THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE

'''The Killing of Sister George''' is a play by Frank Marcus.
Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series ''Applehurst'', a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers. She is portrayed by June Buckridge, who in real life is a gin-guzzling, cigar-chomping, slightly sadistic lesbian, the antithesis of the sweet character she plays. June lives with Alice "Childie" McNaught, a considerably younger dim-witted woman she often verbally and sometimes physically abuses. When June discovers her character is scheduled to be killed, she becomes increasingly impossible to work and live with. Mercy Croft, an executive at the radio station, intercedes in her professional and personal lives supposedly to help, but she actually has an agenda of her own.
The 1964 West End production starred Beryl Reid as June. Two years later she reprised the role on Broadway in a production directed by Val May at the Belasco Theatre. It opened on October 5, 1966 after 7 previews and ran for 205 performances. The cast also included Eileen Atkins as Alice and Lally Bowers as Mercy. Beryl Reid won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and the play and Eileen Atkins received nominations.

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Film version

See also

External link

Film version

Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay for the 1968 feature film version directed by Robert Aldrich. Beryl Reid was cast as June (both Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury were considered for the role), with Susannah York as Alice and Coral Browne as Mercy. In the movie ''Applehurst'' became a television soap opera, and the lesbian aspects of the plot are much more explicit. The film added many characters and shot many scenes on location, including one in a real-life London lesbian hangout, the Gateways Club. Alice is portrayed as childishly naive rather than dim-witted, and June is more of an alcoholic, and in one scene while under the influence she molests two novice nuns in a taxi, behavior that precipitates the beginning of the end for Sister George.
Between the time the movie started filming and ended production, the movie industry instituted the new MPAA ratings system. Largely on the basis of a graphic sex scene involving Alice and Mercy, ''Sister George'' received an X rating, which limited its exposure in theatres and ability to advertise in mainstream newspapers. Aldrich spent $75,000 battling the rating, but his lawsuit was dismissed, and the film died at the box office.
Beryl Reid was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress (Drama). The film is available on DVD. Rarely seen on television, it was broadcast uncut by Turner Classic Movies as part of its June 2007 salute to gay cinema.

See also

List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender-related films by storyline

External link

★ IBDb entry

★ IMDb entry

★ TCM film history