Wounded and near death, a young Union Army corporal is found in the woods of Virginia during the height of the Civil War and brought to the nearby Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. Almost immediately he sets about beguiling the three women and five teenage girls stranded in this outpost of Southern gentility, eliciting their love and fear, pity and infatuation, and pitting them against one another in a bid for his freedom. But as the women are revealed for what they really are, a sense of ominous foreboding closes in on the soldier, and the question becomes: Just who is the beguiled?
He was reclining again and attempting to clean his fingernails with a Union ten cent piece. His nails certainly needed cleaning. I said so. Those were the first words I ever spoke to Johnny McBurney.
“They look as though you had been trying to dig a pit with them, “ I said.
“I was,” he said. “In the battle yesterday. When all that iron was flyin overhead, my first thought was to bury myself, Blackie.”
“And when you couldn’t bury yourself deep enough, you ran.”
“I did. I surely to God did, Blackie.”
Was he mocking me by repeating that? His eyes were smiling and his voice was friendly.
“My name is Miss Edwina Morrow,” I said.
“:Ah yes. Howdy do.”
“It wasn’t very brave of you to run.”
“Maybe not. But it was smart, I think.”
“Because you’re still alive?”
“Not only still alive, but as an extra reward, I’ve met you.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know your name. . .Miss Edwina Morrow.”
“What have you been told about me?”
“Nothing besides your name. It’s a lovely name. If I was old Edgar Allan Poe, I’d write a poem called ‘Miss Edwina Morrow.”
“They look as though you had been trying to dig a pit with them, “ I said.
“I was,” he said. “In the battle yesterday. When all that iron was flyin overhead, my first thought was to bury myself, Blackie.”
“And when you couldn’t bury yourself deep enough, you ran.”
“I did. I surely to God did, Blackie.”
Was he mocking me by repeating that? His eyes were smiling and his voice was friendly.
“My name is Miss Edwina Morrow,” I said.
“:Ah yes. Howdy do.”
“It wasn’t very brave of you to run.”
“Maybe not. But it was smart, I think.”
“Because you’re still alive?”
“Not only still alive, but as an extra reward, I’ve met you.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know your name. . .Miss Edwina Morrow.”
“What have you been told about me?”
“Nothing besides your name. It’s a lovely name. If I was old Edgar Allan Poe, I’d write a poem called ‘Miss Edwina Morrow.”
While imprisoned in a Confederate girls' boarding school, an injured Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts, causing them to turn on each other, and eventually, on him.
Release Date: March 31, 1971
Release Time: 105 minutes
Cast:
Clint Eastwood as Corporal John 'McBee' McBurney
Geraldine Page as Martha Farnsworth
Elizabeth Hartman as Edwina Dabney
Jo Ann Harris as Carol
Darleen Carr as Doris
Mae Mercer as Hallie
Pamelyn Ferdin as Amelia 'Amy'
Melody Thomas as Abigail
Peggy Drier as Lizzie
Pattye Mattick as Janie
Thomas Cullinan (1919–1995) was a novelist and playwright, as well as a writer for television. In addition to The Beguiled (1966), he wrote three other novels—The Besieged (1970), The Eighth Sacrament (1977), and The Bedeviled (1978)—as well as several plays, which are still produced. He received a Ford Foundation grant to represent the United States at a literary colloquium in Berlin in 1964, and he wrote a weekly television program in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, both for WKYC, a local television affiliate, and for Case Western Reserve University. The Beguiled was made into a film twice: in 1971, starring Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page, and in 2017, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.
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