A brief fling between a male disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the picture.
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In his first film as a director, Eastwood, who is 43 years old, is a calm and clear master, multiplying incisive angles, brisk stagings, powerfully composed close-ups, thrilling camera moves. But above all, Eastwood, who was of course best known for his performances in action films and westerns, turned out to be, from the very start, a filmmaker with a comprehensive, essentially political worldview.
This movie is mix of cheese and genuine quality. It's fun to laugh at Eastwood's sideburns and "cool jazz" dj voice as well as his newbie directorial indulgences (like forgeting the plot for what feels like 20 min & turning into a jazz festival doc). Jessica Walter is great, however the novely of this film has been cheapened over the years since by being ripped off a few times.
One of the earliest examples of lame-ass anti-woman 'thrillers' all sympathetic to boring white male leads who bang unstable women and expect us to care when they can't handle the consequences. Just as shit and offensive as Fatal Attraction. Why anyone would be obsessed with cardboard cutout Clint Eastwood (who even here has the sex appeal of rotting dust jacket) is beyond me, I guess the bitch really WAS crazy!
Clint Eastwoods's curious directorial debut. Despite the amateurishness, dated look and some arrhythmic narration, Eastwood manages some pretty intense moments. A fun 70s funky thriller.
Eastwood's directorial debut feels like what it would have looked like if Hitchcock had made Fatal Attraction. An intense slow burn thriller with lots of good exterior shots of Carmel, California and a mix of colorful characters that make this a unique piece of cinema that took Eastwood to a different place.
A rather tentative formula-thriller - despite some odd jazzy and sexual longueurs adding little except length. Stock characters - ying and simple yang female counterpoints - hold it back from any sense of realism and modish editing merely adds noise without texture. Nevertheless it plots it's predictable way to the expected denouement passably enough.
Probably the most openly misogynistic of Eastwood's films. Also the most narratively incoherent. A dim-witted trope of half-baked actions, pseudo-dramatic twists and some really awful references to classic American thrillers.
Not a bad directorial debut from Eastwood but his beige acting here (and a not-so-perfect story) sort of takes away from Jessica Walter's great performance. It's amazing to watch her in a dramatic role after watching her over and over as Lucille Bluth. Sure it's a little dated and Eastwood isn't in his comfort zone, but it's enjoyable enough.