"The Legend of Lylah Clare", directed by Robert Aldrich, demonstrates that even with a director it's possible to be a vulgar exhibitionist. Over the top acting is on prominent display in Aldrich's "The Big Knife", Autumn Leaves", "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane", "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" and "The Grissom Gang". Based on a 1963 teleplay that starred Tuesday Weld, "The Legend of Lylah Clare" was released the same years as "The Killing of Sister George", one of Aldrich's best. "The Legend of Lylah Clare" is over 2 hours long, and it's laborious, but it's a camp classic executed with apparently serious intentions making the results all the more jaw dropping. As his masterpiece Kiss Me, Deadly demonstrated, Aldrich is adept at using the wide-screen and he provides some arresting compositions here. DeVol's music is wonderfully inappropriate, cha! cha! cha!...and the bizarre ending is memorable, a comment perhaps on commercialism and the dog-eat-dog world of Hollywood.
As she did in "Vertigo", Kim Novak plays a dual role, and Lylah suffers from vertigo. Novak somehow manages to give an amusing performance, but as Lylah, she actually looks a little gross in some shots, and I have to agree with the poster who noted her resemblance to Dusty Springfield. As columnist Molly Luther, Coral Browne walks away with the acting honors, though the not-to-be-missed cat fight she and Novak have has no consequence or follow through. As the Svegali director who refuses to learn from the past, Peter Finch appears dazed, and for decadence Hollywood style, he lives with a druggie European lesbian whose Italian-accented Englsh is often incomprehensible. They live in a mansion with a wide staircase that is in serious need of a banister, a handrail or perhaps a diving board. The "girl" who falls off the staircase is former Miss America Lee Meriwether who played "Catwoman" in the movie "Batman"(1966).
The flashbacks on that infamous staircase do not so much contradict one another, as another poster indicated, but each successive version is altered to reveal the truth of what really happened on Lylah's wedding night. The script is a mixture of Vertigo, Baby Jane, Sunset Boulevard, and The Bad and the Beautiful. The supporting cast is inexplicable, the obvious dubbing of Novak is distracting and the animated blood in the flashbacks is ludicrous. MGM attempted to market it as camp. A film like this is difficult to rate on a 1-10 scale because it's so elaborately misconceived that it has to be experienced. Difficult to find, let's hope someone releases it on DVD complete with the back story and the trailer.
As she did in "Vertigo", Kim Novak plays a dual role, and Lylah suffers from vertigo. Novak somehow manages to give an amusing performance, but as Lylah, she actually looks a little gross in some shots, and I have to agree with the poster who noted her resemblance to Dusty Springfield. As columnist Molly Luther, Coral Browne walks away with the acting honors, though the not-to-be-missed cat fight she and Novak have has no consequence or follow through. As the Svegali director who refuses to learn from the past, Peter Finch appears dazed, and for decadence Hollywood style, he lives with a druggie European lesbian whose Italian-accented Englsh is often incomprehensible. They live in a mansion with a wide staircase that is in serious need of a banister, a handrail or perhaps a diving board. The "girl" who falls off the staircase is former Miss America Lee Meriwether who played "Catwoman" in the movie "Batman"(1966).
The flashbacks on that infamous staircase do not so much contradict one another, as another poster indicated, but each successive version is altered to reveal the truth of what really happened on Lylah's wedding night. The script is a mixture of Vertigo, Baby Jane, Sunset Boulevard, and The Bad and the Beautiful. The supporting cast is inexplicable, the obvious dubbing of Novak is distracting and the animated blood in the flashbacks is ludicrous. MGM attempted to market it as camp. A film like this is difficult to rate on a 1-10 scale because it's so elaborately misconceived that it has to be experienced. Difficult to find, let's hope someone releases it on DVD complete with the back story and the trailer.