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 seven drafts, preferring Herman Miller's original concept. This experience would also shape Eastwood's distaste for redrafting scripts in his later career. Eastwood and Siegel decided to hire a new writer, Dean Riesner, who had written for Siegel in the Henry Fonda TV film "Stranger on the Run" some years previously. As Riesner drew up a new script, Eastwood was unwilling to communicate with the screenwriter, until one day, Riesner criticized one of the scenes which Eastwood had liked, which involved Coogan having sex with a girl called Linny Raven, in the hope that she would take him to her boyfriend.