A Lenda de Lylah Clare

On the surface - a once great and prolific director (Peter Finch) hasn't directed a film in 20 years, ever since his movie star wife died on their wedding day. He decides to get back in the game with a film about his late wife's life when he meets an aspiring actress (Kim Novak) who looks just like her. And no this is not Vertigo, though that word plays into things. And Ellen Corby shows up as a script "girl" in a bit part, and she was also in Vertigo. But James Stewart is definitely not here as this thing veers into David Lynch territory.

Director Aldrich quite deliberately peppers the first third with just enough intriguing moments and plot questions to make it just compelling enough that the viewer will be lured into sticking with it. Then a sort of Stockholm Syndrome sets in, where you know you should turn it off, but you just can't.

Then in the last two thirds, he throws enough crazy, off-the-wall stuff at you, that- in the grand tradition of M. Night Shyamalan- the viewer cannot walk away because you just can't believe that the film is this bad. You keep hanging in there because all of your principles are being challenged. You think they simply can't be going with this story, these performances, this dialogue - it must get better. But it just gets wilder and weirder and with a cast that was in demand at the time. Why did these stars agree to do this? And why is every actress in the film like Natasha from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle show doing a bad Greta Garbo imitation?

And then you end up watching the whole movie because you just want to see how they have the pure, unmitigated gall to end it....and also because there's a slight chance that there's information tacked on after the closing credits regarding how you can become a party in a class-action lawsuit aimed at the people who made it.

But no, the end just makes you realize that a doggie door is a potentially dangerous thing. So in the tradition of 1990's Night Killer, don't watch this looking for a good movie. Watch this for one that from beginning to end is completely messed up but is not boring.

THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE looks initially like some sort of camp classic. Don't expect a companion piece to VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, however. Kim Novak plays a mousy aspiring actress picked to portray Lylah Clare, a Marlene Dietrich/Greta Garbo-type screen goddess from Hollywood's golden era who died tragically 30 years before, in a screen version of her life. Under the tutelage of Peter Finch, Lylah's director and husband, Novak is transformed physically and psychologically into the screen star. Along the way, we're treated to three different versions of Lylah's death(kitschy flashbacks in watery black and white framed with lurid red borders, with Novak's close-up in the corner of the screen), a great bitch-out scene between Novak as Lylah and a crippled gossip-columnist hag based on Louella Parsons, a lesbian drama coach, and Novak spouting dubbed, throaty, German-accented dialogue. The make-up job on Novak to make her look like Lylah really doesn't reflect 1930s movie glamour; with her teased and bleached bob, frosted pink lips, and inch-thick eyeliner, she looks more like Dusty Springfield than Jean Harlow. Despite all this, the film isn't some out-of-control camp fest. Really. No scenery chomping, bad dubbed singing sequences, emotional breakdowns, down-and-dirty catfights, or the like. The only fault with a performance might be with Novak during her fits when she impersonates Lylah, throwing her head back to laugh maniacally in that throaty, faux-Garbo accent. Still, its the only real fault in an otherwise competent film. Aldrich is hardly subtle with his digs at the Hollywood system and corruption, but they come out during the course of his characters' conversations and aren't sensationalized. Too many good performances and sympathetic characters to keep it from being an all-out guilty pleasure, but still engaging

I think the word to describe it is "unbelievable". Peter Finch is in it, an actor known for being rather picky. He was to win an Oscar for "Network" I wonder what this movie looked on paper. Robert Aldrich won his dues with films like "Attack", "The Big Knife" even "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" another camp fest but with a brain and a real intention. Here, everything is in top gear without ever really moving. In short, a mystery. Poor Kim Novak. Even her make-up doesn't make any sense. Pale lips. It's pointless for me to go on, you have to see it. I had the chance, thanks to Turner Classic Movies. Kim Novak's character seems to be possessed by the spirit of Lylah Clare, the doomed star she's suppose to to play in a preposterous movie about her life. When she is under the influence of the spirit, she laughs and talks with the grave tones of a hybrid, part Lotte Lenya part Mercedes MacCambridge. Outrageous! Peter Finch playing the director and one of the former Lylah's lovers creates a monster without nuances. His debate with the studio head, played loudly by Ernest Borgnine, about films vs movies seems to be Aldrich's major preoccupation. Valentina Cortese's costume designer is a very brief delight, Rosella Falk's lesbian is in unintentional hoot but the prize goes to Coral Browne, playing a columnist as if she were Catherine The Great and with a wooden leg. I swear I'm not joking. As yo may very well suspect, I think this is one of the worst films I've ever seen and yes, I had a lot of fun. That's why a 5 out of 10 seem fair to me.

I just caught this yesterday, home with the flu. It certainly reminded me of Vertigo. Kim Novak takes someone's breath away because she reminds someone mysteriously of Lylah. Kim agrees to take the lead in a movie about Lylah. She is then made into Lylah's image -- recorded for all time in a painting. The difference from Vertigo: in Vertigo you eventually find out Kim is acting in a con; in this movie, the viewer is left to wonder if Lylah's ghost is taking over Kim. In Vertigo, the lead male suffers from vertigo; in this movie, Kim Novak suffers from Vertigo.

When Kim's voice becomes Lylah, it's laughable. The whole movie is so bad, it's almost good.

Kim Novak was a real Movie Star with hits such as "Picnic" "Pal Joey" "Bell Book and Candle" "Man With The Golden Arm" " Middle Of The Night", "Strangers When We Meet" and Alfred Hitchcok's masterpiece "Vertigo". After leaving Columbia Kim was offered and passed on "Breakfast At Tiffany's", "Days Of Wine and Roses", "The Hustler" and one that was created especially for her "The Sandpiper" Kim Novak made a few films in a row: "Boys Night Out" at MGM with James Garner, Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me Stupid" with Dean Martin at UA, the very fine remake of "Of Human Bondage" at MGM and Terence Young's frisky "Moll Flanders" at Paramount and was filming "Day of the Arrow" with David Niven for MGM and Filmways and fell of a horse, was injured, and had to leave that picture. Kim Novak then off the screen for 3 years in the mid-60'searching for a great return project thought she found one in a major MGM production as star and title character in "The Legend of Lylah Clare" directed by Robert Aldrich who had just had a sensational hit in MGM's "The Dirty Dozen". The combination of Robert Adrich, the gloss of an MGM super production, and the box office bonanza known as Kim Novak and a superb cast should have produced a major hit movie which sadly was a major failure.

Kim Novak headlines a great cast of two Oscar winners Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine and they are given great support by Coral Browne, George Kennedy, Valentina Cortese, etc. The first part of the movie is fine, very fine. "The Legend of Lylah Clare" falls apart at the end and believe Robert Aldrich dubbed Kim Novak in some of the latter scenes-against her knowledge- (how could this happen to a major star?) and the film ends weirdly with a dog commercial to this day mystifies me.

Kim Novak astoundingly beautiful and as one reviewer noted 'was as close to perfection in the looks department' and gowned by a great costumer Renie Conley gave it her all and is very fine in this film. Robert Aldrich who knew the Hollywood scene and had a great hit at WB in"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" fails here. (Aldrich would go on to make a worse movie than this if possible in "The Choirboys" which one sees wide eyed in astonishment on what Aldrich puts on the screen!)

"Legend of Lylah Clare" was supposed to be a great return project for Kim Novak and ended up being Kim Novak's finale as a superstar of the first rank.