DVD
- The Killing Of Sister George [1968]
- Desert Fox, The / The Desert Rats [1951]
- Planet of the Apes -- 35th Anniversary Special Edition (2 discs) [1967]
- Hello Dolly [1969]
- Blithe Spirit [1945]
- Carry On - The Ultimate Carry On [1958]
- King Creole [1958]
- Giant (Special Edition) [1956]
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- Nightbreed [1990] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- How Green Was My Valley [1941]
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- Torn Curtain [1966]
- Elvis - Loving You [1957]
- Le Mepris [1963]
- Steptoe And Son - Series 1 [1962]
- Laurel & Hardy Volume 1 - A Chump At Oxford/Related Shorts [1940]
- 3 Powell And Pressburger Films - A Matter Of Life And Death / Life And Death Of Col. Blimp [1946]
- Carry On Constable [1959]
- The Bible - In The Beginning [1966]
- Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 [1969]
Average customer rating:
- Davis a legend
- Classic Bette Davis 1960's Drama/Thriller!!
- It will keep you hooked!
- Two Bette's For The Price Of One In Great Little 1960's Thriller
- "But I am Margaret De Lorca!"
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Dead Ringer
Starring: Bette Davis , Karl Malden , Peter Lawford , Philip Carey , and Jean Hagen
Director: Paul Henreid
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Similar Items:
- Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Two-Disc Special Edition)
- The Anniversary
- The Little Foxes
- All About Eve
ASIN: B00027JYLM
Release Date: 2004-08-10 |
Amazon.com
Hot on the heels of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Bette Davis slipped neatly into another juicy thriller. This time, instead of co-starring with Joan Crawford, she got to play opposite... herself. Dead Ringer casts Davis as a wealthy (and nasty) widow, and also as her slatternly (but good) twin sister, long estranged. When the poor sister discovers the depths of her sib's evil, she takes a dramatic step that will test her skills as a thespian. Davis's old leading man, Paul Henreid, directs this material at a leaden pace, but Davis gives such a brazen performance, she pulls it through. Plus, the moments of high trash (a red-hot poker rammed into a hand, a lethal dog attack) are easily savored. Peter Lawford's seedy playboy and Karl Malden's stolid cop fill out the key supporting roles--not that anybody else matters. This is Bette Davis's world; everybody else is just visiting. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
Davis a legend.......2007-01-10
After seeing Whatever happened to Baby Jane I looked forward to this movie. Must admit I was quite disappointed in the film as such but Davis remains a legend. I will recommend this movie for its excellent performance but it is not on the same level as Baby Jane.
Classic Bette Davis 1960's Drama/Thriller!!.......2006-08-08
This is a wonderful Bette Davis drama/thriller with just a touch of camp. I love movies of this time period and genre. I am so glad to be able to add this to my DVD library.
The commentary track pushes this DVD rating from 4 stars to 5 stars, yet the film on it's own is worth the price. The two gentlemen giving the commentary give you loads of info about Bette Davis' life and career. You also will learn quite a bit about the other members of this talented cast and the making of this film. There are other extras that focus on the beautiful mansion where it was filmed. You will even see some behind the scene footage of the film being shot.
There was no other actress quite like Bette Davis and most likely never will be again. Get this DVD while you can!
It will keep you hooked!.......2006-05-23
Dead Ringer is a sensational thriller starring Bette Davis in a dual role as twin sisters Edith and Margaret. Edith is poor, while Margaret is loaded, having married into wealth. Trouble is that Margaret's wealthy husband was once Edith's first love, and when the sisters meet at his funeral after a decade of silence, sparks beging to fly again, and Edie plots a fiendish scheme to escape from her unhappy and debt-ridden life.
If you don't know the film, and have not heard much about the plot, you are in for a treat. This is a first class, highly entertaining thriller. For a black and white Hollywood star vehicle from 1964, the movie still stands up strong today with a plot that keeps you gripped from the moment the wheels of crime start turning, until the bitter end - and it's bitter, believe me! Bette Davis makes a real feast of her dual role, and the effects that keep her on screen as both sisters at the same time are flawless. I was scrutinizing the screen to spot the joins on some occasions, but completely failed. Davis also skilfully makes herself into two different personalities, showing why she is considered to be one of the greats of the Hollywood golden age. True, at this point in her career some of her subtlety had gone, and the familiar Baby Jane screech is in full effect, but she still does a great job, constantly smoking like a chimney as Edie (amusingly lectured by the other sister at one point, that smoking is unhealthy!), and throwing juicy insults around. Although the direction and cinematography are fairly mundane, Davis' performance makes the film shine. You can practically see the machinations of Edie's mind as she starts to flounder among the constant stream of obstacles that threaten to sabotage her plan, and its great fun to watch her. There are good performances all round from the rest of the cast as well, plus some fantastic surprise twists in the plot, so do yourself a big favour and avoid reading any plot summaries before you watch it.
It may only be Saturday matinee entertainment now, or a filler DVD for a rainy afternoon, but Dead Ringer will keep you hooked right through to the end if you give it your time, and there's no shortage of films around even today today that can't beat that.
Two Bette's For The Price Of One In Great Little 1960's Thriller.......2005-08-11
The juicy thriller "Dead Ringer", is a personal favourite of mine and is a classic example of that curious genre that involved veteran performers appearing in macabre stories which sprung up in the early 1960's as a result of the sensational box office success of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?". The films made in the wake of Baby Jane's success were to provide many veteran actresses and actors such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Ray Milland, with meaty leading roles in lower budgeted thrillers and horror stories for the rest of that decade. Whatever failings these films may possess critically they are still immensely entertaining and certainly gave the veteran actors involved a new lease of life career wise at the time. I believe that "Dead Ringer", starring the legendary Bette Davis in the dual roles of two long estranged identical sisters caught up in a web of envy, intrigue, deception and finally murder is one of the best of the cycle. Produced by Warner Bros., the studio where Davis was once the undisputed Queen in the 1930's and 40's, "Dead Ringer", has an irresistably expensive look to it and is the ultimate star vehicle for the ageing Davis where she gets the unique opportunity to act opposite herself. "Dead Ringer", and "Baby Jane", began a flurry of work for Davis for the next ten years in films of varying quality such as the Grand Guignol gems "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte", in 1964 and "The Nanny" in 1965 through to the truly bizarre "The Anniversary", in 1968. "Dead Ringer", however is one of the more intriguing efforts in this genre and Bette Davis as always gives her all in her dual roles.
Based on a story by Rian James, "Dead Ringer", stars legend Bette Davis in the dual role of Margaret DeLorca/Edith Phillips, two long estranged sisters who are suddenly brought together at the funeral of Margaret's husband Frank. It is far from a happy reunion as the sisters have a long smouldering emnity for each other ever since Margaret stole Frank away from Edith on the excuse that Frank had got her pregnant. Not helping the situation is the fact that while Margaret went on to lead a glittering life enjoying the DeLorca millions , Edith remained unmarried and struggled to earn a living running a heavily in debt cocktail lounge in a seedy part of San Francisco. Margaret makes some very patronising amends by offering Edith cast off clothes back at the house after the funeral however the bitter Edith begins to form a deadly plan of her own when she discovers from the family chaffeur on the drive home that there was no child and that Margaret had deceived her to get Frank fo rherself. Enraged over having her whole life ruined by her sister Edith calls Margaret to her home that evening and then murders her sister and cutting he rhair and taking her clothes assumes her sister's identity back at the DeLorca mansion. However things dont go as smoothly as Edith first thought as she has to get used to strange surroundings, new people, and worst of all a very unexpected and eventually troublesome "boyfriend" in Margaret's secret lover Tony Collins (Peter Lawford). Edith finds herself drawn further into a frightening world of black mail when she discovers that Margaret and Tony actually murdered Frank and that Tony has discovered her masquerade and wants to be paid off. Edith's beau, well meaning Sergeant Jim Hobbson (Karl Malden), also begins to become suspicious and when Frank's body is exhumed and he is discovered to have died from poisoning the net closes in around Edith. Edith is successful in getting Tony out of the way when he is savaged by the family dog but her problems escalate when Edith then finds herself up on a murder charge for the crime her sister had commited. Not wanting to ruin Jim's loving impression of her Edith keeps up the charade of actually being Margaret who is condemmed to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin and she kindly allows Jim to believe it was Edith who died back at the house and not Margaret as she goes off with the police to be executed.
"Twice the terror as murderous twins!", cried the trade papers about Bette Davis at the time of the release of "Dead Ringer", however never could this film be termed a true horror effort as it is more a psychological thriller with Gothic overtones to it. Despite the time period it was made in "Dead Ringer" closely resembles one of those old star vehicles from the 1930's which had the lead actress centre stage throughout the proceedings. Despite it's short comings in the story department this is a Bette Davis show all the way and Davis handles the work where she is seemingly acting with her double very well. This was the second time she had played identical twins involved in murder, the first time being back in 1946 in "A Stolen Life". She manages extremely well in giving both Margaret and Edith very distinct personalities and mannerisms and her scenes where she is playing Edith after she murders her sister and is trying to adjust to Margaret's lifestyle at the mansion are especially good. Considering the Davis powerhhouse at centre stage it is amazing that there are some other interesting performances in this film especially Peter Lawford as the boozy, black mailing boyfriend of Margaret's who cottons on to Edith's deception and wants his share of the goodies. His work with Davis as he begins to blackmail her character is especially noteworthy and creates alot of the dramatic tension in the second half of the story as Edith's plan begins to unravel. Karl Malden as Edith's ever loyal fiancee who by his investigation unknowingly signs his beloved Edith's death warrant thinking she is Margaret is also effective in his playing and both Jean Hagen as flighty socialite Dede Marshall and especially veteran actress Estelle Winwood as the religious zealot Dona Anna make great impressions with their limited screen time. "Dead Ringer", boasts very high production values which gives this "B" grade story a style which is quite unexpected. The use of the luxurious Doheny Estate for the exterior shots is a superb choice and gives those scenes shot there an expensive look and feel so important in creating the vast difference in the fortunes of Edith and Margaret. The musical score by Andre Previn is also a great favourite of mine and is excellently chosen and incorporated into the action creating alternately eerie and oppressive feelings through the course of the film. Interestingly "Dead Ringer", is directed by Bette Davis' old "Now Voyager" co star Paul Henreid. While he might seem a strange choice for the directing duties his direction here is spot on as he lets the action move along at a leisurely pace building in tension and complexity as the story develops. He wisely allows the characters of the two sisters to be fully mapped out which allows much of the drama of when Edith pretends to be Margaret to have its own built in tension.
Glossy star vehicles for ageing actresses really are an extinct species in present day Hollywood where no one ever seems to be over 35 years of age. Thankfully the fluke success of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", allowed many actresses from the 1930's and 40's to keep working in similiar roles. Regardless of how the material in these films was viewed critically Bette Davis was never less than compelling on screen and she certainly displays all of her star quality here in "Dead Ringer" turning a fairly ordinary little thriller into something you can enjoy time and again. Passed off by many as camp fluff never to be taken seriously I instead enjoy the film and Bette Davis' performance in particular more from the point of it being from that last period of the fast disappearing studio system in he early 1960's that still saw studios tailoring vehicles for particular actors and actresses and managing to give even relatively low budget efforts such as this a gloss and sheen unheard of in the "New Hollywood", of the 1970's onwards. Enjoy Bette Davis playing twin sisters on a collison course of hatred, deception and murder in the stylish Grand Guignol thriller "Dead Ringer".
"But I am Margaret De Lorca!".......2005-08-06
By the time 1964 came around Bette Davis was having career resurgence. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was a huge hit for her and Joan Crawford; therefore, it was only logical that both actresses would be offered a variety of quasi horror and gothic-like roles. While Dead Ringer isn't really a horror film, it certainly has enough spooky and unnerving elements to involve the viewer and create an atmosphere of foreboding.
Is Dead Ringer a piece of B grade junk designed as a vehicle for a fading star's last gasp at glory? Or is it a cleverly wrought psychological thriller, made redeemable by the presence of a true star and great actress? Well, the answer is probably a bit both - theres no doubt that movie has elements of a second rate melodromatic thriller, but the film is also surprisingly tense and in the end provides a perfect showcase for the glamorous Ms. Davis to do what she does best.
Dead ringer is ultimately a campy gothic thriller about estranged twin sisters Margaret and Edith (Davis, playing both roles). The film begins with a funeral for Margaret's husband who has just died of heart failure. When the wealthy Margaret invites Edith back to her mansion in Westwood it is soon revealed that the insensitive, social-climbing Margaret actually stole Edith's insanely rich beau away from her and has since been living the high-life while Edith struggles to keep her run-down nightclub afloat.
With her rent three months in arrears and frantic for money, Edith hatches a desperate plan to murder her own sister by making it look like suicide. Thinking that she can just walk in and take over her life, Edith scrambles to carry off the masquerade, pretending she knows Margaret's safe combination by heart, or that she can differentiate between the mansion's hundred rooms, all the time trying to figure out what sort of person Margaret really was.
There are lots of surprises as Edith gradually discovers that Margaret possessed a lot of dark secrets that she was desperate to hide. Murder, betrayal, and infidelity all follow with Edith ultimately learning a hard lesson: when you adopt someone's assets, you must also accept their liabilities, for better or for worse. Viewers are in for such side attractions as Davis slapping checkbooks across rooms, contemplating burning her own hand with a red-hot fire poker, and even shoving herself backwards into a chair.
The supporting cast is strong with Carl Malden competently playing an affable, nice-guy cop who is in love with Edith, and just can't believe that she'd ever commit suicide. Jean Hagen absolutely chews up the scenery as a blithely indecent social butterfly and Estelle Winwood is terrific as a dour, doily-wearing Bible-thumper.
But in the end, Dead Ringer totally belongs to the commanding Bette Davis. This is one of her campiest and most ham-fisted roles ever, and where she's at her chain-smoking, eye popping, and out of control best. Mike Leonard August 05.
Average customer rating:
- Still Wonderful
- Masterpiece
- Sister George of the Jungle
- Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it
- Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?
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Killing of Sister George (Ws Sub)
Starring: Beryl Reid , Susannah York , Coral Browne , Ronald Fraser , and Patricia Medina
Director: Robert Aldrich
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
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- The Children's Hour
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- The Innocents
ASIN: B0009X7BGY
Release Date: 2005-08-23 |
Amazon.com
"Sister George" of the title is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character--a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter--even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar), but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance, but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly--an inevitable sign of the times--but this acidic show biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. --Sean Axmaker
Description
Director Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen) turns up the heat in this steamy, provocative and "expertly executed movie" (Los Angeles Times) starring Beryl Reid and Susannah York. Sexy, "sensitive [and] darkly humorous" (Boxoffice), The Killing of Sister George is a racy romp that's "entertaining" (Leonard Maltin), "explicit and sensational" (Life).June (Reid) is the star of a TV soap opera and she has the ego to prove it. But when she begins to suspect that the network is planning to kill off her characterand that her boss is out to seduce her beautifulyoung lover (York)June spirals out of control. And as she's transformed from demanding diva intohair-trigger harridan, TV's grandest of dames proves that underneath it all'she ain't no lady.
Customer Reviews:
Still Wonderful.......2006-12-19
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE"
Still Wonderful
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
1968 seems so long ago and even stranger than that is the idea that a movie made about lesbians back then still holds its own today. When "The Killing of Sister George" hit the big screen back then, the public was not quite ready for it. Nonetheless, even with a lesbian plot, the reviews were good. Taboos were shattered on the screen when Beryl Reid played June, an actress and lesbian, portrayed a nun on a soap opera. Her world falls apart when it is decided that the nun must be killed off. As she searched for another job, she became abusive to her lover, Alice (Susannah York) and she begins a spiral of self-destruction. The film, at the time, was given an X rating because of its sultriness and frankness but time has made all of that look tame by the standards of today. Once controversial, the movie is still a reflection of the times and it was the first major Hollywood to show a lesbian who was at peace with herself.
Entertaining as the film is, there is a great deal more significance when we consider how brave the moviemaker was to have created a movie like this almost 40 years ago. It is cynical. Objectionable and a great deal of fun, it is landmark film because of both the subject matter and the bravura performance of Beryl Reid. Reid is a virtuoso and she holds the entire movie together. Her identification with the character she plays is simply miraculous to watch.
The film is much like a drawing room drama, small and tidy. The sets are interiors and the movie does not move from location to location. The choice of lesbian subject matter is a reflection of the director's, Robert Aldrich's, like for outsiders. It seems that the decision to make this movie was not based on eliciting sympathy for the lesbian life style but rather to create controversy. "The Killing" is entertaining and the dialogue is wonderful but this is not a sophisticated view of lesbianism--it was not until much later that Hollywood would come to regard us as people.
Even today, the movie maintains its relevance. It is a long film but it is never tiring and never boring. Emotions are held in tact until the gut-wrenching last scene of the film. If you like gritty, clever, slightly humorous drama, this is the movie to see.. Even if it is a bit dated these days, it should not be ignored in the canon of gay film.
The sex scene has been discussed over and over again. Its real value lay in the fact that it shows a power shift between the characters.
When the movie first appeared it was considered to be "ne plus ultra" in coarse homophobia but time has changed all of that. This is an important film because of the performances and the subject matter and anyone who wants to have a good handle on queer cinema must see "Sister George". There is one scene that was shocking then and is still somewhat shocking today and that is what happens in the Gateways Club, a notable lesbian bar.
In 1968 the film opened doors and it is still one of the great lesbian films and should not be missed.
Masterpiece.......2006-12-04
The Killing of Sister George (1968) is Robert Aldritch's masterpiece: one of the most harrowing films ever made on the subject of show business and masochistic relationships. Cynical yet painfully human, it is far superior to his much more well-known Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Beryl Reid, Susannah York & Coral Browne are magnificent and their performances pack an intense emotional wallop. The fact that the movie's principals are lesbians likely prevented people from appreciating the film for its immense merits. Beryl Reid stars as June Buckridge, an aging, overweight actress who plays Sister George, a beloved character on a hokey British soap opera about village life. Susannah York is Alice, or 'Childie' as George refers to her, George's younger, live-in lover who likes to play with dolls and act coy. Their complex, love-hate relationship provides the crux of the film, while George's career hitting the skids in conjunction with increasingly outrageous behavior and growing alcoholism moves the characters towards emotional and personal disaster. Coral Browne gives the performance of her career as Mrs. Croft, the BBC executive who vies for the affections of Childie over George. One particularly memorable scene showcases George & Childie attending a local lesbian bar as Laurel & Hardy, with Mrs. Croft coming over to deliver George the bad news that she has been removed from the show. The notorious sex scene between Childie and Mrs. Croft is both explicit and remarkably restrained and psychologically revealing. Note must also be made of Patricia Medina's sensitive performance as Betty Thaxter, the owner of a local house of prostitution and a personal confidante of George.
Sister George of the Jungle.......2006-07-07
Beryl Reed singlehandedly saves this movie. She manages to take a character that could have so easliy slid into camp caricature and make her an actual human being. At all times she projects the humanity in George, even when she is acting like a schreechy seven year old with ADD: boozing it up, being needlessly abusive to her girlfriend, huffily walking out on her TV show (even though she's in a precarious position on it). She's shrill, foolish, self-destructive and a bit mean, but Reed manages to make her also charming and sometimes even sweet.
Not that the ham-handed direction by Aldrich helps. We're presented with mega-closeups of Reed and especially Coral Browne that seem designed to make them look as bad as possible. Not that he does better by the heterosexuals in the cast: the people involved in her BBC program are presented little better than circus freaks, or predatory animals in the big bad TV jungle.
In some ways, the movie is hilariouly dated. We are treated to a long sequence in might have been an actual lesbian bar- which is presented as if it were the most shocking think in the world. It seems rather sweet, looking back at it 30-odd years later, and about as threatening as a high-school sock hop.
There is one sex scene that would most likely be rated light R today, other than that, this is an overlong TV movie. Worth seeing as a historical document to the time when merely the fact that Lesbians exist was enough to be "shocking"!
Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it.......2006-04-27
It's my own fault, I guess. I knew there was a provocative angle to "The Killing of Sister George," but because of the title I thought that in addition to the naughty stuff we'd be getting a murder mystery of some kind. So it all sounded good... a little mystery, a little sex, what more can one ask? Alas, there's no murder mystery: the title refers to Beryl Reid's actress character worrying about whether or not the "Sister George" character she plays on a TV drama is going to be killed off. Okay, but there was still the provocative stuff to save the day, right? Well, here things are sort of problematic, too. Anyway, here's the good and bad about this strange little drama.
GOOD: The movie only seems endless. It's actually a good bit shorter than the three hours it feels like (it clocks in at a shade under 2 hours and 20 minutes). That means that if you start the movie now, in three hours you can say to yourself, "Thank God, I'm already 40 minutes past the ordeal of that movie."
BAD: Beryl Reid's over-the-hill actress character is reprehensible and grating. This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a lesbian. It does have to do with the fact that she's abusive, whiny, and shrill. Uggh.
GOOD: Susannah York's character is likable, pretty, and interesting.
BAD: Susannah York's character is the only female character in this movie who is likable, pretty, and interesting. A quick aside on this topic: I swear, I'm sure that lesbian women don't like to be uniformally portrayed in the media as sultry model types, but I can't believe that they appreciate being uniformly portrayed in the opposite extreme, as they are here. For example, with the exception of maybe (maybe!) one or two quick walk-ons in the scene set in the lesbian bar, every woman in that long bar scene looks like a man. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, guys... no "The L Word" here.
GOOD: It's nice that the moralism is kept to a minimum and there was no need on the part of the film makers to have any of the lesbian characters commit suicide or meet some other type of major tragedy. Beryl Reid's character doesn't turn out too well in the end, but that's only because she's a creep, not a lesbian.
BAD: The movie betrays its roots on the stage, with several long, talky, stage-bound sequences. That sort of stuff may be fine to watch live, but in a movie some judicious trimming should have been performed. Many scenes are endless.
GOOD: There is one fairly hot and erotic seduction scene at the end of the movie, thankfully involving Susannah York's character.
BAD: You have to sit through the first two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie to get to it.
I guess that "The Killing of Sister George" must have seemed like pretty "adult", edgy stuff back in 1968, perhaps making people not mind as much that they had to sit through the many aspects of the movie that aren't very good: in the end, after all, they could say that they saw the movie that was the talk of the town. Now, alas, you'll likely tell yourself that you saw a whiny, talky, fairly dull movie that has one or two elements (Susannah York and the one sex scene at the end) that keep it from being a total headache-inducing experience.
To end on a polite note, the DVD features a clean, sharp widescreen image. There are no extras, however. Not one. But don't worry, after watching this you won't be seeking any extras out. Oh, well... so much for ending on a polite note.
Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?.......2005-08-30
"Shocking" backstage drama about a paranoid actress who, convinced her character (a nun-get the irony?) is being slowly "written out" of a hit TV show, takes out her frustrations by bullying her co-stars and her live-in lesbian lover. This film looks better on paper, but does contain enough clever verbal jousts to make it worth screening once (although the devoted cultists obviously see some value in repeated viewings). It better have a good script, because this one is definitely a talkfest, with each of its somewhat stagey scenes creeping along at 10 to 15 minutes apiece. Frankly, the ubiquitous glut of gay-themed movies and TV shows these days removes any "edginess" that this film may have had during its original, X-rated late-60's theatrical run. The lovely Susanna York (who plays George's younger lover) does have a pretty hot love scene, reminiscent of the infamous seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Caroll Baker in "Baby Doll"-where all you see is York's reactions to whatever er, "manipulations" are taking place (that part is left to the viewer's undoubtedly naughty imagination). Strong acting saves the film overall. I suspect "Absolutely Fabulous" took a little inspiration from the rampant, catty, booze-induced "bitchiness" that pervades throughout the film. It might surprise many to learn that "Sister George" was directed by the same man who delivered such iconic macho "guy movies" as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Too Late The Hero"-Robert Aldrich! MGM's 2005 DVD release has a decent transfer and "so-so" audio. No extras.
Average customer rating:
- Still Wonderful
- Masterpiece
- Sister George of the Jungle
- Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it
- Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?
|
The Killing of Sister George
Starring: Beryl Reid , Susannah York , Coral Browne , Ronald Fraser , and Patricia Medina
Director: Robert Aldrich
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape
Beckley, William
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Browne, Coral
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Delevanti, Cyril
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Fraser, Ronald
| ( F )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Medina, Patricia
| Mead to Mezzogiorno
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Reid, Beryl
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
York, Susannah
| ( Y )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Satire
| Comedy
| Genres
| VHS
| Video
Gay & Lesbian
| Comedy
| Genres
| VHS
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General
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| Genres
| VHS
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Gay & Lesbian
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| VHS
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Classics
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| VHS
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Comedy
| United Kingdom
| By Country
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Gay & Lesbian
| United Kingdom
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Aldrich, Robert
| ( A )
| Directors
| VHS
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Drama
| Widescreen
| Formats
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| Video
Similar Items:
- The Children's Hour
- Marlene Dietrich - The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings)
- An Unmarried Woman
- Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition)
- The Innocents
ASIN: B00003TKFI
Release Date: 2000-02-22 |
Amazon.com
"Sister George" of the title is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character--a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter--even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar), but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance, but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly--an inevitable sign of the times--but this acidic show biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews:
Still Wonderful.......2006-12-19
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE"
Still Wonderful
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
1968 seems so long ago and even stranger than that is the idea that a movie made about lesbians back then still holds its own today. When "The Killing of Sister George" hit the big screen back then, the public was not quite ready for it. Nonetheless, even with a lesbian plot, the reviews were good. Taboos were shattered on the screen when Beryl Reid played June, an actress and lesbian, portrayed a nun on a soap opera. Her world falls apart when it is decided that the nun must be killed off. As she searched for another job, she became abusive to her lover, Alice (Susannah York) and she begins a spiral of self-destruction. The film, at the time, was given an X rating because of its sultriness and frankness but time has made all of that look tame by the standards of today. Once controversial, the movie is still a reflection of the times and it was the first major Hollywood to show a lesbian who was at peace with herself.
Entertaining as the film is, there is a great deal more significance when we consider how brave the moviemaker was to have created a movie like this almost 40 years ago. It is cynical. Objectionable and a great deal of fun, it is landmark film because of both the subject matter and the bravura performance of Beryl Reid. Reid is a virtuoso and she holds the entire movie together. Her identification with the character she plays is simply miraculous to watch.
The film is much like a drawing room drama, small and tidy. The sets are interiors and the movie does not move from location to location. The choice of lesbian subject matter is a reflection of the director's, Robert Aldrich's, like for outsiders. It seems that the decision to make this movie was not based on eliciting sympathy for the lesbian life style but rather to create controversy. "The Killing" is entertaining and the dialogue is wonderful but this is not a sophisticated view of lesbianism--it was not until much later that Hollywood would come to regard us as people.
Even today, the movie maintains its relevance. It is a long film but it is never tiring and never boring. Emotions are held in tact until the gut-wrenching last scene of the film. If you like gritty, clever, slightly humorous drama, this is the movie to see.. Even if it is a bit dated these days, it should not be ignored in the canon of gay film.
The sex scene has been discussed over and over again. Its real value lay in the fact that it shows a power shift between the characters.
When the movie first appeared it was considered to be "ne plus ultra" in coarse homophobia but time has changed all of that. This is an important film because of the performances and the subject matter and anyone who wants to have a good handle on queer cinema must see "Sister George". There is one scene that was shocking then and is still somewhat shocking today and that is what happens in the Gateways Club, a notable lesbian bar.
In 1968 the film opened doors and it is still one of the great lesbian films and should not be missed.
Masterpiece.......2006-12-04
The Killing of Sister George (1968) is Robert Aldritch's masterpiece: one of the most harrowing films ever made on the subject of show business and masochistic relationships. Cynical yet painfully human, it is far superior to his much more well-known Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Beryl Reid, Susannah York & Coral Browne are magnificent and their performances pack an intense emotional wallop. The fact that the movie's principals are lesbians likely prevented people from appreciating the film for its immense merits. Beryl Reid stars as June Buckridge, an aging, overweight actress who plays Sister George, a beloved character on a hokey British soap opera about village life. Susannah York is Alice, or 'Childie' as George refers to her, George's younger, live-in lover who likes to play with dolls and act coy. Their complex, love-hate relationship provides the crux of the film, while George's career hitting the skids in conjunction with increasingly outrageous behavior and growing alcoholism moves the characters towards emotional and personal disaster. Coral Browne gives the performance of her career as Mrs. Croft, the BBC executive who vies for the affections of Childie over George. One particularly memorable scene showcases George & Childie attending a local lesbian bar as Laurel & Hardy, with Mrs. Croft coming over to deliver George the bad news that she has been removed from the show. The notorious sex scene between Childie and Mrs. Croft is both explicit and remarkably restrained and psychologically revealing. Note must also be made of Patricia Medina's sensitive performance as Betty Thaxter, the owner of a local house of prostitution and a personal confidante of George.
Sister George of the Jungle.......2006-07-07
Beryl Reed singlehandedly saves this movie. She manages to take a character that could have so easliy slid into camp caricature and make her an actual human being. At all times she projects the humanity in George, even when she is acting like a schreechy seven year old with ADD: boozing it up, being needlessly abusive to her girlfriend, huffily walking out on her TV show (even though she's in a precarious position on it). She's shrill, foolish, self-destructive and a bit mean, but Reed manages to make her also charming and sometimes even sweet.
Not that the ham-handed direction by Aldrich helps. We're presented with mega-closeups of Reed and especially Coral Browne that seem designed to make them look as bad as possible. Not that he does better by the heterosexuals in the cast: the people involved in her BBC program are presented little better than circus freaks, or predatory animals in the big bad TV jungle.
In some ways, the movie is hilariouly dated. We are treated to a long sequence in might have been an actual lesbian bar- which is presented as if it were the most shocking think in the world. It seems rather sweet, looking back at it 30-odd years later, and about as threatening as a high-school sock hop.
There is one sex scene that would most likely be rated light R today, other than that, this is an overlong TV movie. Worth seeing as a historical document to the time when merely the fact that Lesbians exist was enough to be "shocking"!
Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it.......2006-04-27
It's my own fault, I guess. I knew there was a provocative angle to "The Killing of Sister George," but because of the title I thought that in addition to the naughty stuff we'd be getting a murder mystery of some kind. So it all sounded good... a little mystery, a little sex, what more can one ask? Alas, there's no murder mystery: the title refers to Beryl Reid's actress character worrying about whether or not the "Sister George" character she plays on a TV drama is going to be killed off. Okay, but there was still the provocative stuff to save the day, right? Well, here things are sort of problematic, too. Anyway, here's the good and bad about this strange little drama.
GOOD: The movie only seems endless. It's actually a good bit shorter than the three hours it feels like (it clocks in at a shade under 2 hours and 20 minutes). That means that if you start the movie now, in three hours you can say to yourself, "Thank God, I'm already 40 minutes past the ordeal of that movie."
BAD: Beryl Reid's over-the-hill actress character is reprehensible and grating. This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a lesbian. It does have to do with the fact that she's abusive, whiny, and shrill. Uggh.
GOOD: Susannah York's character is likable, pretty, and interesting.
BAD: Susannah York's character is the only female character in this movie who is likable, pretty, and interesting. A quick aside on this topic: I swear, I'm sure that lesbian women don't like to be uniformally portrayed in the media as sultry model types, but I can't believe that they appreciate being uniformly portrayed in the opposite extreme, as they are here. For example, with the exception of maybe (maybe!) one or two quick walk-ons in the scene set in the lesbian bar, every woman in that long bar scene looks like a man. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, guys... no "The L Word" here.
GOOD: It's nice that the moralism is kept to a minimum and there was no need on the part of the film makers to have any of the lesbian characters commit suicide or meet some other type of major tragedy. Beryl Reid's character doesn't turn out too well in the end, but that's only because she's a creep, not a lesbian.
BAD: The movie betrays its roots on the stage, with several long, talky, stage-bound sequences. That sort of stuff may be fine to watch live, but in a movie some judicious trimming should have been performed. Many scenes are endless.
GOOD: There is one fairly hot and erotic seduction scene at the end of the movie, thankfully involving Susannah York's character.
BAD: You have to sit through the first two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie to get to it.
I guess that "The Killing of Sister George" must have seemed like pretty "adult", edgy stuff back in 1968, perhaps making people not mind as much that they had to sit through the many aspects of the movie that aren't very good: in the end, after all, they could say that they saw the movie that was the talk of the town. Now, alas, you'll likely tell yourself that you saw a whiny, talky, fairly dull movie that has one or two elements (Susannah York and the one sex scene at the end) that keep it from being a total headache-inducing experience.
To end on a polite note, the DVD features a clean, sharp widescreen image. There are no extras, however. Not one. But don't worry, after watching this you won't be seeking any extras out. Oh, well... so much for ending on a polite note.
Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?.......2005-08-30
"Shocking" backstage drama about a paranoid actress who, convinced her character (a nun-get the irony?) is being slowly "written out" of a hit TV show, takes out her frustrations by bullying her co-stars and her live-in lesbian lover. This film looks better on paper, but does contain enough clever verbal jousts to make it worth screening once (although the devoted cultists obviously see some value in repeated viewings). It better have a good script, because this one is definitely a talkfest, with each of its somewhat stagey scenes creeping along at 10 to 15 minutes apiece. Frankly, the ubiquitous glut of gay-themed movies and TV shows these days removes any "edginess" that this film may have had during its original, X-rated late-60's theatrical run. The lovely Susanna York (who plays George's younger lover) does have a pretty hot love scene, reminiscent of the infamous seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Caroll Baker in "Baby Doll"-where all you see is York's reactions to whatever er, "manipulations" are taking place (that part is left to the viewer's undoubtedly naughty imagination). Strong acting saves the film overall. I suspect "Absolutely Fabulous" took a little inspiration from the rampant, catty, booze-induced "bitchiness" that pervades throughout the film. It might surprise many to learn that "Sister George" was directed by the same man who delivered such iconic macho "guy movies" as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Too Late The Hero"-Robert Aldrich! MGM's 2005 DVD release has a decent transfer and "so-so" audio. No extras.
Average customer rating:
- Still Wonderful
- Masterpiece
- Sister George of the Jungle
- Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it
- Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?
|
The Killing of Sister George
Starring: Beryl Reid , Susannah York , Coral Browne , Ronald Fraser , and Patricia Medina
Director: Robert Aldrich
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
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| ( B )
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| ( B )
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| ( F )
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| ( M )
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Reid, Beryl
| ( R )
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| ( Y )
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| ( A )
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Similar Items:
- The Children's Hour
- Marlene Dietrich - The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings)
- An Unmarried Woman
- Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition)
- The Innocents
ASIN: B00004KHDT
Release Date: 2000-02-22 |
Amazon.com
"Sister George" of the title is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character--a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter--even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar), but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance, but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly--an inevitable sign of the times--but this acidic show biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews:
Still Wonderful.......2006-12-19
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE"
Still Wonderful
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
1968 seems so long ago and even stranger than that is the idea that a movie made about lesbians back then still holds its own today. When "The Killing of Sister George" hit the big screen back then, the public was not quite ready for it. Nonetheless, even with a lesbian plot, the reviews were good. Taboos were shattered on the screen when Beryl Reid played June, an actress and lesbian, portrayed a nun on a soap opera. Her world falls apart when it is decided that the nun must be killed off. As she searched for another job, she became abusive to her lover, Alice (Susannah York) and she begins a spiral of self-destruction. The film, at the time, was given an X rating because of its sultriness and frankness but time has made all of that look tame by the standards of today. Once controversial, the movie is still a reflection of the times and it was the first major Hollywood to show a lesbian who was at peace with herself.
Entertaining as the film is, there is a great deal more significance when we consider how brave the moviemaker was to have created a movie like this almost 40 years ago. It is cynical. Objectionable and a great deal of fun, it is landmark film because of both the subject matter and the bravura performance of Beryl Reid. Reid is a virtuoso and she holds the entire movie together. Her identification with the character she plays is simply miraculous to watch.
The film is much like a drawing room drama, small and tidy. The sets are interiors and the movie does not move from location to location. The choice of lesbian subject matter is a reflection of the director's, Robert Aldrich's, like for outsiders. It seems that the decision to make this movie was not based on eliciting sympathy for the lesbian life style but rather to create controversy. "The Killing" is entertaining and the dialogue is wonderful but this is not a sophisticated view of lesbianism--it was not until much later that Hollywood would come to regard us as people.
Even today, the movie maintains its relevance. It is a long film but it is never tiring and never boring. Emotions are held in tact until the gut-wrenching last scene of the film. If you like gritty, clever, slightly humorous drama, this is the movie to see.. Even if it is a bit dated these days, it should not be ignored in the canon of gay film.
The sex scene has been discussed over and over again. Its real value lay in the fact that it shows a power shift between the characters.
When the movie first appeared it was considered to be "ne plus ultra" in coarse homophobia but time has changed all of that. This is an important film because of the performances and the subject matter and anyone who wants to have a good handle on queer cinema must see "Sister George". There is one scene that was shocking then and is still somewhat shocking today and that is what happens in the Gateways Club, a notable lesbian bar.
In 1968 the film opened doors and it is still one of the great lesbian films and should not be missed.
Masterpiece.......2006-12-04
The Killing of Sister George (1968) is Robert Aldritch's masterpiece: one of the most harrowing films ever made on the subject of show business and masochistic relationships. Cynical yet painfully human, it is far superior to his much more well-known Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Beryl Reid, Susannah York & Coral Browne are magnificent and their performances pack an intense emotional wallop. The fact that the movie's principals are lesbians likely prevented people from appreciating the film for its immense merits. Beryl Reid stars as June Buckridge, an aging, overweight actress who plays Sister George, a beloved character on a hokey British soap opera about village life. Susannah York is Alice, or 'Childie' as George refers to her, George's younger, live-in lover who likes to play with dolls and act coy. Their complex, love-hate relationship provides the crux of the film, while George's career hitting the skids in conjunction with increasingly outrageous behavior and growing alcoholism moves the characters towards emotional and personal disaster. Coral Browne gives the performance of her career as Mrs. Croft, the BBC executive who vies for the affections of Childie over George. One particularly memorable scene showcases George & Childie attending a local lesbian bar as Laurel & Hardy, with Mrs. Croft coming over to deliver George the bad news that she has been removed from the show. The notorious sex scene between Childie and Mrs. Croft is both explicit and remarkably restrained and psychologically revealing. Note must also be made of Patricia Medina's sensitive performance as Betty Thaxter, the owner of a local house of prostitution and a personal confidante of George.
Sister George of the Jungle.......2006-07-07
Beryl Reed singlehandedly saves this movie. She manages to take a character that could have so easliy slid into camp caricature and make her an actual human being. At all times she projects the humanity in George, even when she is acting like a schreechy seven year old with ADD: boozing it up, being needlessly abusive to her girlfriend, huffily walking out on her TV show (even though she's in a precarious position on it). She's shrill, foolish, self-destructive and a bit mean, but Reed manages to make her also charming and sometimes even sweet.
Not that the ham-handed direction by Aldrich helps. We're presented with mega-closeups of Reed and especially Coral Browne that seem designed to make them look as bad as possible. Not that he does better by the heterosexuals in the cast: the people involved in her BBC program are presented little better than circus freaks, or predatory animals in the big bad TV jungle.
In some ways, the movie is hilariouly dated. We are treated to a long sequence in might have been an actual lesbian bar- which is presented as if it were the most shocking think in the world. It seems rather sweet, looking back at it 30-odd years later, and about as threatening as a high-school sock hop.
There is one sex scene that would most likely be rated light R today, other than that, this is an overlong TV movie. Worth seeing as a historical document to the time when merely the fact that Lesbians exist was enough to be "shocking"!
Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it.......2006-04-27
It's my own fault, I guess. I knew there was a provocative angle to "The Killing of Sister George," but because of the title I thought that in addition to the naughty stuff we'd be getting a murder mystery of some kind. So it all sounded good... a little mystery, a little sex, what more can one ask? Alas, there's no murder mystery: the title refers to Beryl Reid's actress character worrying about whether or not the "Sister George" character she plays on a TV drama is going to be killed off. Okay, but there was still the provocative stuff to save the day, right? Well, here things are sort of problematic, too. Anyway, here's the good and bad about this strange little drama.
GOOD: The movie only seems endless. It's actually a good bit shorter than the three hours it feels like (it clocks in at a shade under 2 hours and 20 minutes). That means that if you start the movie now, in three hours you can say to yourself, "Thank God, I'm already 40 minutes past the ordeal of that movie."
BAD: Beryl Reid's over-the-hill actress character is reprehensible and grating. This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a lesbian. It does have to do with the fact that she's abusive, whiny, and shrill. Uggh.
GOOD: Susannah York's character is likable, pretty, and interesting.
BAD: Susannah York's character is the only female character in this movie who is likable, pretty, and interesting. A quick aside on this topic: I swear, I'm sure that lesbian women don't like to be uniformally portrayed in the media as sultry model types, but I can't believe that they appreciate being uniformly portrayed in the opposite extreme, as they are here. For example, with the exception of maybe (maybe!) one or two quick walk-ons in the scene set in the lesbian bar, every woman in that long bar scene looks like a man. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, guys... no "The L Word" here.
GOOD: It's nice that the moralism is kept to a minimum and there was no need on the part of the film makers to have any of the lesbian characters commit suicide or meet some other type of major tragedy. Beryl Reid's character doesn't turn out too well in the end, but that's only because she's a creep, not a lesbian.
BAD: The movie betrays its roots on the stage, with several long, talky, stage-bound sequences. That sort of stuff may be fine to watch live, but in a movie some judicious trimming should have been performed. Many scenes are endless.
GOOD: There is one fairly hot and erotic seduction scene at the end of the movie, thankfully involving Susannah York's character.
BAD: You have to sit through the first two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie to get to it.
I guess that "The Killing of Sister George" must have seemed like pretty "adult", edgy stuff back in 1968, perhaps making people not mind as much that they had to sit through the many aspects of the movie that aren't very good: in the end, after all, they could say that they saw the movie that was the talk of the town. Now, alas, you'll likely tell yourself that you saw a whiny, talky, fairly dull movie that has one or two elements (Susannah York and the one sex scene at the end) that keep it from being a total headache-inducing experience.
To end on a polite note, the DVD features a clean, sharp widescreen image. There are no extras, however. Not one. But don't worry, after watching this you won't be seeking any extras out. Oh, well... so much for ending on a polite note.
Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?.......2005-08-30
"Shocking" backstage drama about a paranoid actress who, convinced her character (a nun-get the irony?) is being slowly "written out" of a hit TV show, takes out her frustrations by bullying her co-stars and her live-in lesbian lover. This film looks better on paper, but does contain enough clever verbal jousts to make it worth screening once (although the devoted cultists obviously see some value in repeated viewings). It better have a good script, because this one is definitely a talkfest, with each of its somewhat stagey scenes creeping along at 10 to 15 minutes apiece. Frankly, the ubiquitous glut of gay-themed movies and TV shows these days removes any "edginess" that this film may have had during its original, X-rated late-60's theatrical run. The lovely Susanna York (who plays George's younger lover) does have a pretty hot love scene, reminiscent of the infamous seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Caroll Baker in "Baby Doll"-where all you see is York's reactions to whatever er, "manipulations" are taking place (that part is left to the viewer's undoubtedly naughty imagination). Strong acting saves the film overall. I suspect "Absolutely Fabulous" took a little inspiration from the rampant, catty, booze-induced "bitchiness" that pervades throughout the film. It might surprise many to learn that "Sister George" was directed by the same man who delivered such iconic macho "guy movies" as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Too Late The Hero"-Robert Aldrich! MGM's 2005 DVD release has a decent transfer and "so-so" audio. No extras.
Product Description
Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages:
o English (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Robert Aldrich's The Killing of Sister George is a powerful black comedy that continues to generate controversy over its portrayal of lesbian relationships. The central relationship is disturbing and fascinating, not due to the sex of the characters, but due to its sometimes abusive nature. Aldrich, whose work often is a mesmerizing mixture of luridness, camp, and insightfulness, is in top form here, creating a claustrophobic onscreen atmosphere that causes the audience itself to feel as trapped as the characters. George herself is the most trapped, but also the one that struggles the most against it -- and ironically the only one still trapped by film's end. Beryl Reid's towering performance is stunning. The viewer is appalled when watching her humiliate Childie with a cigar butt, yet somehow sympathetic. Reid makes the audience root for her and feel for her, even when she is at her most monstrous. And her final scene, standing amid the debris of a television studio and mooing, is both harrowing and heartbreaking. Susannah York and Coral Browne also turn in incredible performances, and their five-minute love scene is shocking both for its frankness and the naked intensity of desperate emotion they bring to it. Overlong, discomforting, and sometimes over-the-top in content, Sister George is still a unique experience.
Special Features:
o Biographies
o Interactive Menu
o Photo Gallery
o Production Notes
o Scene Access
Average customer rating:
- Still Wonderful
- Masterpiece
- Sister George of the Jungle
- Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it
- Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?
|
The Killing of Sister George [Region 2]
Starring: Beryl Reid , Susannah York , Coral Browne , Ronald Fraser , and Patricia Medina
Director: Robert Aldrich
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| Drama
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Beckley, William
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Browne, Coral
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Delevanti, Cyril
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Fraser, Ronald
| ( F )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Medina, Patricia
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Reid, Beryl
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
York, Susannah
| ( Y )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Aldrich, Robert
| ( A )
| Directors
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
( K )
| Titles
| Features
| DVD
| Video
Similar Items:
- The Children's Hour
- Marlene Dietrich - The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings)
- An Unmarried Woman
- Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition)
- The Innocents
ASIN: B000059RMT |
Amazon.com
"Sister George" of the title is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character--a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter--even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar), but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance, but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly--an inevitable sign of the times--but this acidic show biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews:
Still Wonderful.......2006-12-19
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE"
Still Wonderful
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
1968 seems so long ago and even stranger than that is the idea that a movie made about lesbians back then still holds its own today. When "The Killing of Sister George" hit the big screen back then, the public was not quite ready for it. Nonetheless, even with a lesbian plot, the reviews were good. Taboos were shattered on the screen when Beryl Reid played June, an actress and lesbian, portrayed a nun on a soap opera. Her world falls apart when it is decided that the nun must be killed off. As she searched for another job, she became abusive to her lover, Alice (Susannah York) and she begins a spiral of self-destruction. The film, at the time, was given an X rating because of its sultriness and frankness but time has made all of that look tame by the standards of today. Once controversial, the movie is still a reflection of the times and it was the first major Hollywood to show a lesbian who was at peace with herself.
Entertaining as the film is, there is a great deal more significance when we consider how brave the moviemaker was to have created a movie like this almost 40 years ago. It is cynical. Objectionable and a great deal of fun, it is landmark film because of both the subject matter and the bravura performance of Beryl Reid. Reid is a virtuoso and she holds the entire movie together. Her identification with the character she plays is simply miraculous to watch.
The film is much like a drawing room drama, small and tidy. The sets are interiors and the movie does not move from location to location. The choice of lesbian subject matter is a reflection of the director's, Robert Aldrich's, like for outsiders. It seems that the decision to make this movie was not based on eliciting sympathy for the lesbian life style but rather to create controversy. "The Killing" is entertaining and the dialogue is wonderful but this is not a sophisticated view of lesbianism--it was not until much later that Hollywood would come to regard us as people.
Even today, the movie maintains its relevance. It is a long film but it is never tiring and never boring. Emotions are held in tact until the gut-wrenching last scene of the film. If you like gritty, clever, slightly humorous drama, this is the movie to see.. Even if it is a bit dated these days, it should not be ignored in the canon of gay film.
The sex scene has been discussed over and over again. Its real value lay in the fact that it shows a power shift between the characters.
When the movie first appeared it was considered to be "ne plus ultra" in coarse homophobia but time has changed all of that. This is an important film because of the performances and the subject matter and anyone who wants to have a good handle on queer cinema must see "Sister George". There is one scene that was shocking then and is still somewhat shocking today and that is what happens in the Gateways Club, a notable lesbian bar.
In 1968 the film opened doors and it is still one of the great lesbian films and should not be missed.
Masterpiece.......2006-12-04
The Killing of Sister George (1968) is Robert Aldritch's masterpiece: one of the most harrowing films ever made on the subject of show business and masochistic relationships. Cynical yet painfully human, it is far superior to his much more well-known Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Beryl Reid, Susannah York & Coral Browne are magnificent and their performances pack an intense emotional wallop. The fact that the movie's principals are lesbians likely prevented people from appreciating the film for its immense merits. Beryl Reid stars as June Buckridge, an aging, overweight actress who plays Sister George, a beloved character on a hokey British soap opera about village life. Susannah York is Alice, or 'Childie' as George refers to her, George's younger, live-in lover who likes to play with dolls and act coy. Their complex, love-hate relationship provides the crux of the film, while George's career hitting the skids in conjunction with increasingly outrageous behavior and growing alcoholism moves the characters towards emotional and personal disaster. Coral Browne gives the performance of her career as Mrs. Croft, the BBC executive who vies for the affections of Childie over George. One particularly memorable scene showcases George & Childie attending a local lesbian bar as Laurel & Hardy, with Mrs. Croft coming over to deliver George the bad news that she has been removed from the show. The notorious sex scene between Childie and Mrs. Croft is both explicit and remarkably restrained and psychologically revealing. Note must also be made of Patricia Medina's sensitive performance as Betty Thaxter, the owner of a local house of prostitution and a personal confidante of George.
Sister George of the Jungle.......2006-07-07
Beryl Reed singlehandedly saves this movie. She manages to take a character that could have so easliy slid into camp caricature and make her an actual human being. At all times she projects the humanity in George, even when she is acting like a schreechy seven year old with ADD: boozing it up, being needlessly abusive to her girlfriend, huffily walking out on her TV show (even though she's in a precarious position on it). She's shrill, foolish, self-destructive and a bit mean, but Reed manages to make her also charming and sometimes even sweet.
Not that the ham-handed direction by Aldrich helps. We're presented with mega-closeups of Reed and especially Coral Browne that seem designed to make them look as bad as possible. Not that he does better by the heterosexuals in the cast: the people involved in her BBC program are presented little better than circus freaks, or predatory animals in the big bad TV jungle.
In some ways, the movie is hilariouly dated. We are treated to a long sequence in might have been an actual lesbian bar- which is presented as if it were the most shocking think in the world. It seems rather sweet, looking back at it 30-odd years later, and about as threatening as a high-school sock hop.
There is one sex scene that would most likely be rated light R today, other than that, this is an overlong TV movie. Worth seeing as a historical document to the time when merely the fact that Lesbians exist was enough to be "shocking"!
Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it.......2006-04-27
It's my own fault, I guess. I knew there was a provocative angle to "The Killing of Sister George," but because of the title I thought that in addition to the naughty stuff we'd be getting a murder mystery of some kind. So it all sounded good... a little mystery, a little sex, what more can one ask? Alas, there's no murder mystery: the title refers to Beryl Reid's actress character worrying about whether or not the "Sister George" character she plays on a TV drama is going to be killed off. Okay, but there was still the provocative stuff to save the day, right? Well, here things are sort of problematic, too. Anyway, here's the good and bad about this strange little drama.
GOOD: The movie only seems endless. It's actually a good bit shorter than the three hours it feels like (it clocks in at a shade under 2 hours and 20 minutes). That means that if you start the movie now, in three hours you can say to yourself, "Thank God, I'm already 40 minutes past the ordeal of that movie."
BAD: Beryl Reid's over-the-hill actress character is reprehensible and grating. This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a lesbian. It does have to do with the fact that she's abusive, whiny, and shrill. Uggh.
GOOD: Susannah York's character is likable, pretty, and interesting.
BAD: Susannah York's character is the only female character in this movie who is likable, pretty, and interesting. A quick aside on this topic: I swear, I'm sure that lesbian women don't like to be uniformally portrayed in the media as sultry model types, but I can't believe that they appreciate being uniformly portrayed in the opposite extreme, as they are here. For example, with the exception of maybe (maybe!) one or two quick walk-ons in the scene set in the lesbian bar, every woman in that long bar scene looks like a man. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, guys... no "The L Word" here.
GOOD: It's nice that the moralism is kept to a minimum and there was no need on the part of the film makers to have any of the lesbian characters commit suicide or meet some other type of major tragedy. Beryl Reid's character doesn't turn out too well in the end, but that's only because she's a creep, not a lesbian.
BAD: The movie betrays its roots on the stage, with several long, talky, stage-bound sequences. That sort of stuff may be fine to watch live, but in a movie some judicious trimming should have been performed. Many scenes are endless.
GOOD: There is one fairly hot and erotic seduction scene at the end of the movie, thankfully involving Susannah York's character.
BAD: You have to sit through the first two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie to get to it.
I guess that "The Killing of Sister George" must have seemed like pretty "adult", edgy stuff back in 1968, perhaps making people not mind as much that they had to sit through the many aspects of the movie that aren't very good: in the end, after all, they could say that they saw the movie that was the talk of the town. Now, alas, you'll likely tell yourself that you saw a whiny, talky, fairly dull movie that has one or two elements (Susannah York and the one sex scene at the end) that keep it from being a total headache-inducing experience.
To end on a polite note, the DVD features a clean, sharp widescreen image. There are no extras, however. Not one. But don't worry, after watching this you won't be seeking any extras out. Oh, well... so much for ending on a polite note.
Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?.......2005-08-30
"Shocking" backstage drama about a paranoid actress who, convinced her character (a nun-get the irony?) is being slowly "written out" of a hit TV show, takes out her frustrations by bullying her co-stars and her live-in lesbian lover. This film looks better on paper, but does contain enough clever verbal jousts to make it worth screening once (although the devoted cultists obviously see some value in repeated viewings). It better have a good script, because this one is definitely a talkfest, with each of its somewhat stagey scenes creeping along at 10 to 15 minutes apiece. Frankly, the ubiquitous glut of gay-themed movies and TV shows these days removes any "edginess" that this film may have had during its original, X-rated late-60's theatrical run. The lovely Susanna York (who plays George's younger lover) does have a pretty hot love scene, reminiscent of the infamous seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Caroll Baker in "Baby Doll"-where all you see is York's reactions to whatever er, "manipulations" are taking place (that part is left to the viewer's undoubtedly naughty imagination). Strong acting saves the film overall. I suspect "Absolutely Fabulous" took a little inspiration from the rampant, catty, booze-induced "bitchiness" that pervades throughout the film. It might surprise many to learn that "Sister George" was directed by the same man who delivered such iconic macho "guy movies" as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Too Late The Hero"-Robert Aldrich! MGM's 2005 DVD release has a decent transfer and "so-so" audio. No extras.
Average customer rating:
- Still Wonderful
- Masterpiece
- Sister George of the Jungle
- Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it
- Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?
|
The Killing of Sister George
Starring: Beryl Reid , Susannah York , Coral Browne , Ronald Fraser , and Patricia Medina
Director: Robert Aldrich
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape
Beckley, William
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Browne, Coral
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Delevanti, Cyril
| ( D )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Fraser, Ronald
| ( F )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Medina, Patricia
| Mead to Mezzogiorno
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Reid, Beryl
| ( R )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
York, Susannah
| ( Y )
| Actors & Actresses
| VHS
| Video
Aldrich, Robert
| ( A )
| Directors
| VHS
| Video
General
| Drama
| Genres
| VHS
| Video
Similar Items:
- The Children's Hour
- Marlene Dietrich - The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings)
- An Unmarried Woman
- Ryan's Daughter (Two-Disc Special Edition)
- The Innocents
ASIN: B000059MOD |
Amazon.com
"Sister George" of the title is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character--a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter--even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar), but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance, but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly--an inevitable sign of the times--but this acidic show biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews:
Still Wonderful.......2006-12-19
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE"
Still Wonderful
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
1968 seems so long ago and even stranger than that is the idea that a movie made about lesbians back then still holds its own today. When "The Killing of Sister George" hit the big screen back then, the public was not quite ready for it. Nonetheless, even with a lesbian plot, the reviews were good. Taboos were shattered on the screen when Beryl Reid played June, an actress and lesbian, portrayed a nun on a soap opera. Her world falls apart when it is decided that the nun must be killed off. As she searched for another job, she became abusive to her lover, Alice (Susannah York) and she begins a spiral of self-destruction. The film, at the time, was given an X rating because of its sultriness and frankness but time has made all of that look tame by the standards of today. Once controversial, the movie is still a reflection of the times and it was the first major Hollywood to show a lesbian who was at peace with herself.
Entertaining as the film is, there is a great deal more significance when we consider how brave the moviemaker was to have created a movie like this almost 40 years ago. It is cynical. Objectionable and a great deal of fun, it is landmark film because of both the subject matter and the bravura performance of Beryl Reid. Reid is a virtuoso and she holds the entire movie together. Her identification with the character she plays is simply miraculous to watch.
The film is much like a drawing room drama, small and tidy. The sets are interiors and the movie does not move from location to location. The choice of lesbian subject matter is a reflection of the director's, Robert Aldrich's, like for outsiders. It seems that the decision to make this movie was not based on eliciting sympathy for the lesbian life style but rather to create controversy. "The Killing" is entertaining and the dialogue is wonderful but this is not a sophisticated view of lesbianism--it was not until much later that Hollywood would come to regard us as people.
Even today, the movie maintains its relevance. It is a long film but it is never tiring and never boring. Emotions are held in tact until the gut-wrenching last scene of the film. If you like gritty, clever, slightly humorous drama, this is the movie to see.. Even if it is a bit dated these days, it should not be ignored in the canon of gay film.
The sex scene has been discussed over and over again. Its real value lay in the fact that it shows a power shift between the characters.
When the movie first appeared it was considered to be "ne plus ultra" in coarse homophobia but time has changed all of that. This is an important film because of the performances and the subject matter and anyone who wants to have a good handle on queer cinema must see "Sister George". There is one scene that was shocking then and is still somewhat shocking today and that is what happens in the Gateways Club, a notable lesbian bar.
In 1968 the film opened doors and it is still one of the great lesbian films and should not be missed.
Masterpiece.......2006-12-04
The Killing of Sister George (1968) is Robert Aldritch's masterpiece: one of the most harrowing films ever made on the subject of show business and masochistic relationships. Cynical yet painfully human, it is far superior to his much more well-known Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Beryl Reid, Susannah York & Coral Browne are magnificent and their performances pack an intense emotional wallop. The fact that the movie's principals are lesbians likely prevented people from appreciating the film for its immense merits. Beryl Reid stars as June Buckridge, an aging, overweight actress who plays Sister George, a beloved character on a hokey British soap opera about village life. Susannah York is Alice, or 'Childie' as George refers to her, George's younger, live-in lover who likes to play with dolls and act coy. Their complex, love-hate relationship provides the crux of the film, while George's career hitting the skids in conjunction with increasingly outrageous behavior and growing alcoholism moves the characters towards emotional and personal disaster. Coral Browne gives the performance of her career as Mrs. Croft, the BBC executive who vies for the affections of Childie over George. One particularly memorable scene showcases George & Childie attending a local lesbian bar as Laurel & Hardy, with Mrs. Croft coming over to deliver George the bad news that she has been removed from the show. The notorious sex scene between Childie and Mrs. Croft is both explicit and remarkably restrained and psychologically revealing. Note must also be made of Patricia Medina's sensitive performance as Betty Thaxter, the owner of a local house of prostitution and a personal confidante of George.
Sister George of the Jungle.......2006-07-07
Beryl Reed singlehandedly saves this movie. She manages to take a character that could have so easliy slid into camp caricature and make her an actual human being. At all times she projects the humanity in George, even when she is acting like a schreechy seven year old with ADD: boozing it up, being needlessly abusive to her girlfriend, huffily walking out on her TV show (even though she's in a precarious position on it). She's shrill, foolish, self-destructive and a bit mean, but Reed manages to make her also charming and sometimes even sweet.
Not that the ham-handed direction by Aldrich helps. We're presented with mega-closeups of Reed and especially Coral Browne that seem designed to make them look as bad as possible. Not that he does better by the heterosexuals in the cast: the people involved in her BBC program are presented little better than circus freaks, or predatory animals in the big bad TV jungle.
In some ways, the movie is hilariouly dated. We are treated to a long sequence in might have been an actual lesbian bar- which is presented as if it were the most shocking think in the world. It seems rather sweet, looking back at it 30-odd years later, and about as threatening as a high-school sock hop.
There is one sex scene that would most likely be rated light R today, other than that, this is an overlong TV movie. Worth seeing as a historical document to the time when merely the fact that Lesbians exist was enough to be "shocking"!
Watchable for Susannah York and a bit of the naughty at the end, but that's it.......2006-04-27
It's my own fault, I guess. I knew there was a provocative angle to "The Killing of Sister George," but because of the title I thought that in addition to the naughty stuff we'd be getting a murder mystery of some kind. So it all sounded good... a little mystery, a little sex, what more can one ask? Alas, there's no murder mystery: the title refers to Beryl Reid's actress character worrying about whether or not the "Sister George" character she plays on a TV drama is going to be killed off. Okay, but there was still the provocative stuff to save the day, right? Well, here things are sort of problematic, too. Anyway, here's the good and bad about this strange little drama.
GOOD: The movie only seems endless. It's actually a good bit shorter than the three hours it feels like (it clocks in at a shade under 2 hours and 20 minutes). That means that if you start the movie now, in three hours you can say to yourself, "Thank God, I'm already 40 minutes past the ordeal of that movie."
BAD: Beryl Reid's over-the-hill actress character is reprehensible and grating. This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she's a lesbian. It does have to do with the fact that she's abusive, whiny, and shrill. Uggh.
GOOD: Susannah York's character is likable, pretty, and interesting.
BAD: Susannah York's character is the only female character in this movie who is likable, pretty, and interesting. A quick aside on this topic: I swear, I'm sure that lesbian women don't like to be uniformally portrayed in the media as sultry model types, but I can't believe that they appreciate being uniformly portrayed in the opposite extreme, as they are here. For example, with the exception of maybe (maybe!) one or two quick walk-ons in the scene set in the lesbian bar, every woman in that long bar scene looks like a man. There's no other way to put it. Sorry, guys... no "The L Word" here.
GOOD: It's nice that the moralism is kept to a minimum and there was no need on the part of the film makers to have any of the lesbian characters commit suicide or meet some other type of major tragedy. Beryl Reid's character doesn't turn out too well in the end, but that's only because she's a creep, not a lesbian.
BAD: The movie betrays its roots on the stage, with several long, talky, stage-bound sequences. That sort of stuff may be fine to watch live, but in a movie some judicious trimming should have been performed. Many scenes are endless.
GOOD: There is one fairly hot and erotic seduction scene at the end of the movie, thankfully involving Susannah York's character.
BAD: You have to sit through the first two hours and fifteen minutes of the movie to get to it.
I guess that "The Killing of Sister George" must have seemed like pretty "adult", edgy stuff back in 1968, perhaps making people not mind as much that they had to sit through the many aspects of the movie that aren't very good: in the end, after all, they could say that they saw the movie that was the talk of the town. Now, alas, you'll likely tell yourself that you saw a whiny, talky, fairly dull movie that has one or two elements (Susannah York and the one sex scene at the end) that keep it from being a total headache-inducing experience.
To end on a polite note, the DVD features a clean, sharp widescreen image. There are no extras, however. Not one. But don't worry, after watching this you won't be seeking any extras out. Oh, well... so much for ending on a polite note.
Got 2 1/2 hours to kill?.......2005-08-30
"Shocking" backstage drama about a paranoid actress who, convinced her character (a nun-get the irony?) is being slowly "written out" of a hit TV show, takes out her frustrations by bullying her co-stars and her live-in lesbian lover. This film looks better on paper, but does contain enough clever verbal jousts to make it worth screening once (although the devoted cultists obviously see some value in repeated viewings). It better have a good script, because this one is definitely a talkfest, with each of its somewhat stagey scenes creeping along at 10 to 15 minutes apiece. Frankly, the ubiquitous glut of gay-themed movies and TV shows these days removes any "edginess" that this film may have had during its original, X-rated late-60's theatrical run. The lovely Susanna York (who plays George's younger lover) does have a pretty hot love scene, reminiscent of the infamous seduction scene between Eli Wallach and Caroll Baker in "Baby Doll"-where all you see is York's reactions to whatever er, "manipulations" are taking place (that part is left to the viewer's undoubtedly naughty imagination). Strong acting saves the film overall. I suspect "Absolutely Fabulous" took a little inspiration from the rampant, catty, booze-induced "bitchiness" that pervades throughout the film. It might surprise many to learn that "Sister George" was directed by the same man who delivered such iconic macho "guy movies" as "Kiss Me Deadly", "The Dirty Dozen" and "Too Late The Hero"-Robert Aldrich! MGM's 2005 DVD release has a decent transfer and "so-so" audio. No extras.
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