"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.
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.