The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Hugo Butler (writer)
Edward DeBlasio (writer)

Release Date:

15 November 1968 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

OVERNIGHT A STAR...OVER MANY NIGHTS A WOMAN!

Plot:

A dictatorial film director (Finch) hires an unknown actress (Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Hollywood | Director | Star | Starlet

Cast

Kim Novak	...	Lylah Clare / Elsa Brinkmann / Elsa Campbell
Peter Finch	...	Lewis Zarken aka Louie Flack
Ernest Borgnine	...	Barney Sheean
Milton Selzer	...	Bart Langner
Rossella Falk	...	Rossella
Gabriele Tinti	...	Paolo
Valentina Cortese	...	Countess Bozo Bedoni
Jean Carroll	...	Becky Langner
Michael Murphy	...	Mark Peter Sheean
Lee Meriwether	...	Young girl
James Lanphier	...	Legman #1
Robert Ellenstein	...	Mike
Nick Dennis	...	Nick
Dave Willock	...	Cameraman
Coral Browne	...	Molly Luther

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Grauman's Chinese Theater - 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Associates & Aldrich Company, The

Trivia:

When Kim Novak walks along Hollywood Blvd, a theater she passes by is playing The Dirty Dozen (1967), a film Robert Aldrich made a year earlier, and whose commercial success made it possible for the director to start his own production company and make movies like this.

Quotes:

Barney Sheean: I make movies, not films!

Movie Connections:

References The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

Soundtrack:

Lylah

Obscure...for good reason!

Boring, endlessly talky movie about a Svengali-like director (Peter Finch) making a movie about his ex-wife, a glamorous dead actress named Lylah Clare (Kim Novak) who died under mysterious circumstances. He tries to shape an actress, Elsa (Novak again) in Lylah and starts reenacting his life with Lylah.

This movie is incredibly DULL. The idea isn't bad, the direction is very good (that's why I'm giving it a 2) and it looks great but the dialogue and script are horrible--totally predictable and slow.

Novak is incredibly beautiful but totally wooden as Lylah and Elsa--she can be good but not this time. Finch chews the scenery tiredly as the director; Rossela Falk as a lesbian is incomprehensible and dull; Michael Murphy is soooo young (and soooo wooden) as a young producer's son and Ernest Borgnine shouts his whole role. Only Coral Browne as a vicious columnist shows any spark.

This movie was never on video or DVD and is rarely televised...that should tell you something. If you must see it, see the uncut R-rated version...the one shown on TCM is edited. But this is basically a total misfire. Avoid at all costs.