Before Disclosure, before Fatal Attraction, there was Play Misty for Me. I first saw this movie when I was in college as a part of the free movie series shown on campus. I just saw it again tonight on Encore Mystery Channel. There were some things about it I remembered and some I had forgotten. The movie stars Clint Eastwood (this was also his directorial debut) as Dave Garver, a jazz station DJ who earlier in his life felt he must demonstrate his sexual prowess with all women. You hear about this as the movie progresses. (Remember this movie was created in 1971, when “free love” abounded and STDs were cured by penicillin.) His femme fatale, a psycho groupie, was Evelyn Draper, played brilliantly by Jessica Walter, who regularly called him on his late night jazz show to request the song “Misty”. She soon allows Garver to pick her up in a bar he frequents. Dave’s true love interest was Tobie Williams, played by a then-little-known Donna Mills, who had just returned to town as the movie begins. Essentially the psychotic Draper attempts suicide and tries to murder Williams before things get so far out of hand that she nearly murders Garver before he knocks her off a balcony overhanging an oceanside cliff.
Even though it was his directorial debut (he later went on to direct many movies, including “Bronco Billy”, “Pale Rider”, Bird”, and “Absolute Power”), Eastwood did a great job with this. He showed a dark side of groupies that doesn’t always get reported. Walter was amazing, proving that not only was she gorgeous but she could really act; but I’ll bet after this she didn’t get asked out on dates for a while! She was so true to life that the some of the scenes were downright bone-chilling. Mills plays a typical good-girl role; she later went on to TV stardom on the shows “Knots Landing” and “Melrose Place”.
This is a great movie if you like the Hitchcock-style suspense on what appears to be normal. The final scene where Draper attacks Garver is particularly shocking - possibly as shocking as the original shower scene in “Psycho”. If all this sounds familiar, Fatal Attraction is little more than a rewrite and not nearly as well acted or directed. If you like the genre it is a must-rent or a must-see. I rate it an 8.
