Focus Features

On March 11, 1969, the 72-year-old Boston Municipal Court judge Elijah Adlow ruled that the Robert Aldrich film, The Killing of Sister George, was obscene. And as such he sentenced the theater manager to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000. Judge Adlow later explained that  "filth is not an indispensable item in the narrative of life." He added, “This would be a great world if people would only observe certain amenities…Those hippies, or hoppies, or whatever, miss the whole point of culture––to give everyone peace, quiet, and the right to enjoy life." While the sentence was a shock––and was immediately appealed by the owner of the Cheri movie theater––the movie’s potential for controversy was never in doubt. Adapted from a successful 1964 West End play by Frank Marcus, the big screen version made the drama's insinuation of lesbianism very real. In the film, Beryl Reid plays June, a cigar-smoking, abusive alcoholic actor who’s just lost her job as Sister George, a saintly nun on a popular soap opera. But even worse, the TV exec Mercy Croft (Coral Browne), who “killed” the soap opera, is making the moves on Alice (Susannah York), June’s live-in lover. When Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay, director Robert Aldrich pushed him to add a final scene that portrays an explicit seduction. As such, the film received an “X” rating by the newly organized MPAA rating system. While Aldrich spent $75,000 to fight the rating, many saw his insistence on this scene as purely mercenary and prurient. In The New York Times, Renata Adler jabbed, “It is the longest most unerotic, cash-conscious scene between a person and a breast there has ever been on screen, and outside a surgeon's office.”

On March 11, 1969, the 72-year-old Boston Municipal Court judge Elijah Adlow ruled that the Robert Aldrich film, The Killing of Sister George, was obscene. And as such he sentenced the theater manager to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000. Judge Adlow later explained that  "filth is not an indispensable item in the narrative of life." He added, “This would be a great world if people would only observe certain amenities…Those hippies, or hoppies, or whatever, miss the whole point of culture––to give everyone peace, quiet, and the right to enjoy life." While the sentence was a shock––and was immediately appealed by the owner of the Cheri movie theater––the movie’s potential for controversy was never in doubt. Adapted from a successful 1964 West End play by Frank Marcus, the big screen version made the drama's insinuation of lesbianism very real. In the film, Beryl Reid plays June, a cigar-smoking, abusive alcoholic actor who’s just lost her job as Sister George, a saintly nun on a popular soap opera. But even worse, the TV exec Mercy Croft (Coral Browne), who “killed” the soap opera, is making the moves on Alice (Susannah York), June’s live-in lover. When Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay, director Robert Aldrich pushed him to add a final scene that portrays an explicit seduction. As such, the film received an “X” rating by the newly organized MPAA rating system. While Aldrich spent $75,000 to fight the rating, many saw his insistence on this scene as purely mercenary and prurient. In The New York Times, Renata Adler jabbed, “It is the longest most unerotic, cash-conscious scene between a person and a breast there has ever been on screen, and outside a surgeon's office.”