Words alone cannot express how wonderfully awful THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE is. I'm surprised it hasn't attain cult status. It's a super strange combo of VERTIGO + THE EXORCIST + SUNSET BOULEVARD + REBECCA + and the film careers of either Garbo or Dietrich. Lylah Clare predates THE EXORCIST. It's also obvious Kim Novak was chosen because of her double role in VERTIGO. And like another Hitchcock classic, REBECCA, LOLC is about a girl living in the shadow of a deceased, more powerful and subsequently beloved/hated woman.
The film doesn't make one iota of sense. The story is about a washed-up director who wants to make a movie of the life of legendary Bavarian actress Lylah Clare, who died in sordid, mysterious circumstances on her wedding night. The director is inspired to do the "Lylah Clare: Film Star" motion picture after meeting a woman who looks exactly like her (they're both played by Kim Novak. How clever!).
As I already mentioned, Kim Novak plays both Lylah Clare and Elsa Brinkmann/Campbell. A too young Peter Finch plays the director, Lewis. There's a woman, Rosalla (played by Rosalla Falk with a super heavy Italian accent. She's my favorite character in the film), who's a lesbian/heroin addict, and then there's Bart, the wanna-be producer who's dying of liver cancer! I call Lewis, Rosalla and Bart the "trio of terror" because they bitch nonstop! Every word is an insult or a sharp put-down. From the moment Elsa walks in the gaudy mansion, the trio of terror abuse her incessantly. Most would have left in a New York minute but because the film's narrative is illogical, Elsa stays with the sordid bunch.
LOFC revolves around the idea that in recreating the Lylah Clare legend for a film, Elsa inadvertently becomes caught up by the aura and legend of the famous star, which includes her 'unfortunate' past. Elsa gradually loses her identity, being Elsa one second and Lylah the next. We see three flashbacks (or reveries?) throughout the movie showing what happened on that pivotal night when Lylah died. The three flashbacks contradict each other. Finch actually looks older in the flashbacks!!! They're almost impossible to describe and they have to be seen to be believed! I have to admit that they are my favorite part of the movie, mainly because they're total baroque nonsense.
What's really amazing is when Elsa is possessed by the real spirit of the deceased movie star, a la EXORCIST. From time to time, Elsa/Lylah bursts into brazen, loutish rants, always at the right dramatic moments. In fact, even when Elsa enters the Lylah Clare mansion for the very first time, she's taken over momentarily by the ghost of Lylah. And to make things even more weird, whenever Elsa is possessed by Lylah's spirit, her voice changes. It takes on a terrible German accent and becomes very manly! In the flashback scenes, Lylah's voice is that of a man ("keep your filthy hands off me").
This idea of having Elsa possessed by the spirit of Lylah and dub Novak's voice was a last minute decision made during post-production. Kim Novak wasn't even aware of this decision, which apparently totally embarrassed her at the film's premiere. The reason why the director did this was because for Elsa to know so many personal and private things about Lylah didn't make any sense whatsoever. The director tried to correct this by having Elsa become possessed by Lylah during those crucial shouting scenes. But because the decision to dub her voice and make Elsa appear she was possessed was done AFTER the film was shot, the whole thing created even more problems than it was supposed to rectify. The possession scenes create such a surreal effect that's so subtle that if you don't pay any attention, you won't notice it. But it's there and it's very bizarre and, imho, gives this movie its unique surreal quality.
The dialogue is priceless! "We're moving like a deeply offended Tibetan yak!" Lewis says to Elsa as he inspects her walking down the mansion's ridiculously designed staircase on their first meeting.
"I've never seen a woman yet who hasn't got a whore locked-up inside of her somewhere!" Lewis notes to Elsa.
The dialogue is reason alone for watching LOLC. Combine all of this with the confusing film-within-a-film storyline with the artificial direction by Aldrich, the overacting all-star cast (only Coral Browne and Falk survive unscathed), the bad and often inappropriate music by DeVol, the cheap look of the film and Novak, ill-fitted in tacky clothes and looks terrible throughout (well, except when she's in her black bra and underwear), and you have one deliriously bad film. The film wants to be a parody of Hollywood but the very slow, dream-like pacing and the heavy-handedness of it destroy all those intentions. And because the parody doesn't work and because it certainly doesn't work as a standard drama, LYLAH CLARE is doubly awful. In other words, it's fantastic! It's my top best worst film ever. As a standard drama 1/10. As a it's-so-bad-it's-good flick, it's a perfect 10/10! What can you say about a movie that effectively killed Kim Novak's career? Maybe it's because she dies 5 times on screen?
And I haven't even mentioned anything about the brain-numbingly ridiculous multiple faux endings: at the circus set; finale of movie projected on big screen; movie premiere itself; Rossala with gun; and (phew) dog food ad. The plethora of inconsistencies and hard to swallow aspects (when Elsa dies, the director keeps filming. Aha!). The opening credits mentioning the infamous dog food ad. Or the hilarious brush-your-hair-like-Lylah scene. A truly amazing film!
The film doesn't make one iota of sense. The story is about a washed-up director who wants to make a movie of the life of legendary Bavarian actress Lylah Clare, who died in sordid, mysterious circumstances on her wedding night. The director is inspired to do the "Lylah Clare: Film Star" motion picture after meeting a woman who looks exactly like her (they're both played by Kim Novak. How clever!).
As I already mentioned, Kim Novak plays both Lylah Clare and Elsa Brinkmann/Campbell. A too young Peter Finch plays the director, Lewis. There's a woman, Rosalla (played by Rosalla Falk with a super heavy Italian accent. She's my favorite character in the film), who's a lesbian/heroin addict, and then there's Bart, the wanna-be producer who's dying of liver cancer! I call Lewis, Rosalla and Bart the "trio of terror" because they bitch nonstop! Every word is an insult or a sharp put-down. From the moment Elsa walks in the gaudy mansion, the trio of terror abuse her incessantly. Most would have left in a New York minute but because the film's narrative is illogical, Elsa stays with the sordid bunch.
LOFC revolves around the idea that in recreating the Lylah Clare legend for a film, Elsa inadvertently becomes caught up by the aura and legend of the famous star, which includes her 'unfortunate' past. Elsa gradually loses her identity, being Elsa one second and Lylah the next. We see three flashbacks (or reveries?) throughout the movie showing what happened on that pivotal night when Lylah died. The three flashbacks contradict each other. Finch actually looks older in the flashbacks!!! They're almost impossible to describe and they have to be seen to be believed! I have to admit that they are my favorite part of the movie, mainly because they're total baroque nonsense.
What's really amazing is when Elsa is possessed by the real spirit of the deceased movie star, a la EXORCIST. From time to time, Elsa/Lylah bursts into brazen, loutish rants, always at the right dramatic moments. In fact, even when Elsa enters the Lylah Clare mansion for the very first time, she's taken over momentarily by the ghost of Lylah. And to make things even more weird, whenever Elsa is possessed by Lylah's spirit, her voice changes. It takes on a terrible German accent and becomes very manly! In the flashback scenes, Lylah's voice is that of a man ("keep your filthy hands off me").
This idea of having Elsa possessed by the spirit of Lylah and dub Novak's voice was a last minute decision made during post-production. Kim Novak wasn't even aware of this decision, which apparently totally embarrassed her at the film's premiere. The reason why the director did this was because for Elsa to know so many personal and private things about Lylah didn't make any sense whatsoever. The director tried to correct this by having Elsa become possessed by Lylah during those crucial shouting scenes. But because the decision to dub her voice and make Elsa appear she was possessed was done AFTER the film was shot, the whole thing created even more problems than it was supposed to rectify. The possession scenes create such a surreal effect that's so subtle that if you don't pay any attention, you won't notice it. But it's there and it's very bizarre and, imho, gives this movie its unique surreal quality.
The dialogue is priceless! "We're moving like a deeply offended Tibetan yak!" Lewis says to Elsa as he inspects her walking down the mansion's ridiculously designed staircase on their first meeting.
"I've never seen a woman yet who hasn't got a whore locked-up inside of her somewhere!" Lewis notes to Elsa.
The dialogue is reason alone for watching LOLC. Combine all of this with the confusing film-within-a-film storyline with the artificial direction by Aldrich, the overacting all-star cast (only Coral Browne and Falk survive unscathed), the bad and often inappropriate music by DeVol, the cheap look of the film and Novak, ill-fitted in tacky clothes and looks terrible throughout (well, except when she's in her black bra and underwear), and you have one deliriously bad film. The film wants to be a parody of Hollywood but the very slow, dream-like pacing and the heavy-handedness of it destroy all those intentions. And because the parody doesn't work and because it certainly doesn't work as a standard drama, LYLAH CLARE is doubly awful. In other words, it's fantastic! It's my top best worst film ever. As a standard drama 1/10. As a it's-so-bad-it's-good flick, it's a perfect 10/10! What can you say about a movie that effectively killed Kim Novak's career? Maybe it's because she dies 5 times on screen?
And I haven't even mentioned anything about the brain-numbingly ridiculous multiple faux endings: at the circus set; finale of movie projected on big screen; movie premiere itself; Rossala with gun; and (phew) dog food ad. The plethora of inconsistencies and hard to swallow aspects (when Elsa dies, the director keeps filming. Aha!). The opening credits mentioning the infamous dog food ad. Or the hilarious brush-your-hair-like-Lylah scene. A truly amazing film!