Themes: Behind Enemy Lines, Dangerous Attraction, Women During Wartime
Main Cast: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darlene Carr
Release Year: 1970
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The Beguiled is a Freudian mood piece from the team of actor Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel. Eastwood plays Corp. John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier during the Civil War, who takes refuge in a prim-and-proper Southern girl's school run by Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page). Chauvinistic, insensitive and conceited, McBurney takes full advantage of the women by bedding each successively -- and then learns the true meaning of "a woman scorned." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the few interesting attempts to mix the Western and horror genres, this Civil War Gothic was directed by action specialist Don Siegel (Dirty Harry). Clint Eastwood stars as a wounded Yankee soldier who seeks refuge in an all-girl's school in the South. The tension gets pretty thick as the girls want him to stay as their sex-toy, and headmistress Geraldine Page hacks off his leg in a gruesome amputation sequence. It's not a typical Eastwood movie, but fans of atmospheric chills should seek it out. Pamelyn Ferdin is one of the girls, and went on to play Eastwood's role as helpless prisoner in the infamous Toolbox Murders. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Mae Mercer - Hallie; Charlie Briggs - Soldier; Pat Culliton - Soldier; Peggy Drier - Lizzie; George Dunn - Soldier; Pamelyn Ferdin - Amy; Pattye Mattick - Janie; Melody Thomas - Abigail; Matt Clark - Soldier; Buddy Van Horn - Soldier
Credit
Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Helen Colvig - Costume Designer, Don Siegel - Director, Joe Cavalier - Second Unit Director, Carl Pingitore - Editor, Lalo Schifrin - Composer (Music Score), Bud Westmore - Makeup, Ted Haworth - Production Designer, Bruce Surtees - Cinematographer, Joe Cavalier - Production Manager, Don Siegel - Producer, John P. Austin - Set Designer, Waldon O. Watson - Sound/Sound Designer, John L. Mack - Sound/Sound Designer, Grimes Grice - Screenwriter, John B. Sherry - Screenwriter, Albert Maltz - Screenwriter, Irene Kamp - Screenwriter, Thomas Cullinan - Book Author
Close to the end of the American Civil War, injured Yankee soldier John McBurney is rescued on the verge of death by a twelve year old girl from an all-girl boarding school in Louisiana. At first the all-female staff and pupils are scared, but as John starts to recover, he charms them one by one and the sexually repressed atmosphere becomes filled with jealousy and deceit.
After rejecting the headmistress for a younger girl, McBurney gets his comeuppance in the form of some painful Freudian symbolism — his infected leg is amputated. He reforms and announces his intention to marry one of the teachers, but it is too late; he has alienated the youngest girl, the one who first found him, by killing her pet turtle after throwing it aside in anger. In response, she picks mushrooms that the headmistress and girls use to poison him.
Screenwriter Albert Maltz had originally written a script with a happy ending, in which Eastwood's character and the girl live happily ever after. Both Eastwood and director Don Siegel felt that an ending more faithful to that of the book would be a stronger anti-war statement, however, and the ending was altered so that Eastwood's character would be killed.[1]
Made right before Dirty Harry, this was a bold early attempt by Eastwood to play against type. It was not a hit, likely due to uncertainty on Universal's part concerning how to market it, eventually leading them to advertise the film as a hothouse melodrama: “One man...seven women...in a strange house!" "His love... or his life..."
Eastwood had recently signed a long-term contract with Universal but became angry with the studio because he felt that they botched its release. This eventually led to him leaving the studio in 1975 after the release of The Eiger Sanction, which he directed as well as starred in. He wouldn't work with Universal again until 2008's Changeling.
