Here's a movie trailer for THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE, a 1968 film about
the inner workings of Hollywood. I defy you to find one frame of
subtlety in this movie. I think even Faye Dunaway would say, "Whoa,
ease up on the throttle." This movie makes THE OSCAR seem
understated. My thanks to bad movie aficionado, Mark Legan for turning
me onto this gem. I'm guessing it's not available on Netflix. Enjoy.
MST3K needs to do this movie. I want to watch it now, but I don't know if I'd be able to get through it without riffing.
ReplyDelete... which was being filmed in Hollywood in the summer of 1967, the year my family took a West Coast vacation. We stopped to watch, and it was that day that I learned exactly how tedious film production is.
ReplyDeleteThe movie no less overbearing in a Whateverhappenedtobabyjane way. Novak in a Vertigo riff. I have the slight memory of seeing itdone first for tv with Tuesday Weld...
ReplyDeleteFrom the trivia at IMDB: "To date, this is Kim Novak's last starring role in an American-made feature film." You don't say.
ReplyDeleteDirected by Robert Aldrich -- played by the always wonderful Alfred Molina in Ryan Murphy's "Feud" earlier this year. Makes sense he'd be helming this after the likes of Baby Jane. I don't know why, but I hear Christopher Walken watching this and then saying, "More cowbell!"
ReplyDeleteI HAVE TO SEE THIS! So, the trailer works. That, and this from our greatest film blogger the Self-Styled Siren:
ReplyDeletehttp://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com/2017/08/bad-movie-double-feature.html
Looks hilariously awful, but damn, Kim Novak was smokin hot!
ReplyDeleteIt actually is available through Warners Brothers via Amazon. The trailer strikes me as a complete waste of great talent.
ReplyDeleteLights! Camera! Barfing! Don't think I'd be able to make it through the movie. Barely made it through watching the trailer and it was less than 3 minutes long. This is a definition of a "chick flick" if there ever was one. Surprised it wasn't turned into a soap opera.
ReplyDelete(And SIX f^$@ing sets of captcha pictures to click on before I can post. Blogger sure isn't making things easy if you wanna leave a comment.)
Saw this movie in the early 1970's on a Canadian TV station, which showed all movies uncut. My 13-year-old self thought it was pretty hot stuff. Those raging hormones couldn't have cared less about the actual quality of the movie!
ReplyDeleteSince this was made in 1968, the reasonable explanation is that one or more of people involved were on LSD or STP, DMT, etc. Or to put it in a modern context, this is when you have sex with the producer to GET OUT of the picture.
ReplyDeleteA Harvey Weinstein-like character hitting on "the star" ... the nightmares continued.
ReplyDeleteI love this quote by the late critic Richard Schickel in the Wikipedia page for the film:
ReplyDelete"Not merely awful; it is grandly, toweringly, amazingly so...I laughed myself silly at Lylah Clare, and if you're in just the right mood, you may too."
Now I'm actually tempted to watch it!
Yekimi
ReplyDeleteI think you have a typo in your comment. You typed "chick flick" when I'm sure you meant "d**k flick", right? That's a movie that makes it necessary for the gentlemen to wait about 15 minutes and count by fours before they can leave the theatre. Chicks don't tend to like those movies.
Darn, I missed this. Evidently the US Army Europe AAFES base movie theater system passed on this classic.
ReplyDeleteTells you a lot about Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteten years before Kim Novak was one of the biggest stars in the world, star in one of the greatest movies ever made, star another of the memorable movies of the era, and a couple of others that were just below that.
Ten years later she's making this dreck.
Ten years later, she's essentially out of Hollywood
Wait, I'm confused...is there by any chance a STAR in this movie?
ReplyDeleteNice to see the evil lesbian trope was alive and well....
Holy Moly! It looks and sounds like a horror movie. I bet The Life of Harvey Weinstein trailer will have the same feel.
ReplyDeleteThe movie shows up from time to time on Turner Classic Movies. I think the last time was during an all day salute to Ernest Borgnine or Peter Finch. I remember seeing parts of it. One published article mentions that Novak agreed to the movie to finish a commitment to MGM.The article also guesses about the real life counterparts of some of the characters in the movie.
ReplyDeleteClearly no Aldrich fans here. You have to understand his unique way of looking at the world to appreciate what a skillful movie this is. (Borgnine is mimicking him, wearing his tie the same untied way.) This was his first film after THE DIRTY DOZEN, and he clearly wanted to do something different, returning to that Baby Jane universe but in a less harridan-esque way. I've seen it on the big screen and own the DVD, and it never fails to please me. The trailer is not inaccurate, but makes its assets look like liabilities.
ReplyDeleteThat's rationalization for a misguided project. Even Aldrich admitted he didn't "do right" by Novak. And Borgnine's playing Columbia boss Harry Cohn.
ReplyDeleteDVD Alert; Turner Classic Movies is showing 'The Legend of Lylah Clare' this afternoon(March 9)as part of an all day festival of Robert Aldrich movies. (I am looking forward to your upcoming interview with Ben Mankiewicz.)
ReplyDelete