Cheap The Beguiled (DVD) (Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page) (Don Siegel) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Beguiled

Well, "The Beguiled" is set in the South, so that's its first plus. Secondly, it has Clint Eastwood as a Union soldier "rescued," so to speak by a household headed by Geraldine Page. And third, the rest of the residents are young women, enamored of Eastwood.

Eastwood's character takes advantage of the innocence and adoration of the manor's occupants. His John McBurney is not an evil man, but a flawed one, at best. Eastwood does a good job at conveying that fact. Unfortunately his actions have a devastating result.

Page, like contemporary Coleen Dewhurst, was one of stage and screen's best. She is perfection in her role as Martha Farnsworth. Elizabeth Hartman, who never had much of a Hollywood career, is quite good, also. Mae Mercer, as the maid, has some interesting exchanges with Eastwood.

The remaining cast is made up largely of young unknowns. They do admirable work as the objects of Eastwood's machinations and desires.

Haunting Southern gothic film. Very poor video.
This disturbing, haunting southern gothic film from director Don Siegel is one of the best, if least known, Eastwood films.

Set in the deep South during the Civil War, Eastwood plays a wounded Northern soldier brought to a nearby, nearly deserted all-girls school to be treated before being turned over to the Confederate Army. As long suppressed desires begin to surface in the headmistresses and some of the students, Clint slowly begins to play the women against each other in a bid to avoid being turned in. Unfortunately, such passions can give way to much darker feelings and actions.

Clint is excellent in a role that falls between villain and hero, and he is matched by the wonderful women in the cast. As the senior headmistress, the remarkable Geraldine Page delivers one of her most controlled and effective film performances. And Elizabeth Hartman very movingly portrays naive longing and reticence. Her performance here easily matches her more famous one in "A Patch Of Blue". Mae Mercer is fine as the wry slave who sizes Clint up from the start, and the cast of young actresses playing the students are all equally fine.

One of the most striking things about the film is the use of color and light. The deep hues and dark shadows are among the richest ever captured on film, while the use of natural light, especially the evening scenes and the candlelit scenes, are stunning. The deep sound is also excellent.

Unfortunately, this video edition fails to capture this. The color is washed out almost beyond belief compared to the earlier video editions and the sound is thin with a noticeable hiss on the track. The earlier video editions were excellent, so there's no excuse for Universal's slipshod work on this one.

Five stars for the film; one for the video. This great movie deserves to be seen, but in a better edition.

Don delivers another caustic comedy with a few moral lessons
Interesting and unusual, if not unsettling, this is a fine comedy in a fine setting (the South) that shows that everything has a price and a finality. The hero-protagonist (a wounded, recovering Confederate soldier), finds himself as the only male in a purely female environment, and is almost compelled (by desire, by necessity?) to use his charm in order to survive in a (politically/sexually?) rather hostile/agressive environment (a house in the deep South inhabited solely by women, in the midst of the Secession War). By doing such, he somehow tries to use behaviour (seduction) and tactics (outright lies) that are usually the apanage and panacee of females, and gets thereby rather badly burned, as it finally turns out. For this kind of a game, it appears, the female is far better equipped than the male (no real king bees, just queen bees? well, maybe...)

Well, you are left pondering, what chance does a single good-looking female in a purely male environment have? Every single one, probably. And what does a single good-looking male in a purely female environment have? In the end result, not a single one, it appears. As it often turns out, at least in this vitriolic comedy of seduction, females tend to act and react in an almost concerted instinctive behaviour, bound by either common desires or common interests, in an almost lemming-like fashion. In the end, if not outright misogynistic, this movie makes you wonder whether males and females belong to the same biological specie. Mind tickling and interesting, I'd recommend this intelligent movie to anyone who likes Eastwood as an actor, but is not the kind of guy to feed exclusively on Spaghettis dished out with ample Tomato Sauce servings.