DIRECTOR: Robert Aldrich

BOTTOM LINE:  FIRST LOOK INSIDE A LESBIAN BAR

Beryl Reid is marvelous as “George”. That’s not her name. It’s the name of the character she plays in a beloved long-running BBC series. She is in a lesbian relationship with the much younger Childie (Susannah York), and she thinks that she is about to get canned from the show. Enter Carol Browne as a BBC executive who also has the hots for Childie and George just cannot get a break.

Robert Aldrich does an excellent job here, just like he did with Bette and Joan in “Baby Jane”. There is a gratuitous and embarrassing seduction scene that should have been left on the cutting-room floor but, the relationship between George and Childie seems exactly right, and Browne is also very believable as the uber-predatory suit who holds all the cards. “The Killing of Sister George” follows in the footsteps of “Advice and Consent” six years before, only this time, it’s a lesbian bar.

POST TITLE: Twenty-Seven Queer Films 1967-1976. Queer Cinema Comes Out.

CATEGORY: My Favorites

SUBCATEGORY: Queer Film

STREAMING: Kino Lorber