Watch The Killing of Sister George For Free

Awesome Movie

Absolutely brilliant

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

"Sister George" turns out to be an unpleasant person to spend 2 1/2 hours with. She's loud and obnoxious, with a hair-trigger temper, and is prone to throwing screaming tantrums over even trivial matters; one wonders how she managed to keep her job as long as she did. This doesn't help the movie, which as a whole is big and broad and overstated; there's a slapstick quality to even the dramatic moments. The dialogue is fatuous and artless; people shout and argue a lot but no one really says anything. I'm no film student, but even the direction seemed bad. As if the words weren't obvious enough, there are lots of lingering close-ups of the actors giving exaggerated facial reactions to slam home the idea of what they're supposed to be feeling. There's a scene in a very small, very crowded lesbian club, and the way the camera weaves through the crowd, showing various same-sex couples slow-dancing, is supposed to be shocking and salacious, but only comes off as rather clumsy. Most of the subtlety in the film is reserved for the glimpses we get of "Applehurst", a gentle soap opera (parody) on which "Sister George" is a featured character. I've read that the author of the play from which the movie is taken has said that it wasn't supposed to be a serious study of lesbianism, and that's good, because it isn't. The relationship between Beryl Reid and Susannah York is distasteful: verbally and psychologically abusive with hints of sado-masochism. The film reinforces those awful stereotypes of older, butch lesbians preying on younger, more feminine women.One of the few elements of the movie that kept me watching was Coral Browne. She made an interesting contrast with Beryl Reid; Browne is actually more mannish-looking than Reid, with a large, strong face, but this is offset by her elegant style of dress and manner. Whereas Reid is all bombast and outwardly-exploding emotion, Browne's character is controlled and well-spoken, exuding an icy, almost reptilian vibe. Her sex scene with York is the movie's apex of unintentional humor, though; the faces she makes as she's bringing York to climax had me rolling.I would say the film's chief merit is as a curio of its time, and the then rarity of the subject matter with which it deals, however ridiculously.

A supremely entertaining film I thought, WAY ahead of it's time for the content and theme. The 'showdown' scene between 'Sister George' (Reid) and 'Mercy Croft'(Browne) was excruciatingly funny! a two way band of vitriolic hatred-the dialogue was bitchy and vitriolic in the extreme, overall an excellent movie that contains pathos/paranoia/jealousy/mind-games/spite and vast amounts of HUMOUR!! The fashions and locations are very 'period' of the time-Late sixties. A very good script that never let's you down-you almost can't wait for the next injurious insult/put-down to be heard-I truly believe the way those sentences were constructed were very over the top, but somehow very real and true to life - even now.

This movie is a heck of a lot more relevant than more recent films dealing with lesbianism -- the shallow, lame DESERT HEARTS comes to mind. Though over two hours long, TKOSG held me with little effort. The action moved freely from the studio to the apartment to the pub. And the seduction scene was totally erotic and ... well ... never mind. Was this particular scene overly long? Only to a generation raised on sex scenes which rarely last as long as it takes to cook a three-minute egg. Explicit? Grow up!And the performances ... wow! I had no problem with the hold George had over Childie, with Beryl Reid's superior portrayal complemented perfectly by Susannah York's fragile and, at the same time, forceful Childie. I must admit, York was a bit over the top in the beginning, but I wouldn't say that if I didn't count her as one of my all-time favorite actresses. And how about Coral Browne -- she was sensational! Sublty menacing, eerily sensuous -- and when I realized this was the same woman from AUNTIE MAME and LYLA CLARE, well, I nearly fell off my chair. I love this lady!

I never saw Reid on stage, but I saw a production by a local amateur groupwhich was much, much better than this film version. The director doesn'tunderstand the timing of the very British irony, wit, bitchiness and waspishness, and consequently the actresses flounder and the camera doesn't frame themright. Reid and York's flat should look sinister, with its mounds of dolls and grown woman in a babydoll nightie in the daytime, but these details are justTHERE. Imagine what a British noir director (Rober Hamer?) would have donewith them. York is lovely, but her voice is wrong, wrong, wrong. She shouldhave a whiny, slightly Cockney accent. She sounds like a debutantecomplaining that her icecream has gone runny. As for Reid, she is too cuddlyand lovable for the part. It would be fun to make this film again. xxxxx