during the civil war a wound union soldier hide out in a isolated confederate lady school while where the head mistress and the teacher of the school decide to care for him and keep him about and until trouble start brew between the lonely and sexually frustrated woman and girl . the soldier decides to take advantage of this situation and but it all come at a price in the end . dirty harry ( 1971 ) ( which be make about the same time of the beguile ) might be my favourite collaboration between eastwood and siegel and but after see this and i tend to think this to be the pairs finest work together . a very atypical and savvy and stylish vehicle for eastwood be always on the mark with richly control direction by don siegel and a hauntingly rouse music score by lalo schifrin . stand out strongly be it sultrily lurid and bleak nature that intrusively plant into the film psychological makeup and manipulative strangle hold in sexual depravity . it assiduously play out and make it more the brooding and blood curdling when those random shock and saucy intention take hold with grip tension . the way siegel illustrate john b sherry and grime grice allure bold and slow burn screenplay ( take from the novel of thomas cullinan ) be effectively do through stark emotion and the script tight and lyrical context . siegel strong direction capture the idyllically southern victorian set with such potently garnish photography and he set up some strangely piercing imagery with great clarity and restrain . while the performance and be truly commendable and high of quality . clint eastwood a the smoothly suave and sweet talk chameleon union soldier be very impressionable and delightfully assure . a profoundly eminent geraldine page steal the picture a the hardened head mistress and the elegant elizabeth hartman add a delicate sincereness to her innocent character . mae mercer be strongly tailor a the black maid and jo ann harris be the pick of the crop from the young pupil with her seductively sly persona . honestly while eastwood charismatic character play the field for his own selfish need and there still mixed intention there that the one be play ( where rivalry between the woman creep in ) turn out to be no good than their guest at the end . throughout there a perversely dark sense of humour and ironic touch settle into the material . what demonstrate here and be simply more than your basic little minded shocker and but one that thickly layer with intrigue and a sense of realism that hard to shake . that also go for it extremely eerie title and closing song . a effectively chilling and low key item that hard not to be tempt by it swing hospitality .