What could Mr Aldrich do with a script that was a concoction of Ms Jean Harlow, Ms Marilyn Monroe et al? On the other hand, you could see "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" as a follow up to "Sunset Boulevard". Mr Aldrich had always been an actors' admirer. In the commercials Barbara Davis and Anna Lee are watching in "What ever happened to Baby Jane" viewers are offered food for dogs. In "The Legend of Lylah Clare" the TV program is sponsored by an improbable food for dogs whose brand in "Bark Well".I think Mr Aldrich considered actors and stars as the "Bark Well" of the old industry. Éven when today Hollywood mainstream insists in offering faces and bodies and what not, nobody believes in the usual idiocies manufactured by the press."The Legend of Lylah Clare" is, perhaps, a dud but the "Bark Well" are not to blame. abel posadas

"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 one of Aldrich's best films: "The Killing of Sister George". "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", beautiful Kim Novak plays a dual role, and as Lylah she 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-missed cat fight she and Novak have seems to have 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 animation in the flashbacks are 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.

THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE looks initially like some sort of camp classic. Don't expect a companion piece to VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, however. Kim Novak plays a mousy aspiring actress picked to portray Lylah Clare, a Marlene Dietrich/Greta Garbo-type screen goddess from Hollywood's golden era who died tragically 30 years before, in a screen version of her life. Under the tutelage of Peter Finch, Lylah's director and husband, Novak is transformed physically and psychologically into the screen star. Along the way, we're treated to three different versions of Lylah's death(kitschy flashbacks in watery black and white framed with lurid red borders, with Novak's close-up in the corner of the screen), a great bitch-out scene between Novak as Lylah and a crippled gossip-columnist hag based on Louella Parsons, a lesbian drama coach, and Novak spouting dubbed, throaty, German-accented dialogue. The make-up job on Novak to make her look like Lylah really doesn't reflect 1930s movie glamour; with her teased and bleached bob, frosted pink lips, and inch-thick eyeliner, she looks more like Dusty Springfield than Jean Harlow. Despite all this, the film isn't some out-of-control camp fest. Really. No scenery chomping, bad dubbed singing sequences, emotional breakdowns, down-and-dirty catfights, or the like. The only fault with a performance might be with Novak during her fits when she impersonates Lylah, throwing her head back to laugh maniacally in that throaty, faux-Garbo accent. Still, its the only real fault in an otherwise competent film. Aldrich is hardly subtle with his digs at the Hollywood system and corruption, but they come out during the course of his characters' conversations and aren't sensationalized. Too many good performances and sympathetic characters to keep it from being an all-out guilty pleasure, but still engaging

Another piece of yesterday from Robert Aldrich, filthied-up through his askew, slightly campy/slightly too-serious vision. We never know where we sit with an Aldrich movie; he enjoys setting up a comfortable scenario before wickedly pulling the rug out from under his audience. He exposes all the weaknesses of Kim Novak as an actress, brutally letting the puckered blonde look silly (at her expense) and without ever giving her a fair shot at a meaty scene. The opening moments are richly evocative, but they don't last long: Kim (in a mousy wig) hangs out in a dingy apartment in Hollywood, surrounded by old movie magazines. Turns out she resembles a long-deceased movie queen named Lylah Clare and is quickly tapped to star in a picture of the actress' doomed life--to be directed by Lylah's widower husband! Bits of satire, supernatural elements and symbolism muddy up this stew, though I admit to being engrossed by it all. Peter Finch, as always, is worth watching, and Novak's mere presence is tantalizing (even if her acting is not). Frank De Vol's background score is lush, and I loved some of the set-pieces and overwrought melodrama. As for the ending, I would have a tough time explaining it to anyone, except to say that it is Aldrich's stamp as a director to go over-the-top. Here, he goes a little bit over-the-edge as well. ** from ****