Hard to believe that Robert Aldrich directed both Sister George AND the Lee Marvin WW2 action movie Dirty Dozen within two years of each other: the juxtaposition is quite an eye-opener and no mistake.
However, to his credit Aldrich does a relatively good job handling a very hot & controversial topic (for its time) of lesbian relationships in 60s London.
Beryl Reid (Sister George), continues from her stage play adaption with great aplomb. She plays a middle aged radio-play actress for the BBC only to find that her character is to be killed off after many years service.
George has a live-in lover, played by a very young Suzanna York, to whom I felt was a poor choice because I really can't imagine someone as young as York wanting to be a lesbian lover to someone who could be mistaken for her own mother. Perhaps I'm being cynical but I suspect York was chosen with one eye on her astonishingly elfin good looks and the other eye on potential box office takings.
Anyway, York has to suffer the physical & verbal abuse from a frustrated, bitter & twisted George now that she realizes she can no longer get any decent work in these changing times of fashion & sex appeal. George eventually becomes so paranoid that she believes York is having an affair with another woman which only adds to her defragmented middle-aged life!
The story, although controversial for its time, is quite gentle, and would probably pass into a typical soap opera these days without a whimper of protest, such are the changing times & political attitudes to gayness. But back then taboo subjects such as homosexuality & lesbianism was a positive no no as far as Hollywood was concerned.
The story is very well handled, and tries not to fall prey to cheap exploitation. But the love scene between York and Corale Brown, although cleverly done, is perhaps a little graphic - one wonders why Aldrich had to be so detailed & time-consumed with this particular scene. A lesbian act is a lesbian act, it really doesn't warrant so much time going over every detail of sexual foreplay as portrayed here. Again, in my cynical mind, I suspect such controversial titilation had more to do with box office than any serious indictment of the subject matter in question.
All in all, Sister George is a very warm & caring movie, the characters are firmly cliched into a typical English Country Cottage lifestyle where everything is tea, cakes & roses. Reid & Brown are both excellent and York does her best with a difficult character.
I feel the movie would have been taken on its merits at a critical level had it not being for the rather tacky love scene, but generally it offers an interesting study into how such a taboo subject was handled during a time of massive social change during the so-called Swinging 60s, which didn't quite swing far enough to include the homosexual community.
***/*****
However, to his credit Aldrich does a relatively good job handling a very hot & controversial topic (for its time) of lesbian relationships in 60s London.
Beryl Reid (Sister George), continues from her stage play adaption with great aplomb. She plays a middle aged radio-play actress for the BBC only to find that her character is to be killed off after many years service.
George has a live-in lover, played by a very young Suzanna York, to whom I felt was a poor choice because I really can't imagine someone as young as York wanting to be a lesbian lover to someone who could be mistaken for her own mother. Perhaps I'm being cynical but I suspect York was chosen with one eye on her astonishingly elfin good looks and the other eye on potential box office takings.
Anyway, York has to suffer the physical & verbal abuse from a frustrated, bitter & twisted George now that she realizes she can no longer get any decent work in these changing times of fashion & sex appeal. George eventually becomes so paranoid that she believes York is having an affair with another woman which only adds to her defragmented middle-aged life!
The story, although controversial for its time, is quite gentle, and would probably pass into a typical soap opera these days without a whimper of protest, such are the changing times & political attitudes to gayness. But back then taboo subjects such as homosexuality & lesbianism was a positive no no as far as Hollywood was concerned.
The story is very well handled, and tries not to fall prey to cheap exploitation. But the love scene between York and Corale Brown, although cleverly done, is perhaps a little graphic - one wonders why Aldrich had to be so detailed & time-consumed with this particular scene. A lesbian act is a lesbian act, it really doesn't warrant so much time going over every detail of sexual foreplay as portrayed here. Again, in my cynical mind, I suspect such controversial titilation had more to do with box office than any serious indictment of the subject matter in question.
All in all, Sister George is a very warm & caring movie, the characters are firmly cliched into a typical English Country Cottage lifestyle where everything is tea, cakes & roses. Reid & Brown are both excellent and York does her best with a difficult character.
I feel the movie would have been taken on its merits at a critical level had it not being for the rather tacky love scene, but generally it offers an interesting study into how such a taboo subject was handled during a time of massive social change during the so-called Swinging 60s, which didn't quite swing far enough to include the homosexual community.
***/*****