Don Siegel directed The Beguiled, a Southern Gothic drama, starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page.
The script was written by Albert Maltz (one of the Hollywood Ten) and others, both credited and uncredited. It is based on the 1966 novel written by Thomas P. Cullinan, titled “A Painted Devil.”
Set during the American Civil War in 1863, the tale begins when Amy, a young student at the Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies in rural Mississippi, discovers a seriously wounded Union soldier, John McBurney (played by Eastwood).
She brings him to the gated enclosure where the school headmistress, Martha Farnsworth, first insists on turning him over to Confederate troops, but then she decides to restore him to health. Initially, he is kept locked in the music room and under tight watch.
Edwina, the schoolteacher who has had no experience with men, takes an immediate liking to John, as does Carol, a 17-year-old student who makes advances.
John begins to bond with each of the women in the house, including the slave Hallie. As he charms each of them, the sexually repressed atmosphere of the school becomes filled with jealousy and deceit, and the women begin to turn on one another.
After Carol, who earlier made a welcomed pass at John, witnesses John kissing Edwina, she ties a blue rag to the school’s entrance gate to alert the Confederate troops to the presence of a Yankee soldier.
When a band of Confederate soldiers see it while passing the school, Martha lies and helps John pretend he is a relative loyal to the Confederacy.
Martha also becomes infatuated with John, and a flashback shows her having an incestuous relationship with her brother. Martha considers keeping John at the school as a handyman. She makes sexual advances toward him, which he resists.
Met with mixed critical response, The Beguiled failed at the box-office, and qualifies as one of few Eastwood movies that failed to find an audience. Eastwood blamed the marketing of the film by Universal, a studio he would not work with until the 2008 Changeling.
Director-Actor
The Beguiled marks the third of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, after Coogan’s Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Dirty Harry (1971) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Credits:
Directed by Don Siegel
Writing Credits: Albert Maltz (screenplay) (as John B. Sherry) and Irene Kamp (screenplay) (as Grimes Grice), adapted from the novel by Thomas Cullinan
Cast:
Clint Eastwood John McBurney
Geraldine Page Martha
Elizabeth Hartman Edwina
Jo Ann Harris as Carol
Darleen Carr as Doris
Mae Mercer as Hallie
Pamelyn Ferdin as Amy
Melody Thomas Scott as Abigail
Peggy Drier as Lizzie
Patricia Mattick as Janie
