Robert Aldrich was on top of the world in 1967. The Dirty Dozen had just raked in a mountain of cash, giving him the kind of "blank check" power most directors would kill for. So, what did he do with all that creative freedom? He made The Legend of Lylah Clare.
It was a disaster.
Honestly, calling it a disaster might be an understatement. When it hit theaters in 1968, critics didn't just dislike it; they seemed offended by its very existence. Pauline Kael famously dismissed it as "heavy-handed camp." The public mostly stayed away, leaving the studio with a massive hole in its pocket. But if you watch it now, in the middle of our current era of "elevated horror" and meta-commentary, the movie feels like something else entirely. It’s a jagged, ugly, beautifully shot middle finger to the Hollywood machine.
Why The Legend of Lylah Clare Still Matters
The plot is basically Vertigo on acid. Kim Novak—who was already a legend thanks to Hitchcock—plays Elsa Brinkmann, a shy, mousy actress who looks exactly like Lylah Clare. Lylah was a screen goddess who died mysteriously on her wedding night twenty years earlier.
Enter Lewis Zarken. Played by a perpetually shouting Peter Finch, Zarken is the director who "created" Lylah and was also the man she married (and maybe killed her? It’s complicated). He decides to make a biopic about his dead wife and casts Elsa to play her.
What follows isn't a standard "star is born" story. It’s a psychological breakdown.
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As filming progresses, Elsa doesn't just play Lylah; she starts to become her. Or maybe she’s possessed by her? The movie never quite decides, which is part of its weird charm. At one point, Elsa’s voice suddenly drops an octave into a guttural, German-accented snarl.
The Infamous Dubbing Scandal
Here’s a bit of trivia that still makes film buffs cringe: Aldrich actually dubbed Kim Novak’s voice during those "possession" scenes. He used German actress Hildegard Knef to provide the voice of the "reborn" Lylah.
Novak didn't even know about it until the premiere.
Imagine being one of the biggest stars in the world, sitting in a theater, and realizing the director replaced your performance with someone else’s voice without telling you. It was humiliating for her. Novak later called the film "weird" and admitted the experience was pretty crushing. It effectively ended her run as a top-tier leading lady.
A Cast of Grotesques
Aldrich didn't do subtle. If you’ve seen What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, you know he likes his characters loud and their makeup caked on. The Legend of Lylah Clare takes this to the extreme.
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- Ernest Borgnine plays Barney Sheean, a studio mogul who is essentially a screaming personification of corporate greed.
- Coral Browne plays Molly Luther, a gossip columnist who uses a wheelchair and a leg brace—a character supposedly based on real-life columnist Radie Harris. It's a vicious, mean-spirited performance that makes modern Twitter drama look like a playground spat.
- Rossella Falk plays Rossella, Lylah’s former "acting coach" and lover, adding a layer of queer subtext that was pretty daring (if clumsily handled) for 1968.
The Dog Food Commercial Ending
You can't talk about The Legend of Lylah Clare without mentioning the ending. If you haven't seen it, brace yourself.
After a climax involving a circus high-wire act and a tragic fall (echoing Lylah’s own death), the movie just... stops.
Suddenly, you’re looking at a television screen. A cheerful housewife is feeding dog food to a poodle. It’s a real commercial for Barkwell Dog Food. The camera pans back to show that the movie we just watched was just "content" being sold to the masses. Aldrich was basically saying that all the art, the pain, and the "legend" of Hollywood is just a way to keep people watching long enough to sell them canned meat for their pets.
It’s cynical. It’s jarring. It’s kind of brilliant.
Why was it such a flop?
Timing is everything. By 1968, the "New Hollywood" was beginning to take over. Audiences wanted the grit of The Graduate or the counter-culture vibes of Easy Rider. Aldrich’s movie felt like a relic of an older, more theatrical era of filmmaking, even as it tried to deconstruct that very era.
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Also, it’s just plain uncomfortable. The movie hates its characters. It hates the industry. It probably hates the audience, too.
But for those of us who love "Beautiful Wrecks"—films that are ambitious, flawed, and utterly unique—The Legend of Lylah Clare is a masterpiece of camp. It captures a specific moment in time when the old studio system was dying and the people who lived through it were turning on each other.
How to watch it today
If you want to experience this fever dream for yourself, you've got a few options. It’s occasionally available on streaming services like TCM (Turner Classic Movies) or for digital rental. The Warner Archive also released a DVD that looks surprisingly good, considering how much the film was originally loathed.
When you watch it, don't look for a tight script or logical character arcs. Look at the shadows. Look at the way Joseph Biroc (the cinematographer) lights Kim Novak to make her look like a ghost. Pay attention to the way Peter Finch treats his actors like props.
Actionable Insights for Cinephiles
If this kind of Hollywood Gothic is your thing, there are a few next steps to deepen your "Lylah" experience:
- Watch Vertigo first. If you haven't seen Kim Novak in her prime, Aldrich’s deconstruction of her image won’t hit as hard.
- Compare it to The Big Knife. This is another Aldrich film about Hollywood corruption. It’s much more grounded but just as bitter.
- Read up on the "Hollywood Babylon" era. The film draws heavily from the real-life scandals of the 30s and 40s. Understanding the real-life inspirations for Barney Sheean and Molly Luther makes the "cartoonish" acting feel a lot more like a documentary.
Ultimately, The Legend of Lylah Clare isn't a movie you "like" in the traditional sense. It’s a movie you survive. It’s a loud, messy, neon-soaked funeral for the Golden Age of cinema, and honestly? We need more movies that aren't afraid to be this spectacularly "wrong."