The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
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55% of users liked it
(94 ratings)
Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband,… More Film star Lylah Clare is dead, but her legend lives on. Movie-producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine) hires Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), the living image of the late Lylah, to star in a film based on Ms. Clare's life. Barney hires director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch), Lylah's former husband, to transform the talentless Elsa into a facsimile of the deceased screen queen. Elsa not only learns to imitate Lylah but, at crucial junctures, becomes the dead woman. While restaging the accident that killed Lylah, the obsessed Zarkan deliberately drives Elsa to her doom -- and in so doing reveals his complicity in the death of his wife. The film ends with Lylah's onetime housekeeper (Rosella Falk), gun in hand, lying in wait for Zarkan to return home while her TV blasts forth a grotesque (and possibly symbolic) dog-food commercial. A trash masterpiece, Legend of Lylah Claire works so hard at vilifying the Old Hollywood (there's even a vicious Hedda Hopper caricature) that it's a wonder the actors could keep a straight face. The film was based on a 1962 Dupont Show of the Week TV drama co-written by Wild in the Streets creator Robert Thom. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Robert Aldrich
- Written By
- Hugo Butler, Edward DeBlasio
- Genres
- Mystery & Suspense, Drama
R,
- In Theaters
- Nov 15, 1968 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
An expose on the inside Hollywood scene.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
Featured Audience Ratings
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Cast
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Kim Novak
as Lylah Clare/Elsa Brinkman
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Peter Finch
as Lewis Zarkan
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Ernest Borgnine
as Barney Sheean
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Milton Selzer
as Bart Langner
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Rossella Falk
as Rossella
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Gabriele Tinti
as Paolo
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Valentina Cortese
as Countess Bozo Bedoni
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Jean Carroll
as Becky Langner
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Michael Murphy
as Mark Peter Sheean
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Lee Meriwether
as Young Girl
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James Lanphier
as 1st Legman
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Robert Ellenstein
as Mike
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Nick Dennis
as Nick
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Dave Willock
as Cameraman
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Coral Browne
as Molly Luther
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Peter Bravos
as Butler
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Ellen Corby
as Script Girl
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Michael Fox
as Announcer
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Hal Maguire
as 2nd Legman
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Tom Patty
as Bedoni's Escort
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Queenie Smith
as Hairdresser
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Sidney Skolsky
as Himself
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Barbara Ann Warkmeister
as Aerialists
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Danny Borzage
as Clown
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George Kennedy
as Matt Burke in ANNA CHRISTIE 1930
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Vernon Scott
as Himself
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William Aldrich
as Assistant M.C.
