Clint Eastwood in the 1970s would be widely screened in France later and is considered one of Eastwood's finest works by the French. According to Eastwood and Lang, the film, aside from being poorly publicized, flopped due to Clint being "emasculated in the film". Eastwood said about his role: 1971 was a professional turning point in Eastwood's career. Before his professional financial adviser and president of Malpaso Productions Irving Leonard died, the last film they discussed was "Play Misty for Me". The goal was to give Eastwood the artistic control that he desired and make it his directorial debut. The rights to the song "Misty"
Clint Eastwood in the 1960s James Coburn and Ty Hardin were considered for the main role. When none of them accepted, the producers drew up a list of lesser-known American actors and asked Richard Harrison for his input. He suggested Eastwood because he knew the Rawhide actor could play a cowboy convincingly. Harrison later said: "Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing "Fistful of Dollars", and recommending Clint for the part". While Leone wrote that he was initially distracted by Eastwood, after Fleming turned the role down, Sartori urged him to rewatch the episode and to concentrate on Eastwood instead. Leone asked Irving