Witches7 Brew

By JAY COCKS

Action Director Don Siegel (Coogan's Bluff) changes his pace in The Beguiled, a Southern gothic horror story that is the most scarifying film since Rosemary birthed her satanic baby.

The Beguiled, a witches' brew of Ambrose Bierce and Carson McCullers, is set in a rundown Louisiana finishing school toward the end of the Civil War. A ten-year-old student named Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin), stumbles on a gravely wounded Union soldier (Clint Eastwood). Instead of turning him over to a Confederate patrol, the girls and their two teachers (Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman) nurse the trooper to health. The gently held prisoner coolly plays off his jailers against each other, hinting marriage to one teacher, making advances toward the other, titillating students. When his duplicity is uncovered, The Beguiled concludes in violent retribution and double-edged revenge.

Siegel creates an eerie tension with his color camera work (superbly executed by Bruce Surtees) and precise, polished editing. Much of the action takes place in Eastwood's shuttered room, but Siegel extracts from the confined space an almost tangible sense of claustrophobic terror. His work with the actors is equally felicitous. Eastwood, working with Siegel for the third time, exudes a cool, threatening sexuality. Elizabeth Hartman is affecting as a young spinster and Geraldine Page provides a haunting portrait of thwarted lust. The young girls are the most remarkable children seen on-screen since Our Mother's House, especially a sultry temptress named Jo Ann Harris and the remarkable Pamelyn Ferdin, who credibly transforms from idolater to avenger.

The problem with most tales of nightshade and magnolia, of course, is the denouement; The Beguiled simply winds down. Siegel and his scriptwriters have contrived a conclusion that is brutal but predictable. Although they paint themselves into a corner and don't quite escape gracefully, it is at least a lot of spooky fun watching them get there.

* Jay Cocks

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