The Beguiled 1971

Close to the end of the American Civil War, injured Yankee soldier John McBurney is rescued on the verge of death by a twelve year old girl from an all-girl boarding school in Louisiana. At first the all-female staff and pupils are scared, but as John starts to recover, he charms them one by one and the sexually repressed atmosphere becomes filled with jealousy and deceit.

Below: How The Beguiled may have opened when seen in UK cinemas with its original X certificate

Below: The Quad poster for The Beguiled, one of the few quad poster's still missing from my collection.

Click below to watch original trailer:

            

The Beguiled 1971 Original rolled U.S. Half sheet poster stunning artwork

The Beguiled 1971 10 b/w very rare on set photos approx 7 x 5 (Unique).
The Beguiled 1971 Clint Eastwood Don Siegel Original Australian Day bill poster
The Beguiled 1971 Clint Eastwood Elizabeth Hartman Original Belgium poster

The Beguiled 1971 Clint Eastwood Elizabeth Hartman Original German A1 poster
Below: The Beguiled Original German fold out inset and production notes with various artwork

The Beguiled 1971 Clint Eastwood Elizabeth Hartman Original Italian poster Size 39"x 55"
The Beguiled 1971 Original set of 12 French Lobby cards

The Beguiled 1971 FOH set x 8 UK

The Beguiled 1971 U.S. Laserdisc Clint Eastwood from Universal with original Trailer

The Beguiled 1971 DVD R2 Widescreen 16:9

The Beguiled 1971 Blu-ray release of film

The Beguiled 1971 Original large US production folder

The Beguiled 1971 Original UK Rank press booklet with cast and synopsis 

The Beguiled 1971 Lobby set x 15 German

The Beguiled 1971 Original 7” Vinyl very rare from Universal studios containing 4 original radio spots

The Beguiled 1971 Original film tie in Paperback.

Below: Another Paperback version which included a film scene cover. This is a version I am still looking to add to my collection

The Beguiled 1971 10 x 8 Press Stills b/w x 22 + 2 Colour

Below: The Beguiled 1971 UK original publicity advertising promotion


The Beguiled 1971 Original US publicity advertising supplement (with 1 cut)
Below: The Beguiled 1971 USA Orig publicity advertising supplement two

The Beguiled 1971 USA Original Press book

The Beguiled 1971 x Mini Lobby set x 9 USA (inc 1 rare over the standard 8 issued)

Some Additional Material for The Beguiled
Below: The Full set of 8 U.S. Lobby Cards size 14 x 11

The Beguiled U.S. 1 sheet poster

The Beguiled U.S. Insert poster

Below: The Rare Polish film poster 23x33 in size

Below: 2 Different designed posters from France


Below: The French Press Book

Below: The Beguiled Original Italian Fotobusta set

Below: The Beguiled Spanish 1 sheet poster

Below: A rare colour slide used for promotion

Above: I have recently been told that this slide (set in Gill Sans Extra Bold) was from the 1974-75 season for airing on one of ABC's network movie shows. A big thank you to wbhist for this valued information.

Below: Some excellent publicity shots from the movie and a great picture of Eastwood at the Beguiled Screening with one of his co stars (Jo Ann Harris) taken at the Directos' guild theatre Hollywood 1970

Below: Here's the Beguiled Swedish Insert poster

Below: The Beguiled Japanese B2 Poster

Below: The Beguiled Original Poster Art (Universal, 1971). Original One Sheet Mock-Up (19" X 24.5") Thriller.

This is an unused art department one sheet poster mock-up from Universal for the 1971 Clint Eastwood film, The Beguiled. It's a great piece of film history, in light of Clint Eastwood's adamant opinions contained in the book, Clint Eastwood: Interviews (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1999). Eastwood states: "...(The Beguiled)..was very poorly advertised...That's Universal. They have a terrible advertising department, they're not smart." You'll have to decide for yourself. We think this art image of Eastwood might have sold the film better (and made a more desirable collectible poster) than the purple marbled maize campaign on all the existing paper. Starring Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darleen Carr, Mae Mercer, Pamelyn Ferdin, Melody Thomas, Peggy Drier, Patricia Mattick, Charlie Briggs, George Dunn, Charles Martin, Matt Clark, Patrick Culliton, Buddy Van Horn. Directed by Don Siegel.

Original Reviews

The Beguiled (1970)
April 1, 1971
Clint Eastwood Is Star Of Siegel's 'The Beguiled'
By VINCENT CANBY, New York Times
Published: April 1, 1971

Donald Siegel's "The Beguiled," which opened yesterday at the Cinerama and the R.K.O. 59th Street Twin Theaters, sounds simple enough on paper: Clint Eastwood, as a wounded Yankee soldier, charms and then terrorizes the ladies who nurse him back to health at a very peculiar, more or less forgotten, Louisiana seminary during the closing days of the War Between the States. Nothing, however, is as straightforward as it seems in "The Beguiled," not even its perversities.

(Above: One of my rare full page cuttings from Japan)

Take, for example, the lovely opening sequence in which a little, 12-year-old girl comes upon the body of the soldier in the forest. She is, at first, frozen with fear. Through her mind we hear her wonder whether her father died the same way. Cut to the soldier, and through his eyes we see a curious, shapeless child swim into focus.

Above Pamelyn Ferdin as Amy in The Beguiled
They talk, exchange names, and just before the child helps him to stand, he draws her down beside him and gives her a long, not really friendly kiss on the mouth. She's confused, but immensely happy.

The film thus begins as a quite odd Civil War romance, evolves into a battle of the sexes in which the man is more vanquished than victor, and then turns into the kind of grotesque character comedy that might—mistakenly, I think—be identified as gothic horror. There is certainly horror in "The Beguiled," but it is played for what amounts to an extended, completely silent laugh.
Whether this is intentional or not, I've no way of knowing, but there's no other way to explain the amusingly overripe excesses in a film by a man who has, heretofore, managed to make films that were more complex in effect and a good deal more simple in design ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "Two Mules for Sister Sara").

"The Beguiled" is Mr. Siegel's 26th film, as well as his most ambitious and elaborate. I'm not referring to the sets, costumes and Spanish moss-hung locations (the exteriors were filmed in Louisiana at a fine, photogenic, old plantation), but to the narrative style. The movie employs, in addition to straight exposition, interior thoughts spoken on the sound-track, flashbacks that contradict spoken dialogue and the kind of fantasies commonly enjoyed—according to literary convention—by hashish smokers, sailors and sex-starved spinsters.

In fact, every major character in the movie, with the exception of Eastwood, is a female suffering to a greater or lesser degree from the need for a man, including the little girl (Pamelyn Ferdin) who first finds the soldier, the precocious 17-year-old (Jo Ann Harris), who seduces Eastwood with the graces of Belle Watling, and the sweet virginal teacher (Elizabeth Hartman), who comes close to being an unequivocally decent person, the only one in the film.

Above: Jo Ann Harris as Carol

The most deprived (ergo, according to Hollywood Freud, the wildest and most dangerous) woman is the seminary's headmistress (Geraldine Page), whose initial flashback, as she stares at the bloody, maggoty soldier, is to the bed in which she and her brother made frenzied, slow-motion love. My favorite fantasy, however, is Miss Page's wine-induced dream in which she, Eastwood and Miss Hartman make love and then assume the positions of a pietà, more exhausted, I suspect, than sorrowing.

This is very fancy, outrageous fantasizing from the man who gave us "Riot in Cell Block 11" and" Baby Face Nelson," and must strike horror in the hearts of those Siegel fans who've made a cult of his objectivity. "The Beguiled" is not, indeed, successful as baroque melodrama, and, towards the end, there are so many twists and turns of plot and character that everything that's gone before is neutralized. People who consider themselves discriminating moviegoers, but who are uncommitted to Mr. Siegel will be hard put to accept it, other than as a sensational, misogynistic nightmare.

I must say that I found it interesting (even when it approached the ludicrous) because of its place in relation to other Siegel films and because I have nothing but appreciation for the performers, especially Miss Page, Miss Hartman and Mr. Eastwood, who, by simply reacting well, has become an important actor of movies.

One final note: The screen credits list John B. Sherry and Grimes Grice as authors of the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Thomas Cullinan. Those are the pseudonyms, respectively, of Albert Maltz, who did the initial screenplay, reported to have been a romantic comedy, and Irene Kamp, who did the rewrite with help, I'm told, from Claude Traverse, the associate producer.

This may explain some of the peculiarities of the completed film.

THE BEGUILED directed by Donald Siegel; screenplay by John B. Sherry and Grimes Grice, from the novel by Thomas Cullinan; director of photography, Bruce Surtees; music by Lalo Schifrin; produced by Mr. Siegel; released by Universal Pictures.

At the Cinerama Theater, Broadway at 47th Street, and the R.K.O. 59th Street East, Twin Cinemas, east of Third Avenue.Running time: 109 minutes. (The Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration classifies this film: "R—restricted, persons under 17 require accompanying parent or adult guardian.")

John McBurney . . . . . Clint Eastwood

Martha . . . . . Geraldine Page

Edwina . . . . . Elizabeth Hartman

Carol . . . . . Jo Ann Harris

Doris . . . . . Darleen Carr

Hallie . . . . . Mae Mercer

Amy . . . . . Pamelyn Ferdin

Abigail . . . . . Melody Thomas

Lizzzie . . . . . Peggy Drier

Below: The location of The Beguiled, The Ashland-Belle Helene mansion near Baton Rouge, Louisianna. As it is today.

Below: On the set of The Beguiled Clint with Jennings Lang

 

Below: A beautiful U.S. Advertisement for the film's original release  

Below: A really nice original advertisement for the UK CIC video cassette release

Below A collection of new photos which recently appeared on the internet

Below: Some wonderful shots of Elizabeth Hartman on location during The Beguiled

Below: A Rare picture of Clint and Don on location during The Beguiled

Below: Here's a recently discovered TV ad for The Beguiled with a different tag line added.

Below: Two great shots of actress Geraldine Page taken while on location during The Beguiled. 

Below: A German film program for The Beguiled

Below: The German blu-ray release of The Beguiled

Below: Clint at Universal studios during the production of The Beguiled