The Legend of Lylah Clare

R

1968

2 hr. 10 min.

Mystery & Thriller

List

60%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

41%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A renowned actress who died years earlier, Lylah Clare (Kim Novak) is the subject of a film masterminded by movie producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine). Remarkably, Sheean manages to find Elsa Brinkmann (also Novak), a beautiful woman who looks just like Lylah, and he sets about getting the movie off the ground. Directing the film is Lylah's ex-husband, Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), who begins to fall for Elsa as he coaches her on how to act like his late wife.

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Dallas H

Vertigo plus Rashomon divided by Sunset Boulevard equals Lylah Clare. Or something very similar to that equation. The movie is a decent watch. But at the same time, it isn't a fantastic flick, either. I had a hurdle to overcome when Kim Novak transitioned from Elsa to Lylah; it looked like she was wearing a bobbed wig the entire time. I couldn't buy into its believability.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/24

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is terrible! I love Kim Novak but this movie stinks!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/19/18

Full Review

Audience Member

Over the top performance by Novak threads through this film that could have been horror, psychological thriller, or even a modern film noir. Instead it just - mostly - there.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I originally saw this movie when it opened in Hollywood in 1968, and was baffled. What could have drawn major stars like Kim Novak and Peter Finch into this bizarre, uneven, amateurish-looking production? People now try to pass it off as a satire, but it was presented straight back then. Kim Novak is terrible at playing this "legendary" actress, and having a ridiculously deep, Germanic voice suddenly emerge from somewhere in her innards is laughable whenever it happens, which is too often. Much is made of some mysterious "fall" that propelled the legendary Lylah to her death. Since a prominent feature of her former home is a dangerous, monumental staircase (without any safety railings) that would never pass any building code inspection, it's difficult not to assume that somebody is eventually going to fall from that staircase, maybe even the possessed(?) reincarnated(?) Lylah impersonator herself. The incoherent plot is jumbled with too many similar characters -- lots of mannish lesbians lurk about -- and never makes the slightest bit of sense. I really hated this movie both times I saw it, separated by 40 years.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Yak yak yak yak yak yak yak stab stab yak yak yak yak yak yak.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Extremely talky drama that needed to be better edited. Ive never been a big Novak fan, see BELL BOOK & CANDLE instead.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Robert Aldrich

Director

Kim Novak

Lylah Clare

Peter Finch

Lewis Zarken

Ernest Borgnine

Barney Sheean

Milton Selzer

Bart Langner

Rossella Falk

Rossella

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare is an awful movie, but fairly enjoyable. Like the Burton-Taylor Boom, it provides its own grisly satisfaction: You can have fun watching it be so bad.

Rated: 1/4

Jul 6, 2018

Full Review

Renata Adler

New York Times

"Lylah Clare" is not funny, exactly-the old Hollywood responses are still enough in effect to bring one to the verge, once or twice of choking up-but it is kind of fun to watch.

Jan 8, 2018

Full Review

Barbara Grier

The Ladder

[It's] time to get fussy about how much crowing we do over just having movies with homosexual themes, and start demanding that the Lesbians and homosexuals portrayed have some resemblance to the real item.

Jun 29, 2021

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: B

Oct 12, 2012

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

An expose on the inside Hollywood scene.

Rated: B

Jul 29, 2012

Full Review

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Synopsis

A renowned actress who died years earlier, Lylah Clare (Kim Novak) is the subject of a film masterminded by movie producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine). Remarkably, Sheean manages to find Elsa Brinkmann (also Novak), a beautiful woman who looks just like Lylah, and he sets about getting the movie off the ground. Directing the film is Lylah's ex-husband, Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), who begins to fall for Elsa as he coaches her on how to act like his late wife.

Director: Robert Aldrich
Production Co: The Associates & Aldrich Company Inc.
Rating: R
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 22, 2016

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