Sightlines · reception

How Play Misty for Me was received

1971 · Clint Eastwood · Play Misty for Me on Sightlines

The arc

In 1971 it was the modest surprise that proved the squinting cowboy could actually direct; now it's canonised as the blueprint for the obsessive-stalker thriller, with Fatal Attraction routinely dismissed as the glossy remake that arrived sixteen years late.

What’s debated

The perennial fight is whether Evelyn is the ur-text of the misogynist 'crazy woman' trope or whether Jessica Walter's ferocious, weirdly sympathetic performance transcends it entirely.

Its footprint

Every 'bunny boiler' thriller since lives in its shadow, and its use of Roberta Flack's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' helped rocket the song to #1 the following year; a younger generation keeps rediscovering that the terrifying stalker is Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd favorite of the Eastwood-as-director canon — the debut cinephiles cite to argue he was a real filmmaker from day one, and a must-see for Jessica Walter alone.

Did you know? Eastwood cast his mentor Don Siegel — the director of Dirty Harry — in a small role as the bartender, so he'd have an experienced director on set for his own directing debut.

Named by the director

• Don Siegel — Eastwood repeatedly credited Siegel as the mentor whose lean, fast shooting style he was applying in this debut, and put him on screen as the bartender.