The Beguiled

The Beguiled is set in the American South during the Civil War. A wounded Union soldier, John McBurney, is found near a girls' boarding school by one of its pupils and brought inside, where the women hide him from Confederate forces and nurse him back to health. Tensions build as both the teachers and the students grow increasingly drawn to him, and the soldier works the situation to his own advantage. When jealousy and suspicion take over and he tries to assert control, the women turn against him and he finds that leaving the school is not a simple matter.

Don Siegel directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Albert Maltz, Irene Kamp and Claude Traverse. It was the thirteenth of the eighteen features he directed, arriving between Dirty Harry in 1971 and Charley Varrick in 1973. Clint Eastwood, in the role of McBurney, had by then become a regular collaborator with Siegel, and the cast also includes Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darleen Carr and Mae Mercer.

Universal Pictures released the drama, thriller and war film on 23 January 1971, with a runtime of 105 minutes. It took in about 1 million dollars worldwide, a modest return that reflects a film that drew limited audiences on release. Later viewers have treated it far more warmly: on IMDb it holds a 7 out of 10 from roughly 520 votes, while critics gave it 7.3 out of 10 across 21 reviews.