Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me (1971)

Play Misty for Me publicity stills image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Clint Eastwood and Universal Pictures delivered the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me to movie theaters in 1971. Eastwood also heads the cast as a cool California disc jockey, with Jessica Walter as his number one fan.

Play Misty for Me Origins

Play Misty for Me began life as an untitled screenplay by Jo Heims, a Clint Eastwood friend. Heims’ outline was then turned into a shooting script by Dean Riesner, a veteran of Eastwood’s Rawhide TV series (1959-66) and the author of another Eastwood film, the popular Coogan’s Bluff (1968).

Robert Daley and Jennings Lang produced Play Misty for Me for Clint Eastwood’s The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. Eastwood secured his first director’s assignment from Lew Wasserman of Universal only after agreeing to waive his usual actor’s fee and settling instead for a percentage of the film’s gross.

Play Misty for Me Music

Dee Barton created the picture’s original music score, which prominently featured the songs “Misty” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

“Misty” owes its creation to the great African-American jazz composer and self-taught pianist Erroll Louis Garner (1921-1977). Garner reportedly composed his most famous song in his head while flying into Chicago for a recording session for Mercury Records. That session took place on July 27, 1954, with “Misty” flowing out of Garner’s keyboard in one easy take. Johnny Burke later added the lyrics, with “Misty” becoming a hit for at least five different artists, including Johnny Mathis in 1959.

Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” had first appeared on her 1969 debut album First Take. Clint Eastwood had heard the song while driving to work one day and decided to use it in the semi-nude love montage sequence featuring his character and Donna Mills. Thanks to the movie, Flack’s song later became a big hit, climbing to #1 on Billboard’s Top 40 in 1972.

Play Misty for Me Cast

Clint Eastwood, sporting huge amounts of hair, stars as Dave Garver. Other players include Jessica Walter (Evelyn Draper), Donna Mills (Tobie Williams), John Larch (Sgt. McCallum), Jack Ging (Frank Dewan), Irene Hervey (Madge Brenner), James McEachin (Al Monte), Clarice Taylor (Birdie), Donald Siegel (Murphy), Duke Everts (Jay Jay) and Tim Frawley (Deputy Sheriff).

Jazz musicians Cannonball Adderley and Johnny Otis make uncredited cameo appearances.

Play Misty for Me Filmed in California

Budgeted at $750,000, Play Misty for Me was filmed in a scant 21 days in Carmel, California, the city where Clint Eastwood later became mayor in 1986. KRML Radio (1410 AM), as featured in the movie, is a real radio station. Since 1957, KRML – “where the sounds of jazz fill the air!” – has been in continuous operation. Currently broadcasting jazz and blues 24 hours a day, the station’s new digs are located in the Eastwood Building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea.

The movie’s concert scenes were shot live at the famous Monterey Jazz Festival.

Special Radio Request: Play Misty for Me

Play Misty for Me opens with Dave Garver driving his sports car along a scenic California highway. On the radio is station KRML in Carmel, with deejay Sweet Al Monte filling the airwaves with his jive banter. Dave relieves Al at the microphone, reciting a little poetry and getting his first request of the night: the old Erroll Garner classic “Misty.”

Dave’s “little Misty chick” is a frequent caller, with the deejay later hooking up with her at a bar. Her name is Evelyn Draper, with she and Dave heading back to his place where they engage in a one-night stand with “no strings attached.”

The deranged Evelyn soon becomes an unwanted presence in Dave’s life, cutting her wrists in his bathroom, trashing his home, ruining his chances for a coveted deejay job in San Francisco and jeopardizing his relationship with his steady girlfriend Tobie.

The deadly climax comes when a crazed Evelyn bound and gags Tobie, kills a police sergeant and waits for the arrival of her former lover. Attacking him with a pair of scissors, Evelyn badly cuts Dave, who retaliates with a wicked punch to the face which sends her hurling through a window to her death in the ocean surf below.

Play Misty for Me Opens in New York City

Play Misty for Me premiered in New York City on November 3, 1971.

“…It is sad that this film, with its locale and some of its moods out of Vertigo and its central obsessional action almost an inversion of Preminger’s wonderful Laura should echo so briefly in the imagination,” observed Roger Greenspun of The New York Times (11/4/71).

“Play Misty for Me is not the artistic equal of Psycho, but in the business of collecting an audience into the palm of its hand and then squeezing hard, it is supreme,” reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Play Misty for Me Box Office, Golden Globe, Trivia, DVD

• Play Misty for Me grossed over $5 million at the American box office.
• The movie earned one Golden Globe nomination: Jessica Walter for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama.
• Clint Eastwood finished Play Misty for Me four days ahead of schedule and $50,000 under budget.
• The laid-back Eastwood pulled a prank on his Coogan’s Bluff director Don Siegel, who was making a cameo appearance as a bartender. In his first scene as director, Eastwood made Siegel do 11 takes, then kindly informed the cameraman to place some film into his camera.
• Unsure of Misty’s reception, Clint Eastwood went to a movie theater incognito in order to gauge the audience’s reaction.
• In Dirty Harry (1971), Clint Eastwood enters a diner at the beginning of the film. The movie playing at the theater on the corner? Play Misty for Me.
• On DVD: Play Misty for Me (Universal, 2001).

“KRML, Dave Garver speaking.”

“Hello?”

“Hi, what’ll it be?”

“Play ‘Misty’ for me.”

Run!