to show she will not return. Left alone, June wanders onto the deserted Applehurst set, destroying equipment and props and uttering "moo" like a cow. Cast Adaptation and production Robert Aldrich bought the screen rights to the play in April 1967. Lukas Heller wrote the screenplay for the 1968 feature film based on the 1964 play of the same name by Frank Marcus. Although Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury were both offered the role of June "George" Buckridge, the filmmakers ultimately cast Beryl Reid, who had played the part in the original cast production. Aldrich says he met with Davis. "We were supposed to be discussing the part but what I was really trying to decide if we could work together again," he said. "The outcome was doubtful." In the movie, Applehurst was changed from a radio programme to a television soap opera, and the lesbian themes of the story were made more explicit, most notably by adding the sex scene between Alice and Mrs. Croft that is not in the stage play. In a televised documentary broadcast at Christmas 1990 on UK Channel 4, entitled Caviar To the General, Coral Browne described filming the scene and her apprehension at doing so, but trusted Aldrich who explained she would never be undressed for the scene. Browne revealed that Susannah York was deeply upset about the scene and was eating grapes in between takes to stop herself from being physically sick. In the end, Aldrich decided to film both actors separately "making love to the camera" rather than each other. A number of scenes were filmed on location in London. The opening sequence shows June drinking at The Holly Bush public house, before wandering through the streets and alleyways of Hampstead west of Heath Street, and emerging at Hammersmith Bridge. The nightclub party sequence was filmed at the Gateways Club, a real-life lesbian nightclub then located in Chelsea. The Killing of Sister George was the first film to portray the interior of a lesbian nightclub. The exterior scenes outside June's and her neighbour's flats were filmed in Knightsbridge. Release Between the time The Killing of Sister George started filming and ended production, the United States movie industry instituted the new MPAA film rating system. Largely on the basis of the graphic sex scene between Alice and Mrs. Croft, The Killing of Sister George received an X rating, which limited its screening