The Killing of Sister George

June Buckridge (Beryl Reid) is the audience favorite on the British TV soap "Applehurst", yet she is the polar opposite of her prim and proper TV character, Sister George: She smokes cigars, drinks heavily, causes a stir with her brazen manner, and is in a butch-and-femme relationship with the much younger “Childie” (Susannah York), which catches the eye of a powerful BBC producer (Coral Browne). Aldrich’s first production for his own studio sparked controversy with its open portrayal of a lesbian relationship. The mainstream press and parts of the (pre-)LGBTQ+ movement rejected the tragicomedy, while others hailed it as a pioneering work—not least for the authentic scenes set in the legendary London lesbian nightclub Gateways. What was overlooked was what Aldrich considered his “perhaps best directorial work”: the multifaceted portrait of a defiant outsider in a hostile world of corrupt “normality.” (C.H.)