IMDb RATING
5.7/10
1.5K
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A dictatorial film director (Peter Finch) hires an unknown actress (Kim Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.A dictatorial film director (Peter Finch) hires an unknown actress (Kim Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.A dictatorial film director (Peter Finch) hires an unknown actress (Kim Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen Kim Novak walks along Hollywood Boulevard, a theater she passes by is playing The Dirty Dozen (1967), a film director Robert Aldrich made a year earlier, and whose commercial success made it possible for him to start his own production company and make movies like this.
- GoofsAfter Bart throws the ball through the window glass, every later shot that has the window visible shows no hole or broken glass. Further, the sound of the glass breaking is too late after the ball is thrown.
- Quotes
Molly Luther: She's tame enough now, Lewis, but will she turn into a slut like the last one?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Lionpower from MGM (1967)
Featured review
This thing is a surrealist's dream
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.
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.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Große Lüge Lylah Clare
- Filming locations
- 1628 North Vine Street, Hollywood, California, USA(Elsa arrives at the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,490,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 10 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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By what name was The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) officially released in Canada in English?
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