The DuPont Show of the Week (TV Series) The Legend of Lylah Clare (1963) User Reviews

seemingly long-lost television special

[lqualls-dchin · 8/10 · 8 July 2007]

I remember watching this TV drama during the summer of 1963; the novelty was in seeing Tuesday Weld in an intense dramatic performance. This show is one of countless numbers which has long been unavailable, but i remember one scene where the actress (played by Weld) is giving a press conference while in a bubble bath. She's trying to seem very giddy and glamorous, but once the press conference is over, she stands up (she's wearing a bathing suit) and breaks down in a very frenzied fit. I've seen the movie remake (directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Kim Novak), but somehow this original, with Tuesday Weld's intensity (very startling, because she had played giddy teenage roles before this, though there were hints of moodiness in WILD IN THE COUNTRY and flashes of intensity in SOLDIER IN THE RAIN; she was already a favorite because of her portrayal of Thalia in the DOBIE GILLIS TV show), remains in my memory, even after more than 40 years. (I hadn't realized it was directed by Franklin Schaffer; somehow the intensity that Weld brought to this part relates to the intensity that Joanne Woodward brought to her part in THE STRIPPER, which was Schaffer's first theatrical film, made just before this TV drama. That's another film that's been unseen for decades, though it has Woodward's finest performance.)

Giddy Is Not An Apt Description

[MOSSBIE · 19 November 2010]

Considering Ms. Weld was barely 20 and had understudied on Broadway in dramatic roles like DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, she handled this really offbeat tale of a glamorous reincarnated movie star with great authority and nuance and a complexity far beyond other actresses of the time. This mysterious "lost" project has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth and almost every major director of the day...most of them who she later worked with in film...and t.v., always seem to mention the Du Pont Productions' disappearances and mostly, the Lylah Clare episode. There is a mystery attached to it, and writer Thom was the first to mention the strangeness of the story of what turned out to be his most remembered writing which did have an eerie plot. The director was amazed at Weld's grasp and glamor of the offbeat character she portrayed which in many ways mimicked her own later on. Today in the 2011, this original DuPont and the later remake by Aldrich are like lost treasures. People speak of "campy" which like the word "fey" has a connotation with death.It definitely removed Kim Novak from Hollywood, and it was the beginning of Weld's turning down every major film from BONNIE AND CLYDE to ROSEMARY'S BABY and a half dozen more HUGE successes.Weld does not like to work on long shooting schedules and preferred doing two week movies of the week when she did. She is scheduled to get a major industry award in NY but is not attending.Like she failed to do in Venice when winning best actress for PLAY IT AS IT LAYS.

Supposedly it does exist and is available

[ChanceWain · 29 December 2011]

My feelings about the show are similar to the previous posters. This episode for some reason has stayed with me since childhood. I especially remember the bathtub scene with Alfred Drake standing over Tuesday Weld in a bubble bath pouring her a glass of champagne. I wasn't enthralled with the film version regardless of its camp value. I decided recently to inquire about the episode at the Paley Museum of Broadcasting in Manhattan and Los Angeles. Both institutions assured me the episode was available for viewing. I haven't had the opportunity to visit either city recently so I can't confirm its existence first hand but I do look forward to seeing it if it does actually exist.