Play Misty for Me

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The first film ever directed by Clint Eastwood.

Dave (Eastwood) is a womanizing DJ who constantly gets calls from a woman asking him to play the song "Misty". He eventually meets the woman, named Evelyn, and has a one-night-stand with her. Evelyn insists on making herself part of Dave's life and, at first, Dave likes the attention. However, his ex-girlfriend, Tobie, moves back to town and Dave decides to patch things up. After he attempts to tell Evelyn that he's not interested, she responds by attempting suicide. Dave and Tobie get closer, but Evelyn isn't going to take it and tries any way she can to keep Dave to herself, even if it means getting rid of Tobie for good...


Tropes used in Play Misty for Me include:
  • Ax Crazy: Evelyn gets more violent as the film goes on.
  • Black Dude Dies First: Averted. The first of the two people Evelyn attacks in the movie is Dave's black caretaker, but she survives.
    • Or did she? We never actually see her after she's being carted off to the hospital, so there's every likelihood that she passed away.
      • Dave does refer months later, however, to Evelyn as the woman who *tried* to kill her.
  • Disney Death: Evelyn is accidentally pushed off a cliff by Dave.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Evelyn.
  • The Seventies
  • Stalker with a Crush: Notably, this is something of an Unbuilt Trope. Rather than the modern Double Standard of female stalkers being Played for Laughs, Dave is clearly sympathetic, and for the majority of the movie trying to do the right thing. He wants to get back with his ex, and he's trying to put Evelyn down as gently as possible. Evelyn, on the other hand, is portrayed as horrible.
  • Yandere: Evelyn, of course.