The Beguiled

The Beguiled is a 1971 American drama film directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. The script was written by Albert Maltz and is based on the 1966 Southern Gothic novel written by Thomas P. Cullinan, originally titled A Painted Devil. The film marks the third of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogans Bluff 1968 and Two Mules for Sister Sara 1970, and continuing with Dirty Harry 1971 and Escape from Alcatraz 1979.

After rejecting the headmistress for a younger girl, McBurney gets his comeuppance in the form of some painful Freudian symbolism he falls down the stairs. Eventually his leg is amputated by the headmistress, ostensibly to avoid gangrene the film leaves it unclear whether this is her genuine concern or if she is prompted consciously or subconsciously by revenge. After going on a rampage that scares all of the women, he reforms and announces his intention to marry one of the teachers, but it is too late he has alienated the youngest girl, who first found him, by killing her pet turtle after throwing it aside in a drunken rage. In response, she is coached to pick mushrooms that the headmistress and girls use to poison him.Eastwood was given a copy of the 1966 novel by producer Jennings Lang, and was engrossed throughout the night in reading it. This was the first of several films where Eastwood has agreed to storylines where he is the center of female attention, including minors. Eastwood considered the film as an opportunity to play true emotions and not totally operatic and not lighting cannons with cigars. Albert Maltz, who had worked on Two Mules for Sister Sara was brought in to draft the script, but disagreements in the end led to a revision of the script by Claude Traverse, who although uncredited, led to Maltz being credited under a pseudonym. Maltz had originally written a script with a happy ending, in which Eastwoods 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 antiwar statement, however, and the ending was altered so that Eastwoods character would be killed. The film, according to Siegel, deals with the themes of sex, violence and vengeance and was based around, the basic desire of women to castrate men. ........

Source: Wikipedia