Le démon des femmes

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

Well yes, it's compelling viewing in spite of, everything. So overwrought it's jarring and at the center of it all, Kim Novak. The swan of Picnic. James Stewart's obsession in Vertigo. She appears in The Legend Of Lylah Clare, but she's not really in it. Distant, cold, awkward. Pale, almost white lipstick. She has a death scene for goodness sake! It reminded me of that death that Goldie Hawn plays again and again in "Death Becomes Her", she watches it on TV as her arch rival, Meryl Streep, brilliantly plays an actress without talent - dies again and again strangled by Michael Caine. Meryl's Madeline Ashton even licks her lips before her death - Well, Kim Novak's Elsa Campbell/Lylah Clare doesn't lick her lips but almost.Peter Finch is the leading man. Peter Finch! Howard Beale in "Network" His dialogue here is not by Paddy Chayefsky, no, not by a long shot. Hysterically funny I must admit, specially because of the seriousness of the delivery. Then, surprise surprise a few genuine delights, Coral Browne plays a columnist with a wooden leg, Rosella Falk, a talkative lesbian and the glorious Valentina Cortese plays a costume designer. As I'm writing about it I feel an urge to see it again to make sure I didn't imagine the whole thing.

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.

As I have already said and will continue to say, Robert Aldrich has always astounded me when I watch his filmography. Actually, there were TWO Bob Aldrich, two different characters, personalities, two directors at least. One film maker for men male topics, hard, tough, rough, with no female at all, or only extras : DIRTY DOZEN, ATTACK, TOO LATE THE HEROES, ULZANA'S RAID, LONGEST YARD, TWILIGHT LAST GLEAMING, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH...And besides, there was Aldrich dedicated to women, and nearly only women. LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE,KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE,WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, CALIFORNIA DOLLS.....This movie is a bitter story, depicting the other face of Hollywood, and we could not expect anything different from Aldrich, the director of KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE. The most daring and disturbing film of the director, even now. So imagine in the sixties.... Kim Novak absolutely outstanding here, unforgettable. And I am dead sure that her character in Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO had some influence on her character here, there are some similarities, do you agree? Excellent last scene, a terrific metaphor of Hollywood industry, thru a simple commercial on TV. Disgusting Hollywood.