Play Misty For Me - Plot

Plot

Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) is a KRML radio jockey who broadcasts nightly from his studio in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, often incorporating poetry into his program. One night, he visits his favorite bar and, seemingly by coincidence, meets a woman named Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter). Dave offers to drive Evelyn home and she accepts; once there, she reveals to him that their meeting was not coincidental; she deliberately sought him out after hearing him mention his favorite bar on his radio show. He guesses that she is a frequent caller who always requests the jazz standard "Misty"; Evelyn confirms this and then coerces a clearly uncomfortable Dave into having sex with her.

From that point on, Evelyn prominently displays her borderline personality disorder and begins showing up at Dave's house uninvited. She frequently alternates between being in love with him and hating him. Despite the short duration of their affair, she thinks that he loved her and feels abandoned and lonely. She throws jealous temper tantrums, attempts suicide in his home, and destroys his carefully constructed career move into management. After Dave rejects her one time too many, Evelyn lets herself into his home when he is out. His housekeeper walks in to find her maniacally vandalizing his possessions; Evelyn viciously attacks her with a knife and is subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital.

For a time, all appears well; Dave has successfully rekindled his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Tobie Williams (Donna Mills), and Evelyn is nowhere to be seen. One night, however, Evelyn calls Dave to tell him that she has been released and is moving to Hawaii; she quotes Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" in reference to her obsessive affection for him. Later, while Dave is asleep, she unsuccessfully attacks him in his home with a butcher knife and then flees. Dave contacts the police, who begin to search for her.

The next day, Dave warns Tobie to stay away from him until Evelyn is caught; she reluctantly agrees to stay at home with her new roommate, a girl named Annabel. That night, Tobie realizes that Annabel is Evelyn in disguise when she notices the scars from Evelyn's suicide attempt. Evelyn takes Tobie hostage and murders Sgt. McCallum (John Larch), who had come to check on the two women.

Meanwhile at the radio station, Dave makes the connection between Tobie's roommate Annabel and the quote from "Annabel Lee" that Evelyn had earlier recited. Evelyn calls and mockingly tells him that she and Tobie are waiting for him; he switches from a live show to a tape and rushes to confront her. Arriving at his house, he finds Tobie bound and gagged. Evelyn attacks him again with the butcher knife and he tries to steal the knife away from her. He eventually punches her in the face, knocking her out a window and down a cliff. Dave and Tobie look down at Evelyn's battered body as Dave's voice on the taped radio show dedicates "Misty" to Evelyn one final time.