Clint Eastwood borrowed a small but hard-hitting element of psycho to play Misty For Me

Discussing Jo Heims' story for "Play Misty for Me", Clint Eastwood reveals he was drawn to the material because "there are incidents like this in the everyone's life, to a certain extent, all of this interpretation of the commitment, or misinterpretation of the commitment." Eastwood's film hinges on a decidedly extreme counter-interpretation that forces a mentally fragile woman (the tall Jessica Walter) to confuse a one-night stand with a firm romantic commitment. He gently pushes her away at first, but she is determined to have him for herself. When she cuts her wrists at home and assaults her governess, she is interned. This is just the beginning of his nightmare.

Eastwood tells Stuart M. Kaminsky that surely everyone, regardless of gender, can relate to a situation where a sexual partner tries to force a romantic bond. But Walters plays a psychopath, which not only creates distance from the audience, but a complete disconnect. How did Eastwood handle this? As he explained to Kaminsky:

"Often with stories of psychotic people, there is no identifying factor. In a picture like 'Psycho', the real strengths of the film are strictly the shock and the suspense. It was of course fabulous to have that scene where she sees the skeleton in the basement, but then they pretty much destroyed it later with all that unnecessary exposure."