University of Virginia Library

Sister George - Vicarious
Glimpse Of Eroticism

"The Killing of Sister George:" starring
Beryl Reid, Susannah York, and Coral
Browne; music by Gerald Fried; from the
play by Frank Marcus; screenplay by Lukas
Heller; produced and directed by Robert
Aldrich. Now playing at the Paramount
Theater.

By Stefan Lopatkiewicz

In its advance publicity, it had been
billed as a sensational and shocking, frank
study of female homosexuality. In truth,
"The Killing of Sister George" is more the
story of the downfall of a woman who also
happens to be a lesbian.

The Sister George of the title is a
matronly, goody-two-shoes stereotype, the
resident of a saccharine soap-opera community.
Ironically enough, the popularity of
the figure with the daytime, television
audience is projected by June Buckridge,
the frumpy, hard-shelled deviate on whom
the film centers.

Miss Buckridge, however, hints at a
softer aspect of her personality by revealing,
in some of her less sober moments, a
genuine empathy with her videotape alter-ego.
When - BBC decides to kill off the
character, in fact, she takes it as a
death-blow to herself.

In early scenes, the film suggests it will
attempt to depict the misunderstood humanness
of the lesbian world when Miss
Buckridge, temporarily slipping into her
Sister George altruism, laments the lack of
kindness in the real world. In the end,
however, the movie fails to come to grips
with this problem.

Instead, June Buckridge, excellently
portrayed by Beryl Reid, does anything but
endear herself as she lunges from scene to
scene in a half-drunken stupor, orally, and
sometimes physically, attacking everyone
from her colleagues at work to her
weak-willed flat- (and bed-) mate with a
withering tirade of four-lettered vituperatives.
It is Miss Reid's performance as the
flame-breathing, cigar-chomping dyke which
is the high point of the movie.

Susannah York also does a fine job in her
role of Miss Buckridge's not-so-flat flatmate.
Vacillating between enticing femininity
and naive boyishness, Miss York's role
of the passive lesbian, Alice McNaught, who
is pitifully dependent in spirit on her more
masculine fellow resident, is the most
interesting and sympathetic character of the
story.

Try Harder

The perverse triangle is completed by the
elegant Mrs. Mercy Croft, well portrayed by
Coral Browne, who informs Miss Buckridge
of her sacking and goes on to steal little
Alice for her own bed-time romps. In a
much-discussed episode, she explores Miss
York's physical charms before the perspiring
lens of the camera, convincing her that she
will try harder as her new roommate:

"Sister George" may have succeeded
more fully had it stuck to the job of
exploring in greater depth the sorrow of the
half-world of the lesbian. Instead, it
becomes tedious, although it has its share of
sparkling moments, in its narration of Miss
Buckridge's struggle to save her sinking
television career. And in the end, the
woman falls not because of her sexual
troubles, but because she is, in the words of
Mrs. Croft, "a dreary, inebriated old bag."
The film is not only too long, but its high
level of foul-mouthed shrieking becomes
wearying.

If you are up for a vicarious glimpse of
lesbian eroticism, or if you have a long
evening which you are willing to spend on
diluted entertainment, "Sister George" will
be worth your while.