The Killing of Sister George

source: The Killing of Sister George

I am very interested in pre-Stonewall gay life, and as such I was delighted to see this film. However, if I found it historically and cinematographically interesting, I didn't enjoy it per se. The George character is a lesbian that doesn't care to hide that she's a lesbian. She's not apologetic, which is good, but she also displays a certain number of traits which make it very difficult to like her: she seems to have no understanding of social norms or play. She's unable to conduct herself like an adult. She interrupts people at the bad moment, yells on her girlfriend and insults her in front of everyone, etc etc. She gets drunk all the time, and is a mean drunk. Why is she like that? You'll have the greatest difficulties to convince me that it is not some homophobic logic behind. Just the way the scene in the bar is filmed you understand from where the movie comes from: It is a film made by a heterosexual man for a (60s) heterosexual public. It is not by chance that she ends up alone, drunk and desperate. (read: The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo...) In the end, I had heard that The Killing of Sister George and The Boys in the Band were two very homophobic movies made in the late 60s presenting gay people as desperate souls. I saw TBITB, and it went directly in my top 10 of all times movies, and I can argue against anyone who tells me it is homophobic. I tried to have the same take on TKSG, but I couldn't. While TBITB is a gay movie made by a gay man (not Friedkin, but Crowley) with gay people and for gay people (it used to be a play on Broadway), TKSG is a straight movie played by straight actors for a straight audience, and pretending to portray the life of lesbians as it is but failing miserably.

The Killing of Sister George was a true trail-blazer in 1968. It contains one of the finest lesbian scenes ever! Coral Browne gives an excellent performance. Rent The Killing of Sister George tonight.

this is a showcase for some magnificent acting....it doesn't seem at all homophobic , but rather immensely poignant and sad...and in what other film do you get to see a great lesbian band in matching sweaters and guitars (good solo!) Difficult at the beginning, just seems shallow and bitchy, but stick with it and watch Beryl Reid's character disintegrate....the final scene reminded me of "The Blue Angel" or "The Entertainer" in its shattering degradation...congrats to Aldrich for having the guts to make this movie, I think it stands the test of time rather well. Coral Browne is also magnificent, and York holds her own. The lesbian bar scene is worth waiting for.

While trying to keep this film's 1969 time-frame firmly in mind - I certainly have to say that I found having actress Beryl Reid in my face for 2 hours & 20 minutes (with her abrasive, scenery-chewing "June Buckridge" character) to be (almost) too unbearable to endure at times. A hateful, nasty, jealous and temperamental boozer - Was June Buckridge really supposed to be looked upon as being a fair representation of an older, butch lesbian (who was having a very stormy affair with a very girlish and feminine woman who was young enough to be her daughter)? If you ask me - This badly-dated, British production (filmed in Metrocolor) was so antagonistic in nature that it only succeeded in reinforcing the most negative lesbian stereotypes imaginable. And, finally - I think that director Robert Aldrich handled this film's subject matter very poorly. As an example of just that - The nightclub scene of same-sex couples slow-dancing together certainly went way beyond the point of being just clumsy and awkward. It sure did. In fact, it was downright atrocious!

I never saw Reid on stage, but I saw a production by a local amateur group which was much, much better than this film version. The director doesn't understand the timing of the very British irony, wit, bitchiness and waspishness, and consequently the actresses flounder and the camera doesn't frame them right. Reid and York's flat should look sinister, with its mounds of dolls and grown woman in a babydoll nightie in the daytime, but these details are just THERE. Imagine what a British noir director (Rober Hamer?) would have done with them. York is lovely, but her voice is wrong, wrong, wrong. She should have a whiny, slightly Cockney accent. She sounds like a debutante complaining that her icecream has gone runny. As for Reid, she is too cuddly and lovable for the part. It would be fun to make this film again. xxxxx

I don't give many movies 10/10, but this black comedy-drama gets my vote, for fine acting, production values, and of course its place in movie history in the frank portrayal of lesbian relationships. Others have & will comment on the latter, so I'll point out some of the other aspects of this fine film. The combination of comedy with personal tragedy poses difficult problems both for the writer & director; here they both succeed brilliantly. The three principals' performances are riveting. I particularly liked the ambiguity of Coral Brown's portrayal of Mercy Croft; watch her carefully in the tight closeups in the gay club, and notice how the down-turned mouth at times hides a hint of a self-satisfied smile. The cinematography deserves special mention. The use of colour is beautiful; I was reminded of "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", but it never steps over the line into unreality. On the contrary, the alleys of London, the TV studio and above all the stairs and corridor of the flat are supremely realistic. Most unusual is the use of chiaroscuro, the interplay of light-and-shadow, seldom seen outside of black & white films. In so many colour films the light appears to come from some amorphous omnidirectional source out of science fiction; great for lighting everything and everybody evenly, but unrealistic and DULL. Look at the shadows as Beryl Reid ('George') enters the apartment building and climbs the stairs, or in some of the bedroom scenes. Apart from its other many virtues, this movie held my attention as a fine piece of film-making. All in all, a masterpiece; my one regret is that it was shown on TV in pan-and-scan. It IS now available in DVD - in several formats & regions - so I look forward to watching it again in its original form.

Am I the only one who finds it painfully touching that Robert Aldrich went from the biggest hit of his career--the almost woman-free DIRTY DOZEN--to the kind of movie he really wanted to make, i.e., a stagebound melodrama about an aging lesbian soap star's love for a demented nymphet? In its day, SISTER GEORGE was considered the ne plus ultra in coarse homophobia; critics saw the sweaty thumbprints of the Aldrich Touch on every girl-on-girl scene. (Does anyone now lambaste THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT for not being hardhitting docudrama?) In retrospect, the movie seems to me one of Aldrich's most affecting, with Coral Browne (December) and a teeny, teenaged Susannah York (May) grand-slamming this folie a deux to a fare-thee-well.

Beryl Reid plays June 'George' Buckridge, an actress who's appeared for many years on BBC soap Applehurst as the lovable Sister George. In the world of soaps everything changes, fearing she's due to be written out she begins behaving more and more unreasonably, making her partner Childie's life a misery along the way. George becomes horrendously insecure and keeps hitting the bottle, but soon her worst fears are realised. I have to start by saying this film totally defies the period it came from, I had to keep checking it was made in 1968, it feels incredibly modern, and incredibly relevant. Wonderful black humour, some of George's cutting remarks and put downs are so funny. Mrs Croft's arrival at the club is so funny, her facial expressions were priceless. The acting is absolutely phenomenal, I love Beryl Reid, and this has to be the crowning glory of her career, her performance is exquisite, the hold she has of Susannah York's 'Childie' is amazing, and her drunken acting is sensational. York herself got into the role fabulously well, very much up to Reid's charismatic George. I love the scenes of 60's London, it looks amazing, great to see the London buses too. It's a long film, coming in at over two hours, but I promise it's so good it holds your attention. An absolute gem of a film. 10/10

This movie is a heck of a lot more relevant than more recent films dealing with lesbianism -- the shallow, lame DESERT HEARTS comes to mind. Though over two hours long, TKOSG held me with little effort. The action moved freely from the studio to the apartment to the pub. And the seduction scene was totally erotic and ... well ... never mind. Was this particular scene overly long? Only to a generation raised on sex scenes which rarely last as long as it takes to cook a three-minute egg. Explicit? Grow up! And the performances ... wow! I had no problem with the hold George had over Childie, with Beryl Reid's superior portrayal complemented perfectly by Susannah York's fragile and, at the same time, forceful Childie. I must admit, York was a bit over the top in the beginning, but I wouldn't say that if I didn't count her as one of my all-time favorite actresses. And how about Coral Browne -- she was sensational! Sublty menacing, eerily sensuous -- and when I realized this was the same woman from AUNTIE MAME and LYLA CLARE, well, I nearly fell off my chair. I love this lady!