The second of the three 1971 films in which Clint Eastwood starred, Play Misty for Me comes with a notable distinction. The movie boasts the future Oscar-winner’s directorial debut.

Dave Garver (Eastwood) works as a DJ in Carmel, California. A womanizer, he tries to change his sexual ways when Tobie Williams (Donna Mills) – “the one who got away” – re-enters his life.

Complications ensue due to a one-night stand Dave conducted with a fan named Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walker). She can’t accept the temporary nature of their “relationship” and goes to great lengths to make Dave hers, whether he wants that or not.

I know I saw Misty decades before I viewed this Blu-ray in 2025 but I struggle to maintain any real memories of the experience. I retain the notion that I didn’t think much of the movie but that exists as the extent of my minor recollections.

Because my “opinion” about the movie seemed so vague and distant, I hoped to get more from it in 2025. Happily, I did, as I now see Misty as a pretty solid psychological thriller – well, most of the way, as it falters in its third act.

Folks of my generation mainly associate the “jilted mentally unstable lover” genre with 1987’s smash hit Fatal Attraction. The biggest difference between these two stems from the availability of the male protagonist.

In Attraction, Michael Douglas played a married man who cheated on his wife with Glenn Close’s Alex. In Misty, even though Dave wants to rekindle with Tobie, he still remains an official free agent romantically, so he lacks the somewhat scummy side exhibited by Douglas’s Dan.

However, Dan’s extramarital hijinks added a layer of tension that Misty can’t repeat. Sure, we want Dave to get back with his lost love, but if this fails, it lacks the repercussions that stem from the wanderings of a married man with kids.

Honestly, the Tobie subplot turns into by far the weakest aspect of Misty. I guess the writers thought Tobie would add a layer of threat, both to Dave’s romantic future as well as Tobie’s life herself.

Should it act as a spoiler to reveal that Evelyn eventually comes after Tobie? I don’t think so, mainly because I knew it would proceed that way well before the story got there.

It just seems inevitable. For Dave to really feel Evelyn’s menace, she needs to threaten the person who means the most to him.

I think Misty could find drama without the superfluous presence of Tobie, and the film takes a major detour from the thrills in the aforementioned Problematic Third Act. We lose Evelyn for an extended period as the movie suddenly diverges into an entirely different tale.

First we find a romantic montage between Dave and Tobie accompanied by Roberta Flack’s hit “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. Dave and Tobie then spend a pleasant day at a jazz festival.

This all eats up about 11 minutes, a pretty sizable chunk of the movie’s 105-minute running time. Perhaps Eastwood thought that this pleasant interlude would lull the viewers into a false sense of security and a belief that Dave has shed Evelyn for good.

Of course, anyone who’s ever seen a movie will know better. It would make no sense for a film to spend so much time on Happily Ever After and then just end, so we know Misty will soon build toward a Big Scary Climax.

Which it does well, as the movie regains its bearings after that tedious romance/jazzfest segment. Although that part of the film threatens to permanently alienate the viewer, matters bounce back well enough for the flick’s last 25 minutes or so to overcome these issues.

Although Evelyn eventually turns into a Movie Standard Nutbag, Misty allows her to build gradually, and Walters handles the part well. She doesn’t foreshadow Evelyn’s mental collapse and delivers a solid performance.

Eastwood also handles his unwitting victim nicely. He doesn’t seem like a sap but he struggles to figure out how to deal with this increasing menace.

Due to the superfluous Tobie role and the bizarre romance/jazzfest interlude, Misty doesn’t quite fire on all cylinders. Nonetheless, it does more right than wrong.

Play Misty for Me appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The image felt decent but dated.

Sharpness usually worked acceptably well, though a few too many soft spots emerged. The presence of some light edge haloes made these more obvious.

I witnessed no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, and print flaws showed a handful of small specks but nothing more. Though some grain appeared, the image felt a bit “scrubbed”, so I suspected moderate noise removal.

Colors became a highlight. The film’s natural palette looked bright and peppy.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, while low-light shots brought reasonable clarity. Though aspects of the presentation held up fine, the softness and various forms of processing knocked it down to a “C+”.

Though largely fine given its vintage, the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack came with one notable weakness: its music. Dee Barton’s score tended to sound like they recorded it in a box, so this part of the mix seemed muddy and flat.

The rest of the track fared best, as speech remained largely natural, even with some poorly looped dialogue. Effects also came across as decent, though without much range.

Again, parts of the track worked fine. However, the oddly lo-fi score made this a “C-“ mix.

Along with the film’s trailer, the disc includes a few video programs. Play It Again spans 49 minutes, 22 seconds and offers notes from actor/director Clint Eastwood, producer Robert Daley, screenwriter Dean Riesner, critic Richard Schickel and actors Jessica Walter and Donna Mills.

With “Play”, we get notes about Eastwood’s move to the directorial chair, the Misty screenplay and its path to the screen, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, cinematography, and the film’s release/reception. Especially thanks to the active involvement of Eastwood, this becomes a solid overview of the flick’s creation.

The Beguiled, Misty, Don and Clint goes for six minutes, 13 seconds. It provides remarks from Schickel, Eastwood, and Daley.

This show looks at thematic connections between 1971’s The Beguiled and Misty as well as the influence of Beguiled director Don Siegel on Eastwood. A few useful notes emerge here, though “Don and Clint” feels a little too short to give us much.

We conclude with three separate collections of stills: Photograph Montage (46 images), Clint Eastwood Acts and Directs (24) and Evolution of a Poster (31). These come with some good elements but they suffer from subpar DVD quality reproduction.

A cautionary tale about obsessive lovers, Play Misty for Me comes with too many bad choices to turn into a thoroughly winning thriller. Nonetheless, it clicks most of the time. The Blu-ray comes with inconsistent picture and audio as well as a decent mix of bonus features. This winds up as a largely positive movie but an iffy Blu-ray.