#lylah clare

[bitter69uk]

Recently re-visited: The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). Tagline: “Overnight she became a star. Over many nights she became a legend.” 

Klaxon!! A pristine version of this widely reviled camp oddity is currently viewable on YouTube – and it’s compulsory viewing for aficionados of “bad movies we love”. I hadn’t seen this one since I was a teenager - and in fact even then I’m not sure I made it to the end. 

Kim Novak stars as German screen diva Lylah Clare (think Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo), who died in murky circumstances – and urban myth has it she was initially discovered working in a brothel. Now, twenty years after her death Lylah’s temperamental husband / director Lewis Zarkan (Peter Finch) is embarking on a biopic about her starring mousey unknown wannabe actress Elsa Brinkmann (the glamazonian Novak again wearing glasses and a brunette wig). Weirdly, when angered the American Elsa suddenly starts speaking in Lylah’s guttural Germanic voice – and in fact, seems to be possessed by her! (Note that Lylah’s voice is dubbed by the great German actress and singer Hildegard Knef). 

Director Robert Aldrich sure loved recycling the show biz-is-hell theme: The Big Knife (1955). Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). The Killing of Sister George (1968). For good measure, Aldrich also throws in references to other peoples’ movies like Sunset Boulevard (1950), Vertigo (1958) and Valley of the Dolls (1967). (More recently, Lylah Clare belongs in the same lineage as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006) and Blonde (2022)). 

Downsides: the characters constantly pontificating at length about the dog-eat-dog cruelty of Hollywood. The furiously shout-y performances of Finch and Ernest Borgnine. Coral Browne plays a dragon lady gossip columnist based on Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. The cruel humour poked at the fact she’s disabled and wears a leg brace has aged like an avocado. 

But Novak is always compelling to watch. This is her equivalent of Boom or Secret Ceremony, the freaky “failed art movies” her peer Elizabeth Taylor made in the same period. Interestingly, Aldrich’s first choice for Lylah was French actress Jeanne Moreau (her presence would have made it feel more cerebral and European art cinema) – which feels incredible today considering Lylah Clare seemingly makes deliberate allusions to Novak’s earlier film Vertigo.  (Novak had been absent from the screen for three years and Lylah Clare would be her final major starring role). 

Critics were mostly hostile, but some were prophetic. "Not merely awful; it is grandly, toweringly, amazingly so,” Richard Schickel wrote in Life magazine. “I laughed myself silly at Lylah Clare, and if you're in just the right mood, you may too”, while Roger Ebert concluded, “Like the Burton-Taylor Boom, it provides its own grisly satisfaction: You can have fun watching it be so bad.”

Kim Novak, 1960’s

[lobbycards]

The Legend of Lylah Clare, Italian lobby card (fotobusta), 1968

[forever70s]

Kim Novak in "The Legend of Lylah Clare" (1968)

[schlock-luster-video]

On April 16, 1969, The Legend of Lylah Clare debuted in France.

[hellyeahgeorgekennedy]

Kim Novak and George Kennedy in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

[falsebooles123]

FUCK its the end of January - Diary of a Big Ole Gay 1/31/2023

Hey whores, its me your bitch back on his bullshit.

So I have a interview tomorrow and I'm waiting to hear back from like three, four different places. so its a lot of waiting.

(yeah I kinda hate having to sit on my ass and waiting)

Also I probably didn't watch that much queer stuff this week so sorry? I mean I had to slow down a little whores. most of this stuff is stuck behind a paywall. (pssst I have a ko-fi if you wanna help a whore out).

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) dir. Robert Aldrich

So this is one of those movies that had a queer element and then were also just very poorly recieved for completly unrelated reasons, (think Sylvia Scarlett or Glen or Glenda). This film is about 80% less gay then that. On one hand you have this very meta type of patisches to it its a lot of elements from things like Rebecca and Sunset Boulivard.

You basically have this young actress who has this preternaturally ability to imitate Lylah Clare a golden age star who died in a spectacular fasion and she bascially falls into the wild child/Bisexual Vamp role. If you remember me discussing Lola from Pandoras Box then you have a sense of what I'm talking about.

TBH it is very campy and fun but the reason why this is on the list is that one of the characters is a lesbian and she was fucking Lola Rebecca, *checks notes*, sorry Lylah Clare.

Muchachas de Uniforme (1951) dir. Alfredo B. Crevenna

so this is a mexican remake of the classic and while there are some aspects I really like about it (the expressionist type architecture, the costume design), it tones down a lot of the queerness of the original.

I will say that this

1. is a lot darker and if you know how the original ends then know that they go for the bummer ending. (bury your gays)

2. I watched this on youtube and there were no English Subs so I had to use the auto-translate function which meant I only got the barest bones concept of the dialogue. its buggy, spanish is a fast spoken language and also if I understood spanish the dialogue would probably be really pretty. So understand there is a language barrier for me here.

Lo siento, me esponal no es bueno, estudiar para tres anos perro soy es estudiente malo. Sue me.

Madchen in Uniform (1958) dir. Géza von Radványi

This one is a lot more faithful to the original but they also butcher the bedroom kiss scene. However they do make that up with this kiss later on when they extend the play plot point.

I will say that I do like aspects of this film, i like there take on it but the original madchen in uniform is far superior to both of the remakes.

and thats not to say that the remakes are bad films they have a great aestetic, they add little details the original does but its something about the original that just sings in a way these ones dont

Everything Else I watched this week and a half

as you can tell I watched Infinity Pool, It was great. Horror Autuers are like lets shit on rich people and I'm all for it. Its giving sci-fi taking to its psycological horror extremes and what happens when you give in negative nihilism.

Also watched 2017 B&B, its a gay thriller and its pretty good if a bit triggering.

I finished the rest of the Hammer House of Horror and umm what else...

So I watched Bi-coastal, one of the Catalina Bisexual Features they did in the 70s directed by Tom DeSimone, (or as he went by then Lance Brookes). The men in it are definetly hollywood twink and not the sexy Gage Men, but despite that Bi-Coastal was V V hot. and honestly very bi positive for the time.

[bitter69uk]

Recently watched: made-for-TV movie Death at Love House, originally broadcast on ABC 3 September 1976. Joel and Donna Gregory (Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson) are a husband-and-wife writing duo collaborating on a biography of the doomed Hollywood star Lorna Love, who died tragically young in 1935. (Coincidentally, Joel’s artist father had an impassioned affair with Lorna and painted a portrait of her). And for reasons never fully explained, the couple move into Love’s totally intact Hollywood mansion to research their book (Love House was shot on location at the former estate of silent movie star Harold Lloyd). Creepily, Lorna’s perfectly preserved, eternally youthful corpse is on permanent display – Snow White-style - in a shrine on the premises. Strange occurrences immediately start happening. Who is the ethereal “woman-in-white” Donna glimpses in the garden? Why are there macabre occult symbols everywhere? Who was Father Eternal Fire, Lorna’s satanic looking “spiritual advisor”? Obviously, almost anything produced by Aaron Spelling is bound to be campy fun. With its emphasis on occultism and lurid showbiz tragedies (Lorna is clearly inspired by Jean Harlow), Love House suggests a page torn from Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon. It will also remind you of other, superior movies: Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), Fedora (1978). And like 1944 film noir Laura, characters spend a lot of time staring, mesmerized, by an oil painting of a dead woman. For verisimilitude, supporting parts are played by actual classic Hollywood veterans like Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour and John Carradine. (The Gregorys’ literary agent is played by Bill Macy - Walter from Maude!). Less happily, zero effort is taken to make Lorna 1930s “period appropriate”. (She’s seen in flashbacks portrayed by Marianna Hill - cult movie fans will recognize her from The Baby and Messiah of Evil – with a feathered blow-dried 70s coiffure). And the ending is worthy of an old episode of Scooby-Doo! Smudged, murky prints of Love House are easy to find on YouTube.

[beautiesonthescreen3]

' The Lavender Blonde ' Kim Novak,

photographed by Richard Avedon for

' The Legend of Lylah Clare ' ( 1968 ) .

[oldshowbiz]

Robert Aldrich's Hollywood Boulevard as seen in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

[rococorevival]

Legend of Lylah Clare Bedroom

I really recommend the film 'The Legend of Lylah Clare" by Robert Aldritch in general, but that bedroom, is just amazing. I do apologize for not being able to get the best picture of it, it is a little dim.

[annoyinglyperfectartisan]

The Legend of Lylah Clare, 1968

[lobbycards]

The Legend of Lylah Clare, Italian lobby card (fotobusta), 1968

[flapperdame16]

1960s Movies Id on't care for

1960

Home from the Hill             Robert mitchum, Eleanor Parker

Inherit the wind                    Spencer Tracy

Midnight Lace                      Doris Day, Rex Harrison

Let’s make love                   Marilyn Monroe,

Ocean’s 11                            the rat pack

The Grass is Greener     Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons D: Stanley Donen

The Unforgiven               Audrey Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, John Saxon D: John Huston

1961

The Children’s Hour           Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner D: William Wyler

The Deadly Companions   Maureen o’hara brian keith

1962

The Lion                                William Holden, Capucine

Mr. Hobbs takes a vacation   James Stewart, Maureen O’Hara

Boys’ night out                                    Kim Novak, Tony Randall, James Garner

1963

Irma la Douce                      Jack Lemmon, Shirley Maclaine D: Billy Wilder

Spencer’s Mountain            Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara

The VIPS                               Maggie smith, Richard burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Rod Taylor, Orson welles

Toys in the attic                   Dean Martin, Gene Tierney, Geraldine Page

1964

A Hard day’s night (CC)                    beatles

Father Goose                                        Cary Grant, Leslie Caron

My fair lady                                         Audrey Hepburn, rex Harrison

Night of the iguana                             Ava Gardner, Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr

The Americanization of Emily         James Garner, Julie Andrews

1965

The Great Race*                                 Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon

The Rounders                       Henry Fonda, Glen Ford

The Art of Love                   Dick Van Dyke, James Garner, Angie Dickenson

36 hours                                                Eva Marie Saint, James Garner, Rod Taylor

The nanny                            bette davis

1966

7 Women                              Anne Bancroft JOHN FORD

A man for all seasons        

Any Wednesday                 Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Dean Jones

Arabesque                             Gregory peck, Sophia Loren

Blow up (CC)

Penelope                                Natalie Wood

The Chase                             Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando

Torn Curtain                         Julie Andrews, Paul Newman HITCHCOCK

The sand pebbles                 steve mcqueen

1967

Thoroughly Modern Millie                 Julie Andrews, Carol Channing, Mary Tyler Moore

Guess who’s coming to dinner          Katharine Hepburn spencer Tracy

The graduate. Katharine ross, Dustin Hoffman, anne Bancroft

1968

Madigan                                                Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark

The lion in winter                 Katharine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole

The Thomas crown affair  Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen

Bullit                                                      Steve McQueen

The legend of Lylah Clare                 Kim Novak,

Romeo and Juliet (CC)

Bandolero!                                            James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welsh

1969

The wild bunch                    William Holden, Ernest Borgnine

The prime of miss jean Brodie          Maggie smith Robert stephens

[schlock-luster-video]

On January 4, 2011, The Legend of Lylah Clare was released on DVD via the Warner Archive DVD On Demand system, via Amazon.

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This spectacular red gown was designed by Adrian for Joan Crawford in the 1938 film The Bride Wore Red. The gown, which supposedly weighs around 30 pounds due to the weight of all the beads. It is still in existence and in extremely good condition considering its age.

The movie The Bride Wore Red was in black and white and the full beauty of the color of the dress was not able to be fully appreciated until later. The dress made its second appearance in The Big Store in 1941 in a fashion show scene, where it was worn by an extra. Though this film is also in black and white, Groucho Marx does explain "This is a bright red dress" because "Technicolor is sooo expensive!"  In 1943 gown appeared in Du Barry Was A Lady, sans the cape on Inez Cooper as Miss December. This time the dress is seen in color. The gown appears to have been worn by Angela Lansbury for a promotional photo shoot around 1945, and the 1968 film used the dress for promotional imagery for The Legend of Lylah Clare, with Kim Novak as Lylah Clare. 

Costume Credit: Michael, Norman, Tom

E-mail Submissions: submissions@recycledmoviecostumes.com

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[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)