With Arrested Development back on the block as a hot TV series (well, if you count not actually being on TV as part of a popular pay-to-stream service that’s 100% useless if your internet goes down), I figured I may as well celebrate the fact that I can’t see it (until someone wises up and gets a physical media collection out) by pointing you to this more than pretty decent 1971 Clint Eastwood-directed thriller that may have kicked off the whole “unhinged stalker hookup” sub-genre. OK, put that jaw up, stop doing that double take and pay attention – there’s a point here being made (I think).

AD’s Jessica Walter is in this one, younger, more attractive and save for the psychotically imbalanced character she’s so good at playing in this flick, she’d probably be a great partner for Eastwood’s late night DJ, Dave Garver. Of course, Dave’s not actually a completely nice, innocent guy here, but that’s another thing the film plays with as it tells the tale of lust gone bad…

Anyway, Dave hooks up with longtime listener, Evelyn Garner (Walter) in a nearby bar after one late night show (she’s a regular listener), the birds and the bees collide and soon, she’s popping up like a Hail Mary pass in the last seconds of a football game and Dave isn’t even on the field. Sure, showing up with steaks and beverages is fine and dandy, but poor Dave soon sees that she’s a wee bit clingy. Her bad penny act wrecks a potential job offer and later, has her try to do herself in, which gets her hospitalized for a short while. When she turns up again and attacks Dave’s trusty housekeeper (who definitely needed some self-defense lessons), she oddly enough isn’t arrested, but sent to the nearest psych ward. Of course, you just KNOW she’ll be back later.

Of course, by then Dave has dropped her like a hot bad penny thanks to his old flame Tobie (Donna Mills) resurfacing and it’s interesting that she doesn’t just leap into his handsome DJ arms right away. The lady wants to be wooed (wooo-ed, I tells ya) and there’s a sweet montage set to Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (before it became a big radio hit, by the way) that almost makes you forget this is supposed to be a bit of a scary film. However, faster that you can say “Hey, I didn’t pay to see a romance movie!”, Evelyn makes a rather elaborate return into Dave’s life in a plot twist that you may or may not guess depending on how much Edgar Allan Poe you’ve read and things get scary for one final time.

Well, one and a half final times, as you can’t keep a good crazy woman down. Of course, some may object to how Evelyn meets her fate, but it’s shot in a “Well, what the hell else would YOU do?” Eastwoodian manner that justifies Dave’s action. That said, it should have been Tobie to deliver that blow, methinks. This would have added a bit more… er, punch to her character and hell, shook things up significantly for a genre film of that period. Yeah, Fatal Attraction is basically this film with a more affluent-looking cast, too much of Michael Douglas’ butt and Anne Archer living up to that last name of hers with her dead-eye aim in the final sequence.

For his first directorial effort, Eastwood does a really good job with the camera and does good by his casting choices and use of music. He also sinks his macho Dirty Harry and Man With No name image away for this part, making Dave a likable sort (well provided you’re not a woman he’s dated) with some interesting acquaintances. It’s still an effective film (and also one of his best efforts of the 70’s), but don’t go in expecting a high body count. You’ll have enough on your plate hoping Dave makes it through the film in one piece…