An interesting thing about Play Misty for Me, is that it is often thought to be Clint's directorial debut; that's not actually true, but it does lead to an interesting tale about his journey toward being a director...

Although Eastwood had some minor film roles early on, it was of course in the late Fifties and early Sixties as Rowdy Yates in the long-running TV show Rawhide, that he first came to prominence in the US. Eastwood didn't like his role in the show very much, being of the opinion that he was a bit too old to be playing an impetuous young character (he was around 30 at the time). The producers initially didn't like his acting very much either, insisting that he attend some drama lessons, since they cast him largely off his appearance and thought he wasn't good at taking direction. They didn't much like his delivery of his lines through clenched teeth either, which is of course what he has become iconic and well-loved for doing, but at the time it was not too in-keeping with the character he was playing. Although Rawhide was a very successful show, running for eight seasons over almost six years, eventually the main star of it, Eric Fleming in the role of trail boss Gil Favor, left the show, which then put Eastwood in the lead role as the trail boss for its final season. It was at this time Eastwood's actual directorial debut occurred, when he made some trailers for the show, although with the main character of Gil Favor gone, and the fact that the show was getting somewhat tired after having run for so long, the final season with Eastwood in the lead role was not as well received and this led to the cancellation of the show.

This could easily have been the end of Eastwood's career path, but it was here where things took a fortunate turn. At that time, the then-largely unknown director Sergio Leone was mooting the idea of re-inventing the western for a largely European audience. Prior to this, Italian B-movies had largely centred around the sword and sandals historical epic, but these were falling out of favour, so what Leone envisaged, was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa's 1963 movie Yojimbo, to the point that a law suit was successfully prosecuted with regard to plagiarism, but in spite of this, the style and setting for Leone's western molded the genre into something new and of course projected Eastwood to eventual stardom. A Fistful of Dollars was also notable for being scored by Ennio Morricone, although it wasn't the first western he had written music for, that being Duello nel Texas, which was, technically at least, the first Spaghetti western, having as was the case for most of these, been produced by an Italian movie company, but filmed in Spain.

However, Eastwood was not the first choice for the role of the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars, (contrary to popular belief, his character does have a name - Joe - and is also referred to as Manco, a reference to his one arm for shooting). Initially, Leone had wanted Henry Fonda for the role, but could not afford him, so the role was offered to Charles Bronson, but Bronson thought the script was bad and turned it down (interestingly, both Fonda and Bronson would later star in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West when Leone became more of a bankable director, and both of them embrace and clearly enjoy playing anti-hero roles). Unable to attract stars of this calibre in '63 however, Leone then offered the role to a long list of other actors, including Steve Reeves and James Coburn, but all declined for various reasons. To be fair to all those who turned down the role who in hindsight might not have done so, it's worth bearing in mind that at the time, westerns were fading in popularity and the script for A Fistful of Dollars was one which did not follow the typical western theme either, with no good guy in a white hat being the hero etc, instead making the main character something of an ambiguous person who is also quite likely a criminal, or at least not averse to some serious anti-hero behaviour, including shooting lots of people, although perhaps not on the scale which Clint offs people in later movies such as Where Eagles Dare, in which he manages to wipe out half the Wehrmacht it seems and doesn't appear to have any problems with ammo supply either.

It was at this point in 1963 that Leone touted Richard Harrison for the role in his western. Harrison's fairly mediocre US acting career had prompted him and several other actors in the same boat, to go to Europe to find film roles and Harrison had at the time just starred in what was, as noted, the first Spaghetti Western, Duello nel Texas (also released under several other names when dubbed into English). Harrison had not enjoyed his time making that film and so also declined the role in A Fistful of Dollars, but he suggested to Leone that he might consider Eastwood for the role since of course Clint had been noted for playing a cowboy in Rawhide and so this might go over well with audiences. Eastwood was fresh from having been dropped from employment on Rawhide, but perhaps more importantly, his dislike of the clean-cut and impetuous Rowdy Yates character he had played made the prospect of playing an anti-hero role a much more attractive proposition for him and unlike many bigger stars, he did not have to worry about being cast against type.

By this time so many people had turned down the role of the Man with No Name that Eastwood was able to be snagged for a fee of just 15,000 Bucks, which is still a fistful of Dollars but not a large portion of the movie's overall budget of around 200,000. This was however one of the best investments made in Italian filmmaking, since Fistful made about four and a half million Dollars at the box office upon release. And ironically it has gone on to make 'a few Dollars more' over the years, in addition to basically re-inventing the Western genre as a more realistic and gritty affair. But perhaps more importantly, it was the catalyst for a number of other westerns, several of which are what led to Clint's mega-stardom as well as establishing him as the archetypal anti-hero for roles such as Dirty Harry Callahan etc, whilst placing him in the presence of many skilled directors. Clint was clearly paying attention to and learning from these people, as evidenced by his own stellar career as a director as well as a movie star.

Of this and at the time Play Misty for Me was made, Clint said:

'After seventeen years of bouncing my head against the wall, hanging around sets, maybe influencing certain camera set-ups with my own opinions, watching actors go through all kinds of hell without any help, and working with both good directors and bad ones, I'm at the point where I'm ready to make my own pictures. I stored away all the mistakes I made and saved up all the good things I learned, and now I know enough to control my own projects and get what I want out of actors.'

 

Edited November 11, 20214 yr by Chock

And here's a short clip of his first-every movie appearance - Revenge Of The Creature (1955):  Clint Eastwood's 1st Movie: Revenge of the Creature - YouTube .

Lived in Pebble Beach once (lucky!) and Monterey once while attending two different DLI Arabic courses. Great for a pair of newlyweds in the 70s. Who both worked together in commercial radio for a few years together later. Coincidence? Of all the jobs I ever had, radio was the best, although not very well paying. You do get your regular callers but my driver, bodyguard, factotum and lawfully wedded spouse Red Death would have put an end to that one very quickly and the body would never have been found.