paid in full Considering when it was produced (1971), I consider this great cinema. The story is chilling. It is well directed,not too long or boring. Just right. the acting is superb, throughout. I highly recommend it, especially in this day and age where the world needs to understand women more then ever.

christopher-underwood Strange little film and perhaps not the sort I would normally be drawn to but it drew my attention when my Clint Eastwood box set arrived because of the recent remake with Nicole Kidman. I had got the impression that the new film, although many seem to have liked it, was a whole lot of nothing and yet from the storyline the film before seemed to have some promise. Director Don Siegel had a thing going with Eastwood at the time, having just made three together including Coogan's Bluff and with Dirty Harry being the next film. Eastwood is very good in this as are all the cast and it is not easy because some of the girls are quite young and there is a mixture of emotions required as the ladies of the school run the gamut of hostility, hospitality, romantic attachment, then lust, jealousy and vengeance. Eastwood is indeed beguiling but he has to survive in a building full of females vying for his favours one way or another. There is sex and considerable violence, which I understand there is not in the remake and there are some sexual taboos missing from the new one as well and crucial references to race, slavery and religion. Hard to see why Coppola bothered really, but this original is worth a look, particularly if you are an Eastwood fan and may easily have missed this one..

jovana-13676 Male/female sex fantasies paint a Spanish baroque painting. And a fine one! More drama and it becomes the Spanish Inquisition terror. The darker it gets, the more I enjoy it. This film was made by a man who understood the dark nature of sex where both sexes played equally powerful roles. The Gothic mansion in which the 'phallocentric' drama turns into a castration tragedy so to speak, the women in slightly dirty white dresses, the candlelight and the handsome stranger, make a picture untypical of Eastwood, so they say. But I say it's very typical as his directorial and acting oeuvre is full of Gothic elements: strangers, scars and ghostly towns. And - religious imagery. Both Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel have a penchant for the occult. Clint Eastwood is the embodiment of a lonely, Gothic figure of cinema, just as much as Bela Lugosi is. That's what makes him perfectly fit into this all- girl boarding school. Just like in many of his films, he comes from nowhere and vanishes again. His subtle acting style works well with the female members of the cast as his character manipulates them and all of them, Geraldine Page as Martha Farnsworth, Elizabeth Hartman as Edwina Dabney, Jo Ann Harris as Carol, Mae Mercer as Hallie, Pamelyn Ferdin as Amy give excellent performances. The film is significant as a product of an era that welcomed breaking sexual taboos. I liked it when Clint kissed the little girl - back then, scumbags were not portrayed in a PC manner, nor were little girls necessarily portrayed as their victims. He kissed her and - nothing happened, but the real trauma followed when she realized she was manipulated. When I finished watching this film, I thought, "Well, that was perfect." I can't imagine what a remake could add to it, but we'll see.

Scott LeBrun "The Beguiled" is certainly unusual - but rewarding - Clint Eastwood fare. It's an extremely sordid melodrama that dips its toes a little into the horror genre. It's extremely well acted, stylishly made - with Clints' frequent collaborator Don Siegel in the directors' chair - and often sexy and sinister in equal measure. It's nice to see Clint take chances like this with his projects, but then he's always been a very interesting leading man. (Another Clint vehicle that's somewhat in this vein is 1984s' "Tightrope".) The period recreation is sound, and there are also doses of sex and gore in this film that earns its R rating.Clint plays Yankee officer John McBurney, severely wounded during the latter days of the Civil War. He's discovered by Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin), a child who escorts him back to her girls' school. The staff, led by Martha (Geraldine Page), agree to keep him there basically for the purpose of nursing him back to health before he can be surrendered to Rebel troops and taken to prison. However, Johns' arrival in this female setting is the trigger for an escalating series of ugly incidents as the male stranger cons his way into the hearts of some of the ladies.Clint is impressive as he puts a smarmy and self-serving spin on his screen charisma. Page and Elizabeth Hartman likewise impressed this viewer with their takes on these vulnerable characters. The child actresses are all good without being overly cutesy. Jo Ann Harris is the sexpot teenager Carol, and Darleen Carr the rigid Doris. Mae Mercer is able to play her slave character of Hallie with dignity, and she really holds her own in confrontations with Clint. Ferdin is appealing in the role of the girl who gets the ball rolling in terms of plot. Melody Thomas Scott (of 'The Young and the Restless' fame) is another of the girls; character actor Matt Clark has a small role.Highly memorable stuff, with very quick flashback cuts that add to the somber quality of this tale by Thomas Cullinan.Eight out of 10.