The Beguiled

Many critics adored this picture, just as many didn't. Count us in the latter. Eastwood is a wounded Union soldier convalescing at a Southern girls' school. The girls become curious and then sensuous. It's funny when it shouldn't be, sentimental to a fault and has one of the goriest scenes ever shot as Page amputates Eastwood's leg. He claims she does so, because he wouldn't favor her sexually. When he kills one of the girls' turtles, they retaliate by feeding him poisoned mushrooms until he dies. Universal executives were livid when they heard that Siegel and Eastwood planned to have the lead character killed. They claimed that audiences would reject the notion of...