While the movie shows its age in the presentation of some of the intense scenes, the terror is on-point every moment. Eastwood does a nice job with the thriller aspects of the story. I mark him down a little on the romance storyline between Dave and Tobie. My assumption is that it’s intended to contrast the idyllic aspect of their relationship to the chaos that surrounds Evelyn. It comes off a hokey. The movie slows to a near standstill during them. The scenes are important, but don’t need to go anywhere near as long as they are. Mills’ role shows some independence of character at the beginning, but quickly melts into a blah object of Garver’s desire and potential victim.

There are moments where the movie shows its age. Garver’s promiscuity gets the hero’s nod here, and the attack scenes have a dated look. Overall, the movie remains as tight and exciting as it was at the beginning. Eastwood understands how to build tension and tell a story, even on his first attempt.

I have to get it a nod to Pittsburgh native and jazz legend Earl Garner. The title of the movie comes from his iconic tune of the same name.

“Play Misty For Me” is available to stream on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, Redbox, Microsoft, and DirecTV.

Rating – **** Recommended