The Killing of Sister George [Blu-ray]

Overview

A year after helming The Dirty Dozen, director Robert Aldrich took on this controversial drama based on the play of the same name by Frank Marcus. Beryl Reid stars as soap opera star June, an alcoholic lesbian who spends most of her time with her younger lover, Alice (Susannah York). When vindictive television executive Mercy Croft (Coral Browne) takes a liking to Alice, she arranges to have June's character, Sister George, killed off the show. Drunk and paranoid, June struggles to keep it together or risk losing Alice. Because of its exploration of a subject as taboo as homosexuality, The Killing of Sister George earned an X rating.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/27/2018
UPC:	0738329230029
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	2:20:00
Sales rank:	16,448

Special Features

Audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger; Audio commentary with film historian David Del Valle and actor/filmmaker Michael Varrati; Interview with lighting/camera operator Brian West; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Beryl Reid	June 'George' Buckridge
Susannah York	Alice 'Childie' McNaught
Coral Browne	Mercy Croft
Ronald Fraser	Leo Lockhart
Patricia Medina	Betty Thaxter
Hugh Paddick	Freddie
Cyril Delevanti	Ted Baker
Cyril Elaine Church	Actor
Sivi Aberg	Diana
William Beckley	Floor Manager
Elaine Church	Marelen
Brendan Dillon	Bert Turner
Jack Raine	Deputy Commissioner
Meier Tzelniker	Mr. Katz
Cicely Walper	Mrs. Coote
Byron Webster	Jack Adams
Gerald Fried	Composer

Technical Credits

Lukas Heller

Robert Aldrich	Director,Producer
Lukas Heller	Screenwriter
Edgar Scherick	Executive Producer
Lynn Stalmaster	Casting
Dean Hodges	Sound/Sound Designer
Dick Church	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

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.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler