The Killing of Sister George : the Gateways club

[gogeddit11]

I am one of the Mission Belles. We hated the chipmunk voices they dubbed on. We sounded nothing like that! I added our sound to the clip on utube killinggeorge.mp4 We actually had a record on Decca called 'when a girl really loves you' which probably have gone down well with the girls at the time. We were so ignorant that we tried to disassociate ourselves from the film when we realised what it was about!!! dur!

[littleediesleotard]

@gogeddit11 Very interesting! I'm going to check out that other clip.

cheers,

Madeleine

[BlondeBardie]

What this was a real club?.

[littleediesleotard]

@BlondeBardie if your Google is broken click on "more info" under the video.

[tessey119]

Gina is sitting on the door but usually she sat next to the bar, watching the bar staff incase they stole 50p from the till. Smithy was an old timer and there are a lot of regulars in the film.

The Chelsea residents used to complain at closing time about the roar of motorbike engines and the fights.... lesbians bars... what fun!

[hebneh]

Lesbians a-go-go!

I've never seen this movie (or this scene) but at the time, this was yet another groundbreaking moment in films, with actual lesbians appearing in a major motion picture. This would've been too graphic and real to have been a Hollywood movie at the time.

[LushBudget]

RIP dear sweet and pretty Susannah York. This was the bar Dusty Springfield frequented, and yes the extras were real bar patrons at the time. What a delicious piece of history, the gay communities stories need to be told like anyone else's, and this was one of the first...an awesome movie. Beryl Reid, Susannah York and Coral Browne are all just so wonderful in this.

[c0llid0r]

@LushBudget totally agree...rip dusty, susannah, coral and beryl...never see their likes again..x

[kennysyt]

RIP Susannah York :-(

[djoldtimer1]

I used to be the d.j. in the burnell arms , and worked with them for a couple of years ,

and we used to have a lot of laughs . they were a great band and very friendly group of ladys . It was a shame they never got a record deal as they would have got to number 1 with any record they sang . I miss working with them .

[maclasch]

This is awesome - I'm betting those dancing extras are just regular patrons of the club. It's neat to get a glimpse at some real lesbians of the day. They look a little scared, yet some so proud. This scene is truly groundbreaking.

[cal0815]

@nasilemak2008 They were hidden back then. There's been gays and lesbian throughout human history.

[littleediesleotard]

@cal0815

I'd assumed she or he was being sarcastic, but I refer you both to Philip Larkin's poem "Annus Mirabilis" . . .

[paleastrinalover]

@cal0815 Oh? Really? Where did they congregate?

[SueSnell]

Mercy Croft! I fell in love with Coral Browne because of this film. And that chick band is simply awesome.

[littleediesleotard]

Coral Brown is great in it. I've been meaning to read her biography for a while now. It's called This Effing Lady. (Tried to link to a review of it but YouTube won't let me . . .).

[SueSnell]

I collect old star autobiographies - is it a bio or autobio? I'll have to look either way. She's the best - The Ruling Class was the first time I saw her on film. Terrific performance there, too, but nothing beats the Crofter!

[littleediesleotard]

It's a bio. I just saw The Ruling Class a few months ago. I should probably see it again because I put it on late at night and was dozing off for much of it . . . it was already like an ultra-strange dream to begin with!

[renee2461]

In answer to littleediesleotard, the band were called the Mission Belles from East Ham. They were 3 sisters and 1 sister-in-law. They were playing still up to the nineties( more or less), I never went to Gateways but played drums with them when Laurie their drummer was having a baby. They helped me out a lot.

[littleediesleotard]

That's great, thanks for the info Renee! I have been wondering about this for a long time and it's very cool to hear from you.

Are you still playing drums?

[charleechox]

They're my aunties :O)

Their brother John used to play piano around the pubs in East Ham :O)

[littleediesleotard]

Cool aunties are the best, aren't they!

[krakenwave]

Smithie the bartender first came to the Gates while stationed at the USAAF base in South Ruislip in the 50s. Gina later offered her a job and she stayed - after a sham marriage got her residency etc.

[jlewis31510]

Brings back memories. I saw this film when it opened and I lived in St. Pete, Fla, back in 1968. I think I was the only man in the audience. It was a good film and was one of the first I ever bought on DVD.

[sussexking]

la la la la la la la la la la la la.... i dont think that music will catch on.... Smithy the bar 'girl' went down in history and she died only a few years ago i think. She was not an actress, just working behind the bar during the making of this film...

Love the film ... Hammersmith Bridge at the beginning (near my home) only makes it earn a special place in my heart.

I also wish Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders had paroied it too

[littleediesleotard]

I have been wondering who the band was and what they were up to after this . . . la la la-ing for Japanese cartoons, maybe?

We haven't got French and Saunders in the US but it looks like this would be perfect for them!

[sussexking]

LOL @ Susanna York 2.06 PMSL

In spite of the negative aspects of this film, I laughed so much at this scene, the terrible voice overs after the horrendous laurel and hardy dance routine, and the awful looking lesbos... This is what the 60s was all about i guess tho in some areas they still look like this.

It  takes me back and it goes down as one of my top 5 favourite films of all time.

[littleediesleotard]

A note regarding embedding this video: I can see in my youtube account insight that someone has embedded this video in various craigslist ads. I don't want to disable embedding because if anyone wants to post this video on their blog or whatever for noncommercial use that's fine with me; I just want to clarify I have no connection to any commercial use of it, and no connection to any craigslist use of it. Please don't use it to try to sell anyone anything!

[MystyMary]

they both chose to be nasty to each other instead of understanding. How sad.

[littleediesleotard]

It is terribly sad but there are some very funny moments in the film too, such as the "flawed, credible cow" line. It's quite a complicated mess in that way. Which is interesting in its own ways, and then there's this quasi-documentary Gateways club scene in the middle of it all. Very mixed bag!

[BeatleboyOZ]

weird film

[littleediesleotard]

Yeah, it is. And uncomfortable to watch at moments because everything in the main character's life is going to shit!