Faut-il tuer Sister George?

Robert Aldrich is a director who rarely gets the attention he deserves. Ridiculously versatile he made the fascinating Film Noir 'Kiss Me Deadly', the gothic black comedy 'Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?', and the macho "tough guys on a mission" action classic 'The Dirty Dozen' to name just three in a long career. Just to emphasize that he could do just about anything, one of the first movies he made after 'The Dirty Dozen' was 'The Killing Of Sister George'. It's hard to imagine two more different movies! George is a very English picture about a much loved soap opera star (played by Beryl Reid) who has to juggle a career crisis with a complex lesbian relationship (her lover being played by Susanna York). Reid was well known to British audiences through her TV work, especially a couple of highly popular John Le Carre adaptations. Reid originated the Sister George role on the stage and she really makes the most of it in this movie. Her performance is terrific, hilariously bitchy and also very sad and pathetic. York is also good, and the lesbian subject matter must have been very shocking for the time. It may look a little dated now, but in context it is quite sensitively handled. There are some great actors in the supporting cast, most notably Coral Browne ('Theatre Of Blood') who plays a TV producer who has her eye on York. 'The Killing Of Sister George' deserves a bigger audience. I highly recommend it and hope that anyone who enjoys it looks further into the career of the Robert Aldrich, a seriously underrated film maker!

Anyone who likes gritty, clever, slightly comical drama should see this one. The plot is simple enough - an alcoholic gay actress worried about her future in a top Coronation Street-style soap opera - but the way the film is put together is pithy without being too complex - the characterisations are brilliantly satirical, showing up the worst side of the soap opera industry and its catty, backstabbing nature. You don't find yourself feeling sorry for anyone at the end of it apart from perhaps Susannah York. Lots of London-in-the-1960s location filming and familiar faces - I'm only surprised that John Le Mesurier doesn't appear in it. In a word - absorbing. Why don't they make them like this anymore?

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.

Beryl Reid gives a no-holds-barred performance as an aging lesbian actress who's already teetering on the edge when she gets word that her character in a TV soap opera is to be killed off. She takes out her frustrations on her childlike lover (Susannah York) and a production head (Coral Browne), the two of whom eventually become intimate on their own. The script-reading sequence had me howling with laughter, and Reid's non-stop barrage of put-downs, insults, wisecracks and other hateful remarks are acidly hilarious. A surprisingly realistic sex scene near the end is pretty graphic for its time (I almost felt like looking away) and we never learn much about Browne's icy character, but the concluding scene is gut-wrenching, as is the final line of dialogue. *** from ****

I did not see the stage play upon which this film is based (too young) but, based on its own merits, this film surely deserves a closer look.

The central trio of performers (Reid, York, Browne) provide career "bests" and there are some amusing vignettes from the others (Fraser, in particular, as a truly odious soap actor).

The much-discussed sex scene is, by today's standards (and, it would seem, even those of the 1960s stage play), tame, but its real value as a display of the shift of power between the three central characters is very neatly worked through in the closing quarter.

The final five minutes of (self-) destruction is heartbreaking, with excellent use made of the music track.

In short: miss it and miss out.