Downbeat, yet at times almost Gothic in its evocation of atmosphere, this is a disquieting but involving drama based around the unusual premise of a wounded Union soldier being taken in at a private school for girls of the southern, confederate persuasion.
Clint Eastwood is the duplicitous soldier who takes advantage of the miss lonely hearts who duly line up for his attentions and from an uncharismatic start, develops into a more complex character who too late repents of his dark side and that he might have been kinder to animals (especially pet turtles) as well as the woman-folk who come his way.
The film is certainly condescending towards women with three of the adults (if 17 counts as an adult) and a young child all smitten with Eastwood's handsome cripple. Eastwood's soldier, on the other hand, perhaps goes too much to extremes and could perhaps have been shown to be a bit more sympathetic, but it was a brave decision for him to play a character who on the surface compliments his hostesses eloquently, but on the other hand has no compunction about bedding any of them who take his fancy.
Director Don Seigel lets situations develop at their own pace and the characterisations to deepen as they go, perhaps over-egging the narrative with the lurid back-stories of the headmistress played by Geraldine Page and the female black slave, but I liked the Gothic touches of heightened passions with characters voicing their thoughts while the mordant conclusion is appropriately unsensational and unheroic.
There's a thin line of good taste which Seigel has to negotiate and apart from an early shocking scene when Eastwood escapes detection by a Confederate patrol to set up the film's first and in the end most significant infatuation and a later "menage-a-quatre" dream sequence, he skirts around it adroitly. Beautifully shot, well paced and excellently acted by all the actors, this film strikes me as one of Clint Eastwood's best, all the better for being so far off the beaten track.
Clint Eastwood is the duplicitous soldier who takes advantage of the miss lonely hearts who duly line up for his attentions and from an uncharismatic start, develops into a more complex character who too late repents of his dark side and that he might have been kinder to animals (especially pet turtles) as well as the woman-folk who come his way.
The film is certainly condescending towards women with three of the adults (if 17 counts as an adult) and a young child all smitten with Eastwood's handsome cripple. Eastwood's soldier, on the other hand, perhaps goes too much to extremes and could perhaps have been shown to be a bit more sympathetic, but it was a brave decision for him to play a character who on the surface compliments his hostesses eloquently, but on the other hand has no compunction about bedding any of them who take his fancy.
Director Don Seigel lets situations develop at their own pace and the characterisations to deepen as they go, perhaps over-egging the narrative with the lurid back-stories of the headmistress played by Geraldine Page and the female black slave, but I liked the Gothic touches of heightened passions with characters voicing their thoughts while the mordant conclusion is appropriately unsensational and unheroic.
There's a thin line of good taste which Seigel has to negotiate and apart from an early shocking scene when Eastwood escapes detection by a Confederate patrol to set up the film's first and in the end most significant infatuation and a later "menage-a-quatre" dream sequence, he skirts around it adroitly. Beautifully shot, well paced and excellently acted by all the actors, this film strikes me as one of Clint Eastwood's best, all the better for being so far off the beaten track.